Re: Canadian copyright bill: Good and bad

Mark Demeny — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:32:02 -0000

This bill will make the breaking of any DRM punishable by a fine of up to $1,000,000
and 5 years in jail (C-61 Section 42). Among other things, this makes
using an iPhone illegal in Canada, despite the fact that both the
phone and service have been purchased legally. The US DMCA (upon which
this act is surely based in large part, and in many respects even more
restrictive) has had a number of cases where it has been used in fact
to restrict commerce. Cases abound where the DMCA is used for
anti-competitive means; manufacturers of printer ink and garage door
openers have been sued under the DMCA simply because the communication
method was encrypted. This is overly restrictive and anti-competitive
for both consumer choice as well as competing manufacturers. Another example was Apple restricting companies from developing apps for the iPhone
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/05/sap_iph... ). Anti-circumvention legislation of this draconian nature does not encourage innovation in any respect.

If RIM wants to make their email handling software available for the
iPhone - who is Apple to use the DMCA to say they can't? Consumers
should be able to use their hardware however they like, and companies
should be able to provide their hardware, software and services to
competitors devices - this is what the free market is about and this bill
specifically outlaws that.

Of course, that is merely one of the effects C-61 has on innovators -
for consumers it is even worse. Quite simply it means I no longer do
the following things with my *legally purchased* media.

1) I can no longer watch my legally purchased UK DVDs
2) I can no longer copy my legally purchased DVDs to my iPod for
viewing while travelling
3) I cannot copy an ebook to a format to which it was not intended
(i.e. from encrypted PDF to my iPod or Blackberry)
4) I cannot use my old obsolete XBOX as a media center, as I would
have had to bypass the security on the machine to install my own
choice of software.

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Re: Canadian copyright bill: Good and bad