OTTAWA – Late Monday Industry Minister Tony Clement let his Twitter followers know that the federal government’s latest attempt at reforming copyright in Canada will be coming soon.
“Currently in HoC, reading latest draft of amendments to Copyright Act…people before you tweet back, let’s await the Bill’s intro. Fair?” wrote the minister.
Well, we don’t exactly know which day the new copyright bill is coming, but thanks to University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, it’s up for introduction this week.
“An Act to Amend the Copyright Act” will hit the house this week. Will copying songs from a CD to your iPod now be made legal in Canada? Will the private copying levy currently collected from the sale of blank media be extended to cover digital music devices and smart phones? Will there be heavier penalties for those who don’t play by the new rules respecting content.
We’ll take the Minister’s advice and wait until the bill makes its debut, but suffice to say the video, audio, ISP, software and any other digital content industry, and those who transmit and copy it will have their eyes on this.
Expect a lot of hollering, virtual and literal.
– Greg O’Brien
