Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal has issued a press release on his recent "near capacity" town hall meeting on C-61. Dhaliwal notes that Bill C-61 ranks among the top three issues raised by his constituents.
Post Tagged with: "c-61"
Tapscott on C-61
Don Tapscott, the noted author of Wikinomics, weighs in on Bill C-61, describing it as "a massive step backward by the government."
61 Reforms to C-61, Day 30: TPMs – Anti-circumvention and Privacy
The inclusion of a privacy exception within Bill C-61's anti-circumvention provisions was not particularly surprising given that the U.S. DMCA includes one and there has been mounting concern about the privacy implications of DRM. The issue has captured the attention of the Canadian privacy community for the past few years. In 2006, a group of privacy and civil liberties organizations and experts sent a public letter to the responsible ministers calling for assurances that:
- any proposed copyright reforms will prioritize privacy protection by including a full privacy consultation and a full privacy impact assessment with the introduction of any copyright reform bill;
- any proposed anti-circumvention provisions will create no negative privacy impact; and
- any proposed copyright reforms will include pro-active privacy protections that, for example, enshrine the rights of Canadians to access and enjoy copyright works anonymously and in private.
The group (of which I am a member) sent a follow-up letter earlier this year as did Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart, who posted a public letter expressing concern that copyright reform could have a negative impact on privacy. Given those concerns, an exception to protect personal information is not unexpected. However, Section 41.14 fails to provide Canadians with full privacy protection and Bill C-61 unquestionably makes it more difficult for Canadians to effectively protect their privacy.
B.C. Civil Liberties Association on C-61
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has adopted a position paper on C-61, warning of its effects on freedom of speech and privacy.
61 Reforms to C-61, Day 29: TPMs – Interoperability Exception Restricts Third Parties
The problems with the interoperability exception in Bill C-61 extend beyond its impact on open source software. The U.S. DMCA restricts the ability for a person to disclose information obtained through circumvention for the purposes of interoperability by stating that the information may be made available to others on the condition that the person "provides such information or means solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate applicable law other than this section."
Bill C-61 regulates not only the initial circumventer but anyone else that comes into possession of the information. Section 41.12 (1) includes an interoperability of computer programs provision that is very similar to the U.S. DMCA. Subsection (4) allows the same person to "communicate the information obtained under that subsection to another person for the purposes of allowing that person to make the computer program and any other computer program interoperable." That also covers similar terrain as the U.S. DMCA.
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