With the government likely to introduce copyright legislation sometime in the next week or two, Canadians are likely to face a barrage of rhetoric from copyright owners, alternately saluting the government for introducing a copyright bill while also criticizing them for not going far enough to protect Canada's cultural industries.
I am certain I will have a thing or two to say about the bill once it is introduced, though assuming the government follows the plan unveiled in March, Canada is likely to get a bill that overwhelmingly addresses copyright owner interests (making available right, protection for technical protection measures rather than from them, new copyright rights for photographers and performers of sound recordings, etc.) with little for millions of individual Canadians other than the cold comfort that it could have been worse (the U.S. implementation of TPM protection and the adoption of a notice and takedown system, for example). There will be nothing on reforming the statutory damages provisions, moving toward fair use (as the Australians are considering), eliminating crown copyright, providing for greater transparency of the copyright collectives so Canadians have a better understanding of where the hundreds of millions of dollars collected each year ends up, and embracing policies that support the incredible flourishing of creativity that we are seeing on a daily basis today online.
