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It’s here

A quick update on the Canadian DMCA.

Reuters has an early write-up that you can read.

Geist also has one, but good luck getting to his site right now. I’ll include one of his five “high level points”:

The digital lock provisions are worse than the DMCA. Yes - worse. The law creates a blanket prohibition on circumvention with very limited exceptions and creates a ban against distributing the tools that can be used to circumvent. While Prentice could have adopted a more balanced approach (as New Zealand and Canada’s Bill C-60 did), the effect of these provisions will be to make Canadians infringers for a host of activities that are common today including watching out-of-region-coded DVDs, copying and pasting materials from a DRM’d book, or even unlocking a cellphone. The liability for picking the digital lock is up to $20,000 per infringement.

While that is the similar to the U.S. law, the exceptions are worse. The Canadian law includes a few limited exceptions for privacy, encryption research, interoperable computer programs, people with sight disabilities, and security, yet Canadians can’t actually use these exceptions since the tools needed to pick the digital lock in order to protect their privacy are banned. In other words, check the fine print again - you can protect your privacy but the tools to do so are now illegal. Dig deeper and it gets worse. Under the U.S. law, there is mandatory review process every three years to identify new exceptions. Under the Canadian law, its up to the government to introduce new exceptions if it thinks it is needed. Overall, these anti-circumvention provisions go far beyond what is needed to comply with the WIPO Internet treaties and represents an astonishing abdication of the principles of copyright balance that have guided Canadian policy for many years.

If you want to easily send a letter to your MP, there’s a very simple system for doing so at Copyright For Canadians. You select your riding, and it pops up a template letter that you can send or edit. If you’re reading this, and you’re Canadian, please do at least this, if nothing else.

Tags: canadian law,copyright,dmca,freedom

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “It’s here”

Biff Says:
June 13th, 2008 at 10:43 am
1

In case you didn’t get it (or it was filtered as spam before you saw it), I got this e-mail yesterday from the ministers office.
For the record (and before anyone yells at me), I am not in favor of this bill.

The Government of Canada has introduced Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. The proposed legislation is a made-in-Canada approach that balances the needs of Canadian consumers and copyright owners, promoting culture, innovation and competition in the digital age.
What does Bill C-61 mean to Canadians?
Specifically, it includes measures that would:
• expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own; and limit the “statutory damages” a court could award for all private use copyright infringements;
• implement new rights and protections for copyright holders, tailored to the Internet, to encourage participation in the online economy, as well as stronger legal remedies to address Internet piracy;
• clarify the roles and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers related to the copyright content flowing over their network facilities; and
• provide photographers with the same rights as other creators.
What Bill C-61 does not do:
• it would not empower border agents to seize your iPod or laptop at border crossings, contrary to recent public speculation
What this Bill is not:
• it is not a mirror image of U.S. copyright laws. Our Bill is made-in-Canada with different exceptions for educators, consumers and others and brings us into line with more than 60 countries including Japan, France, Germany and Australia
Bill C-61 was introduced in the Commons on June 12, 2008 by Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner.
For more information, please visit the Copyright Reform Process website at http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/home
Thank you for sharing your views on this important matter.

The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P.
Minister of Industry

The Honourable Josée Verner, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women
and Official Languages and Minister for
La Francophonie
Mr. McLaren Says:
June 13th, 2008 at 11:50 am
2

I just love how he says it “expressly allows” Canadians to do all these things that are already legal, and utterly fails to mention that by outlawing any circumvention technologies it makes it impossible to actually exercise those rights. I hope I hear more people calling him on that–”So, you’re de facto putting the ability to decide which things I can format shift and time shift in the hands of the companies, because while you ‘expressly’ allow me to do it, I can only do it on those things the companies have not put some kind of lock on?”

I heard him interviewed on the CBC last night, and I was forced to conclude that he is being consciously evil, and is not just ignorant of what he’s proposing.