One of the ongoing concerns with anti-circumvention provisions is the prospect that the legal rules create incentives to use – and possibly misuse – DRM. France, which many people hold up as an example of a country that prioritizes copyright and creator protection, has many of the same concerns about […]
Fair Dealing by Giulia Forsythe (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/dRkXwP
Copyright
Canwest Covers Bell PVR and C-61 Issue
Canwest covers the Bell "record forever" PVR issue and the effect of Bill C-61. Update: Additional coverage from Le Journal de Montreal.
61 Reforms to C-61, Day 37: TPMs – No Requirement to Unlock for Exceptions
Many countries have recognized the danger that combination of DRM and anti-circumvention legislation may effectively eliminate user rights or copyright exceptions in the digital environment. Creating exceptions is one way to address the issue, but another is to adopt an approach of "with rights comes responsibilities." In this case, if companies are going to obtain new legal rights for DRM, they must also shoulder the responsibility of unlocking their content when requested to do so by users for legal purposes. This is a common theme in copyright laws around the world which often identify courts, tribunals or mediators as the source to ensure that rightsholders do not use DRM to eliminate user rights. Three examples of many:
Bell’s Expandable PVR and C-61
Several people have written about a new Bell commercial that is running during the Olympics promoting its expandable PVR. The PVR includes an option that allows users to transfer recorded programs to an external hard drive for archiving purposes. The commercial notes the benefits of "unlimited" disk space since users […]
61 Reforms to C-61, Day 36: TPMs – No Identification of Authorized Circumventers
The removal of the provisions that target the legality of circumvention devices is one way to help ensure that the law does not eliminate basic copyright user rights. There are other approaches, however, that can be introduced in tandem with that change. New Zealand's new copyright law introduces the concept […]
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