As discussed in the last entry, Bill C-61 includes an exception for encryption research much like the U.S. DMCA. The U.S. DMCA exception has been widely criticized as providing insufficient legal protection for legitimate encryption research, leading to significant concerns in the research community about the prospect for liability. The […]
Post Tagged with: "c-61"
Canadian Conference of the Arts on C-61
The CCA puts out two documents (1, 2), which acknowledge that a key driver behind the bill is "unrelenting pressure from the United States and the mass media interests who regard Canadian copyright law as harmful to their economic interests. (This despite the fact that the World Economic Forum rates […]
More MP Responses to C-61
Mark O'Sullivan blogs about Conservative MP's Lynn Yelich's response, while the Mad Analogy blog focuses on a response from Liberal MP Hedy Fry.
61 Reforms to C-61, Day 25: TPMs – Research Exception Limited to Encryption and Security Testing
Bill C-61 includes two exceptions relevant for researchers: an exception at Section 41.13 limited to encryption research (unlike the U.S. DMCA, encryption research is not defined) and security testing at Section 41.15, which could be construed to include security research on computer or network vulnerabilities. The impact of the anti-circumvention […]
Poilievre’s C-61 Response
I've posted responses to C-61 letters from MPs representing the major parties (Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Bloc) in the past, but several people forwarded the latest letter from Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre, an Ottawa-area MP, is best known for being the primary responder in the House of Commons to the election funding issue as well as for having had to apologize for remarks tied to the native school apology. Most of Poilievre's response simply repeats the usual Conservative lines on C-61, some of which are misleading (ie. he says "our reform will also permit consumers to copy music onto devices such as MP3 players, and copy books, newspapers, videos and photos into different formats. All of this is illegal under the current copyright legislation." It is inaccurate to state that all of this is illegal today since fair dealing may cover some of this copying and the video copying must be VHS, not DVD).
More problematic is the final paragraph that makes the case for C-61 to his constituents:
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