The week in the life of the Canadian DMCA continues (day one here) with Rona, Jim and Josee's ten year old daughter. Rona is a huge American Idol fan, faithfully watching each episode and buying CDs released by former contestants with her savings. Last January, Jim set the family's PVR […]
Stop CDMCA
A Week in the Life of the Canadian DMCA: Part One
Many people have written to ask for concrete examples of how the Canadian DMCA would impact everyday activities. In response, today I'm going to start a five part series of a typical Canadian family's potential encounter with the law. The fictional family consist of:
Jim and Josee live in a Calgary suburb together with their three children Stephen (age 16), Rona (age 10), and Diane (age 4). Jim is the chief librarian at the National Energy Library, while Josee teaches media and communications at a local high school.
This post focuses on Jim. Soon after he arrives into the office on Monday morning, he is contacted by a researcher located in the field who asks him to track down an article and to email an electronic copy as soon as possible. Jim finds the article, scans and sends it via email. After work, he drops into the local HMV and purchases a DVD copy of the movie Juno. At home, he transfers a copy of the movie to his video iPod for viewing on an upcoming business trip.
If the Canadian DMCA becomes law, all of Jim's copying activities arguably violate the law.
The Copyright Protest Surge
In the roughly 36 hours since the Canadian DMCA was introduced, the outrage from thousands of Canadians has been nothing short of remarkable. The CBC has picked up on the story, reporting on the surge in online protests that include approximately 10,000 new members of the Fair Copyright for Canada […]
The Canadian DMCA: A Betrayal
Having had a few more hours to think about Industry Minister Jim Prentice's Canadian DMCA, I am left with one dominant feeling – betrayal. I have already highlighted the key provisions and coverage (and note that it will take some time to fully assess the implications of this bill) but it is immediately apparent that the concerns of thousands of Canadians – now over 45,000 on the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group alone – have been realized. If enacted, the Canadian DMCA would strongly encourage the use of technological locks and lawsuits. While Prentice has given a handful of new rights to Canadian consumers, each is subject to many limitations and undermined by the digital locks provisions that may effectively render the new rights meaningless.
So why is it a betrayal?
The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print
As expected, the Canadian DMCA is big, complicated, and a close model of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Industry Canada provides a large number of fact sheets here). I'll have much more to say once I've had a careful read, but these are my five key points to take […]
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