mandelbr0t's Journal: An Act to Amend the Canadian Copyright Act

I received the following e-mail from Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice in response to a letter writing campaign organized by Online Rights Canada about a week prior to the introduction of Bill C-61, an amendment to the Canadian Copyright Act.

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 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

While I don't want to quote my reply directly, I would like to publicize some of the key points in my response.

This e-mail is propaganda. It paints Bill C-61 as a great deal for consumers, as if they didn't already have all of the "new" rights granted by Bill C-61. They fail to point out, however, that the Copyright Act doesn't need to be amended for us to have these rights.

The proposed amendment contains the following paragraph regarding obtaining legitimate copies of media for use on portable devices (among other things) (29.21(1)(c)):

(c) the individual, in order to make the reproduction, did not circumvent a technolog- ical measure or cause one to be circumvented, within the meanings of the definitions "circumvent" and "technological measure" in section 41;

Ah yes, our old friend DRM, attempting to sneak it's way into Canadian law. Which brings me to my next criticism of Mr. Prentice's response, that this legislation is, in fact, a mirror of the American DMCA. DRM is evil, plain and simple. It is abused for a number of reasons, mostly to undermine Fair Use rights by making the actual act of reproduction illegal. However, it is even more evil than that. A creator who is legally protected from circumvention of their DRM can censor criticism by the simple act of "encrypting" their media, or burying it behind a login page, or whatnot. DRM ultimately destroys Free Speech.

Finally, Mr. Prentice claims that this bill is to bring us in line with "60 other countries". I am assuming that this is a reference to the fact that Canada is not yet compliant with WIPO. I am not an expert on this subject, so I invite you to read the following article at Ars Technica.

Canadians would be, frankly, screwed by this legislation. Mr. Prentice is clearly letting the money talk at this point, and we don't need old-school money-grubbing politicians in this country. I hope that Prime Minister Harper is willing to make this a confidence issue, just to show his commitment to the importance of this legislation in Canada. I expect that we'll be having elections by Autumn ;-)