The Bill C-11 committee reviewing the copyright reform bill met for the first time yesterday and set out a fast-paced plan to conclude review of the bill. The committee will meet for 12 hours per week – four times a week for three hours each – until mid-March. It will […]
Post Tagged with: "c-11"
Bill C-11 and the Hazards of Digital Lock Provisions
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a pair of excellent posts on Bill C-11 and the dangers of the digital lock rules. The first focuses specifically on digital lock rules and the second on U.S. pressure on Canadian copyright reform.
Canadian Media Coverage Of Mounting C-11 Protests
The Canadian media has picked up on the mounting protests over part of Bill C-11. Recent coverage includes the Vancouver Sun, Straight.com, and Radio-Canada.
Can You Hear Us Now?
One of my posts this week focused on concerns that Industry Minister Christian Paradis has said he cannot speculate on how Bill C-11’s digital lock rules will be enforced. The post identifies numerous examples of how the rules could harm creators, students, researchers, consumers, and even the visually impaired (further background information on Bill C-11 here and here). Yet these concerns are not new and have been raised for several years. Indeed, it is instructive to see how the public concern over the digital lock rules and now possible inclusion of SOPA-style amendments has mushroomed over the years.
Canadian Government Has Consulted on Copyright but Won’t Consider How Its Law Will Be Enforced
During yesterday’s debate, several Conservative MPs emphasized that the copyright bill is one of the most consulted pieces of legislation in recent memory. For example, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore stated “this is my 12th year as a member of Parliament and I can tell her that except for the Liberal government’s Bill C-2, the response to 9/11, this legislation will have had more consideration at a stand-alone legislative committee and parliamentary and public consideration with all of the tens of thousands of submissions we received from Canadians in person and in writing and the consultations we did across the country before we drafted the bill.”
The government is right when it says there has been wide consultation (a recap of the 2009 copyright consultation here). The question is whether it has taken the public comments into account and conducted a full analysis of the implications of its current proposal. There is reason to believe that it has not.