Canada to Hold Public Hearings on Digital Copyright

Christopher Whitt writes: "It looks like the Canadian government is going to hold public hearings on the Copyright Act reform in progress. I responded to the Call for comments on the Consultation Paper On Digital Copyright Issues mentioned in a 2001-09-06 slashdot article. I received the notice below in my email this morning. I won't be able to make the hearings myself, so I hope some other Canadian readers can get out and make the fair use message heard!" Read on for the details from the notice.

February 19, 2002
NOTICE

As part of the ongoing consultative process to reform the Copyright Act, the departments of Industry and Canadian Heritage are planning cross-country consultations on the issues outlined in the Consultation Paper on Digital Issues published in June 2001. These full day consultation sessions will be held in the following cities on the following dates:

• Halifax on March 8, 2002;
• Vancouver on March 15, 2002;
• Montreal on March 21, 2002;
• Toronto on March 26, 2002;
• Ottawa on April 11, 2002.

Our intention is to present a forum for soliciting your views and concerns on the issues identified in the discussion paper and therefore your continued participation is important to the success of this round of copyright reform.

We will be sending you a formal invitation shortly which provides further details, along with relevant documentation.

We thank you very much for the time and interest which you are committing to our initiative and we look forward to meeting with you at these consultations."

Prohibitive...

Too bad all those cities are a prohibitivly long drive away. It's a good three days to Toronto by car, and I can't afford to fly. It's also a good 2 days to Vancouver. Stupid government, skipping three provinces :(

Does the law really matter?

Does it really matter if a few industry bodies lobby a goverment to legally protect an undesirable product? It's not like we're forced in any way to purchase a DVD player or games console. So long as the law doesn't force the destruction of older equipment (book-burning style) then who cares if some CD you don't need won't play on your equipment.

Existing Rights need Protection

Under existing copyright law in Canada, we have the right to make a backup of copyright materiel we have legally obtained. Citizens of the United States used to have this right as well until the DCMA stripped them of this right.

We need to send the message loud and strong to our MP's (Members of Parliment) that existing rights need to be protected. If we cannot backup our copyright material then we will be forced to pay the royalties a second time if our original is damaged in some way.

I am all for prosecution of those who circumvent copy protection measures in order to sell or give copies of copyright material to a third party. This directly affects the copyright holder's earnings.

What needs to be done is ensure that the everyday user is still allowed to make reasonable copies of content for personal use. Why? Simply because media can and does become damaged. How many people have had a tape player eat a cassette tape? I know I have. That's why I make a single copy of each cassette I purchase and only play the copy. My master is safe and out of harms way. Under current Canadian copyright law this is 100% legal. I've had CD's get damaged as well. I was glad I had the content on a Cassette as is protected under existing law.

I do not want to see this right taken from myself and my fellow Canadians.

Fair use...

Fair use: I have a young child. I have a DVD player. If my child attempts to load or unload or even think about a DVD, it is rendered unplayable within mere seconds. If I can make a backup copy of the DVD, and use the backup, well then, problem solved. I should be able to do this legally.

Re:Does realy matter?

In my humble opinion, Chretien is not the real problem. The real problem in our current government is the near total lack of a functioning opposition. The other real problem is that Canada's newspaper and news media is largely owned by card carrying liberals. The last time a well known national reporter did an in depth investigative report that made the Chretien government look bad the reporter found himself looking for work. This reporter was published in papers across the country through the Southam news chain.

For all Americans out there, our situation is like this: 85% of all the seats in the house are republican and the president is republican as well. In addition, 85% or more of the news media is owned or controlled by card carrying republicans and the journalists are too scared to say anything for fear of losing their jobs.