Bill C-32: Fair Dealing Finally Modernized--With a Catch

Bill C-32, the government’s latest attempt at reforming copyright laws, brings Canadians a Jekyll and Hyde. On a positive note, the bill demonstrates that Parliamentarians were listening to Canadians during the Copyright Consultations last year. It legalizes fair parody and satire, and clarifies that educational use of content can qualify as fair dealing. It also legalizes format shifting and time shifting, recognizing that Canadians want be able to legally put music on their computers and iPods, and record content using VCR's and PVR's.

Unfortunately, this fair balance does not permeate through to Bill C-32's legal protection of digital locks. Here, the bill caters to U.S. demands rather than the views of Canadians. The bill allows distributors to restrict access to content, skirting around the balance that is struck by fair dealing provisions. Reporters won't be able to fairly use locked content in news stories, filmmakers won't be able to insert protected clips in documentaries, and whistleblowers seeking justice will not be able to release encrypted documents.

Prentice Plans to Rush Copyright Bill Through Parliament

C-61, the all-new copyright bill has finally landed: and despite Industry Canada's spin, it contains all the worse provisions of the DMCA. Our companion site, Copyright For Canadians has letters to write and info you can use to warn your MP that this is not a bill they should rubber-stamp.

Track the new Copyright Bill with Copyright For Canadians

The revolt over the government's secretive and unsure approach to tabling new copyright reform has spread across the Canadian Net in a matter of days, and every hour seems to gain even more momentum. To help you keep track of all that's going on, Online Rights Canada has launched a separate mini-site, Copyright For Canadians. We will, of course, be running our petitions, factfiles and action center activities here: but for a quick summary of news and reactions from across all of Canada's concerned groups and citizens, you might want to add Copyright For Canadians to your RSS newsreader or bookmark list.

Countdown to a New Copyright Bill

There are strong indications that, sometime in the next two weeks, Industry Minister Jim Prentice will introduce the Conservative's version of a new copyright bill. The word is that it be terrible step backward for Canadian copyright reform. It will contain a wholesale importing of the United States' dismal DMCA anti-circumvention regulations, with no new exceptions for parody or other "fair use" limitations and exceptions, and no fix for private copying or the levy. It's as though United States and major rightsholder lobbyists wrote a laundry list of wants, and the Conservatives were happy to hand it to them. We await the proposed language with concern, but in the meantime, write to your MP now, and urge them to take Canadian copyright into the 21st Century, not mimic the last decade of intellectual property missteps from the United States.

Lawful Access Consultation Goes Public at Last

As you may have read in the press or online, Public Safety Canada and Industry Canada recently launched a consultation on Lawful Access: how and when telecommunication companies (including ISPs) should hand over customer names and addresses to law enforcement.

To call this a "public" consultation would be stretching it: the document was only passed around a limited number of stakeholders, and the government initially refused to allow it to be posted online. Its existence was not published in the Canada Gazette as is normally the case, and interested parties were only given until September 27 to make their comments. Within it, the departments hint that law enforcement should have access to personal information without a court order or other judicial checks.

The good news is that Public Safety Canada has now had an apparent change of heart - about the consultation, at least. The document has now been placed online, and the deadline for public comment extended by three weeks to October 12.

If you would like to make your voice heard, just follow the instructions provided by Public Safety, and let them know exactly how you feel.