Kill Canada’s Copyright Bill and Protect the Interests of Canadians
The Conservative party of Canada has tabled a new copyright bill that would turn a great number of Canadians into criminals. Though the Bill’s ‘author,’ Calgary Center-North representative Jim Prentice, has been defending the bill as a “Made in Canada” copyright solution, it unfortunately bears a real similarity to the DMCA legislation of our southern neighbor - that is, the legislation that has seen tens of thousands of Americans dragged from their homes and into court rooms and forced them to pay extravagant fines for downloading music files from the internet.
One of the bill’s most extreme provisions makes the breaking of copy protection (DRM, or digital rights management) technologies a criminal act (punishable by a 20,000 dollar fine). Though this may sound somewhat technical, the practical implications are great. If, for example, you purchase an album in CD format and that CD is copy protected (and many, many are) and copy that album onto your computer to be listened to on your MP3 player, you are in fact opening yourself up to a 20,000 dollar fine. Unbelievable.
If Canadians don’t act to kill this bill before it becomes law, many citizens will find themselves in court and forced to pay the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) thousands of dollars. Here are some resources where you can learn about and become involved in the good fight to protect the interests of Canadians:
Michael Geist’s essay Copyright Bill’s Fine Print Makes for Disturbing Reading has some excellent info on the topic. Geist is a professor of Law at the University of Ottawa and Chair of Canada Research on Internet and E-Commerce Law.
CBC’s Search Engine’s list of questions citizens want answered about he new copyright bill. There are some great questions on the list. Add your own.
Join the Facebook Group Fair Copyright for Canada. It’s already 55,000 strong.
Read Laura Murray’s Bill C-61: First Impressions.
Read 30 Things You Can Do to stop the bill (from Geist again) or watch the video below.
