This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Copyright Reform . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
posted by
CCER at
Fri, Jan 18th, 2008
Large corporations, powerful music and movie producers, and influential trade groups have been almost unanimous in their criticisms of Canada and its perceived antiquated copyright laws. These groups continually voice the urgent need for Canada to reform its copyright laws or risk losing valuable jobs, trading partners and competitive advantages. Given the latest numbers regarding video game sales in North America, and in particular Canada, one has to wonder just how ‘urgent’ these copyright reforms are needed? If Canada’s current copyright laws are so lax and outdated, would video game industry sales increase to a record $1.5 billion in 2007, a 56 % increase from 2006? The numbers may even give one the sense that Canada’s current copyright laws already allow for record sales and year-over-year growth in the video game industry. This begs the question, why fix what aint broke? (Yes, I know WIPO compliance, valuable trade relations etc, blah blah blah)
One can only hope that the Canadian Government takes a step back from too hastily introducing legislation that will inhibit fair use rights of Canadian video gamers. Since it appears this industry is not in dire need of a knight err. cowboy in shining armour to save them from bankruptcy, now is the time for the government to take the time to ensure Canada’s copyright reforms are a true Made in Canada solution. At least in terms of the video game industry, it is apparent this government has time to carefully balance creators’ and user rights when modifying copyright law that will affect the ever-growing (at a record pace) Canadian video gaming population. To paraphrase Michael Geist in his Fair Copyright for Canada Principles: Canada should not ban devices that can be used to circumvent a TPM. The reason is obvious – if Canadians cannot access the tools necessary to exercise their user rights under the Copyright Act, those rights are effectively extinguished in the digital world. If organizations are permitted to use TPMs to lock down content in a manner that threatens fair dealing, Canadians should have the right to access and use technologies that restores the copyright balance.
Leave a Reply
