The Rants of Issachar

It seems the government will be introducing new copyright legislation this week. Industry Minister Jim Prentice put the new Bill on the Notice Paper on Friday. Obviously I haven't read the bill yet, but from early reports, I have concerns.

The long and the short of it is that early reports say that the legislation will be a Canadian import of the notorious Digital Millennium Copyright Act. From Michael Geist's blog:

The new Canadian legislation will likely mirror the DMCA with strong anti-circumvention legislation - far beyond what is needed to comply with the WIPO Internet treaties - and address none of the issues that concern millions of Canadians. The Conservatives promise to eliminate the private copying levy will likely be abandoned. There will be no flexible fair dealing. No parody exception. No time shifting exception. No device shifting exception. No expanded backup provision. Nothing.

What does that mean? On the face of it, it means that you'll continue to pay the "pirate tax" on blank discs even if you're not pirating. There will be no right to copy the music you buy on CD to your iPod. No right to record broadcast TV to watch later, (i.e. record on a digital VCR), no right to backup the stuff you buy to protect against scratched discs. And it will be illegal to write software to do any of these things. And will the legislation protect our right to make the ubiquitous "mixed tape" we all make? I doubt it...

I've written about copyright before, and I still maintain that the right to bypass encryption has got to be protected. Simply put there are legitimate reasons to copy things and bypass encryption.


I hope that that the early reports turn out to be false, but we'll see. I'm writing a letter to my MP and Jim Prentice. I'll see if I get a response. (Svend Robinson's office didn't reply when I wrote to his office about this years ago).

---
Update: Dec 12
Mr. Prentice hasn't introduced the bill yet. It looks like he won't be doing so until after the Christmas break. Write your letters now!

Posted by:  Major John

Nothing like taking bad idea (DMCA) and making it worse! I find it hard to fathom the size and scope of an enforcement regime for such legislation...

What are the chances this could be scaled back?

Posted by:  issachar

I actually think our chances are pretty good. We do have the advantage of being able to point out what a disaster the DMCA has been. And it looks like it won't be introduced on schedule. There might be some rewriting going on.

Some might call it naive, but I really do think that we have influence over our government. :P