Post Tagged with: "c-11"

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 21: Privacy Commissioner of Canada

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has not spoken out on the recent copyright bills, but in 2008 she wrote a public letter to then-Industry Minister Jim Prentice expressing concern “about possible changes to the Act authorizing the use of technical mechanisms to prevent copyright infringement that could have a negative impact on the privacy rights of Canadians.” The Stoddart letter, which came in the aftermath of the Sony rootkit case, stated:

If DRM technologies only controlled copying and use of content, our Office would have few concerns. However, DRM technologies can also collect detailed personal information from users, who often do no more than access the content on a computer. This information is transmitted back to the copyright owner or content provider, without the consent or knowledge of the user. Although the means exist to circumvent these technologies and thus prevent the collection of this information, previous proposals to amend the Copyright Act contained anti-circumvention provisions.

Commissioner Stoddart has not commented on the adequacy of the personal information exception in Bill C-11, but there is reason for concern.

November 2, 2011 — 14 comments — News

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 20: Appropriation Art

The Appropriation Art Coalition reflects the broad spectrum of Canada’s art community. The coalition now numbers over 600 artists, curators, directors, educators, writers, associations and organizations from the art sector. All have come together to express their concern over the state of copyright policy for artists and the future of […]

November 1, 2011 — 8 comments — News

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 19: Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences represents more than 85,000 researchers in 80 scholarly associations, 79 universities and colleges, and 6 affiliates. Its submission on Bill C-32’s digital lock rules provides a good illustration of the damage likely to be caused by the rules to research in […]

October 31, 2011 — 1 comment — News

The Problem With Digital Locks

The National Post runs a masthead editorial that tears apart the digital lock rules in Bill C-11, describing the bill as a “flawed piece of legislation” that the government should either kill or amend on its own initiative. It argues: Preventing consumers from playing material that they have paid for, […]

October 28, 2011 — 32 comments — News

The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 18: Canadian Bar Association

The Canadian Bar Association, which represents 37,000 lawyers, law professors, and students from across the country, released an important submission on Bill C-32. The submission, which was approved as a public statement by both the National Intellectual Property and the Privacy and Access Law Sections of the CBA, did a nice job setting out the debate over Bill C-32 (I was once a member of the CBA’s Copyright Policy section but was not involved in the drafting of the Bill C-32 document).

The CBA submission is notable as a strong counter to the frequent attempts to characterize critics of digital lock rules or other elements of the bill as “anti-copyright.” Far from the claims that there is near unanimity in support of DMCA-style reforms, the CBA submission confirms that the legal experts who work on copyright issues on a daily basis are deeply divided on many issues. While some members supported the digital lock rules, there was a clear divide:

October 28, 2011 — 2 comments — News