Post Tagged with: "c-11"

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 48: Canadian Urban Library Council

The Canadian Urban Library Council members collectively serve more than 7.5 million active users at 522 locations. In 2008, members loaned 171,000,000 items and expended $86 million on collections including $8 million on digital resources. The CULC provided a submission to the 2009 national copyright consultation and said the following about digital locks:

Legislation must ensure that individuals and the not-for-profit library, archive, museum, and education institutions which serve them can circumvent TPMs for non-infringing purposes. Increasingly content providers are recognizing that TPMs which restrict using legally acquired content on different devices are not acceptable to consumers. TPMs which restrict legal copying or format shifting should not be protected in legislation. Canada’s public libraries place a high priority on service to multicultural communities including recent immigrants. Of necessity this requires the provision of audio-visual collections which may have regional coding. TPM legislation as formulated in other countries and the last copyright legislation tabled in the House of Commons could be used to make illegal the ownership of DVD players which bypass regional coding. Such an outcome is especially unacceptable in a multicultural country such as Canada and certainly has the potential to impede public library service.

December 9, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — News

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 47: Queen’s University

The copyright views of Canadian universities are typically represented by the AUCC, but several universities have made their own views known. For example, Queen’s University provided its own submission to the 2009 national copyright consultation. It said the following about digital locks:

Protection of digital locks must not impede users’ rights.

Quoting from a book or a newspaper is established fair dealing, and it ought to follow that quoting from a digital file would constitute fair dealing too. If such fair dealing is prevented by digital locks, and those are given an extra level of legal protection, scholars and students will only be able to engage with an increasingly limited portion of the world around us. Courses will become removed from the cultural context of the times; critique and creativity will be stymied. Teachers, students, and researchers need to be permitted to show and recontextualize clips from digital media, or sequences of software code, just as they were in the analog age permitted to copy “fairly” for purposes of criticism, review, research, or private study. The Supreme Court stated in CCH v. LSUC (2004) that “the fair dealing exception isâ€¦ an integral part of the Copyright Actâ€¦ Any act falling within the fair dealing exception will not be an infringement of copyright. The fair dealing exception, like other exceptions in the Copyright Act, is a user’s right.” The prevention of fair dealing with digital locks would thus be not only a major threat to innovation and teaching, but a a major distortion of the Copyright Act as understood by our highest Court.

December 8, 2011 — 1 comment — News

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 46: Battlegoat Studios

BattleGoat Studios is a Canadian software developer founded in 2000. The company has release several PC games that have won widespread recognition. It has also been outspoken on copyright reform, providing a submission to the C-32 legislative committee that stated the following on digital locks:

The addition of one simple principle to C-32 would make the bill acceptable:

That the circumvention of Technical Protection Measures be permitted for non-infringing uses. This would meet the requirements of the WIPO treaties, and it would properly permit consumers to use their Fair Dealing rights and exemptions. It would still afford protection to content creators and publishers, especially against the “large scale” infringement that Ministers Moore and Clement say are the targets of Copyright Reform.

December 7, 2011 — 3 comments — News

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 45: Digital Security Coalition

The Digital Security Coalition was a coalition of leading Canadian digital security companies. The coalition’s mandate was to advocate on behalf of its members and of all Canadians for sound public policies and laws affecting digital security technologies. Members included AEPOS Technologies Corporation, Black Arts Illuminated Inc., Bob Young, Borderware Technologies Inc., Bridon Security & Training Services, Certicom Corp., CMS Consulting Inc., Digital Defence Inc., Elytra Enterprises Inc., Innusec Inc., Klocwork Inc., Priosec, Q1 Labs Inc., Random Knowledge Inc., Borderware Technologies, Rigel Kent Security and Advisory Services, Security Objectives, Technical Security & Intelligence, Titus Labs Inc. Third Brigade Ltd., and VE Networks Inc. The organization’s 2009 national copyright consultation submission included the following on digital locks:

Anti-circumvention rules should not apply in non-infringing circumstances, so they do not inadvertently impede ongoing research and innovation. The risk is in harming emerging Canadian digital security companies, and putting a “liability chill” on research in this area.

December 6, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — News

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 44: New Brunswick Public Library Service

The New Brunswick Public Library Service represents 61 public libraries throughout the province. Its submission to the 2009 copyright consultation included the following on digital locks:

The circumvention of a digital lock for non-infringing purposes should be permitted.

An exception should also be made to anti-circumvention clauses to ensure that access to government information, laws, and court cases are never inaccessible to Canadians. As citizens, we should have an inalienable right to access this information.

December 5, 2011 — Comments are Disabled — News