TORONTO and OTTAWA – We don’t envy the job that Industry Minister Tony Clement and Heritage Minister James Moore have ahead of them as they try to balance the often conflicting demands of Canada’s numerous copyright stakeholders.
After initial reactions from the likes of ACTRA and others to the new draft copyright legislation released last week, one suspects that the old adage ‘you can’t please everyone’ will once again hold true.
The Sameulson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) said that Bill C-32 “offers many important and welcome exceptions and creation rights”, but at the same time “imports the worst of U.S. digital copyright law”, in reference to the digital lock issue.
“This is a Jekyll and Hyde bill,” said CIPPIC director David Fewer, in a statement. “The bill is very, very good in many respects. It modernizes Canadian copyright law to reflect the reality of how Canadians access, experience and create content. But then it throws those rights away whenever a distributor slaps a digital lock on that content.”
Fewer suggests that the government outlaw the breaking of a digital lock to infringe copyright, and maintain the current legality of breaking a lock for legal dealings. “If I’m not infringing copyright, why does the government want to stop me from accessing content?”, he asked.
CIPPIC is calling on Canadians to contact their MPs to express their support for Bill C-32’s user and creator rights, but to fix its approach on what it calls “anti-circumvention rights”. It has also started up a Twitter petition aimed at Minister Moore, and its advocacy site DigitalAgenda.ca is launching an on-line letter writing campaign to Canadian MPs.
Canada’s only technology law clinic and a part of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society and the University of Ottawa, CIPPIC’s mandate is to advocate for balance in policy and law-making on issues arising out of new technologies.
FilmOntario said that it “applauds” Ministers Clement and Moore for developing this legislation, and called for its passage.
“Intellectual property rights should be protected in Canada; you cannot drive a new car off the lot for free, nor should you be able to steal screen-based content”, said the group, a private sector consortium of 30,000 companies, producers, unions, guilds and organizations within the Ontario screen-based sector (film, television and interactive media).
Entertainment labor union IATSE also threw its support behind the legislation which it says will “protect and create jobs in our industry by giving creators the legal tools to protect their investments in order to reinvest in future projects”, in reference to the digital locks and other measures aimed at preventing on-line theft.
“We congratulate the Government for introducing Bill C-32, a critical first step in ensuring Canada has modern copyright laws that protect the creative industries and men and women working in film and television production across Canada”, the group said in a statement.
– Lesley Hunter
