Canadian Copyright & International Treaties
Bill C-60 had problems, but two areas were actually better for the public than anyone expected. One of these areas (click here for the other) was C-60's handling of Canada's international treaty implementation.
Background
Canada is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations body that shapes information policy around the world. In 1997, we signed the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (collectively known as the WIPO Internet Treaties), but we have not yet ratified them. Bill C-60 was part of Canada's plan to ratify these treaties.
If we do move forward with the WIPO Internet Treaties, they will oblige Canada to create several new rights for copyright holders. The most significant change would be prohibitions against the circumvention of “technological protection measures" (TPMs) used by copyright holders. These usually appear as user restrictions on things like CDs, DVDs, and downloads from the iTunes Music Store, but even garage door and printer manufacturers have tried to apply the rules to their products. TPMs are also commonly known as "digital rights management" (DRM).
Today, circumventing a TPM to access and use content is not illegal. That's a really good thing, since people need to work around these restrictions for any number of legitimate reasons: making a mix CD, excerpting a clip from a DVD to show in class, or disabling a piece of copy protection software that exposes you to viruses. Bill C-60 would have made it illegal to circumvent DRM if your goal is copyright infringement, but it smartly refused to block people from lifting these protections for an otherwise legal purpose.
In contrast, the United States' implementation of the WIPO Internet Treaties -- a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) -- bans all acts of circumvention, even if you're trying to use the material in a lawful manner. This has led to a bizarre situation where ordinary Americans constantly break the law by, for example, transferring the content of a legally purchased, copy-protected CD onto an iPod. That's just one of the unintended consequences of the U.S. implementation.
Moreover, the U.S.' overbroad protection for TPMs has obliterated any hope of balance in its copyright law. Copyright is supposed to be a bargain between creators and the public, and the terms of that bargain are clearly defined and carefully considered. Copyright holders have a set of exclusive rights -- like the right to make copies of their work or perform it in public -- and the vast, unenumerated balance of uses are reserved for the public. By protecting rightsholders' digital locks instead of the works they affect, countries like the U.S. have given copyright holders the unilateral ability to shift the copyright balance in their favor.
Content industries intent on crafting ever-larger and more onerous copyright laws criticize Bill C-60, saying it is not compliant with the WIPO Internet Treaties. This is nonsense. Bill C-60’s anti-circumvention laws comply with WIPO, while at the same time recognizing Canadians’ legitimate rights to access content.
There is no demonstrated need to create a new layer of anti-circumvention liability for Canadians that would apply beyond copyright law. Neither trade laws nor economic circumstances require Canada to implement the WIPO Internet Treaties. However, if Canada elects to ratify these Treaties, Bill C-60 represents a fair and balanced approach to doing so.
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