The Bill C-11 committee began its sprint to the finish yesterday,
hearing from the first series of witnesses with plans to hold four
hearings
per week until mid-March followed by two weeks of clause-by-clause
review of the bill. The first panel included my colleague Jeremy
deBeer, who
pointed out that a review of hundreds of articles on legal protection
for digital locks
shows consensus that the restrictive approach found in Bill C-11 is
unnecessary for WIPO compliance and likely to result in unintended
consequences.
The committee heard from another witness, lawyer James Gannon, that the
absence of digital lock legislation is hurting our economy (a reminder that the Canadian digital music market has grown faster than the U.S.
for five consecutive years, that Netflix chose Canada as its first
foreign market, and the music industry now calls Canada a greenfield
opportunity might be in order) and that New Zealand and Switzerland -
both OECD countries who link circumvention to actual copyright
infringement in their digital lock rules - were the only developed ones that don't follow the "international
standard" with many of the remaining 80 or so countries having "compliant or
more robust standards" for digital locks.
Yet a review of dozens of countries that have implemented the WIPO
Internet treaties demonstrates that this is plainly wrong. In addition
to key allies that do not have any anti-circumvention rules (e.g. Israel), have proposed more flexible
rules (e.g. India), or have
adopted more flexible rules but have yet to ratify the WIPO Internet
treaties (e.g. New Zealand),
it is worth noting:
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The Documentary Organization of Canada has proposed specific
language for a new exception to the C-11 digital lock rules that
would exempt circumvention for documentary film makers.
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Elsevier, which has faced enormous online protests over its support for
the Research Works Act, has withdrawn
its support for the U.S. bill.
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