Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights
 

Yesterday’s Throne Speech clearly indicated that the Government plans on “strengthening laws governing intellectual property and copyright“. When we see the words strengthen and copyright in the same sentence we automatically think of legislation that sacrifices the rights of consumers, creators and researchers in favour of specific technologies and business models. After all, Canadians are well within the realms of sanity to react so sceptically given previous attempts at copyright reform, specifically Bill C-61 (The Canadian DMCA).

However, along comes the Minister of Industry himself indicating our dire assumptions may be presumptuous. Following the Throne Speech, Tony Clement appeared on CTV’s Powerplay and offered a glimmer of hope to balanced copyright reform sceptics. When asked if moving forward on copyright reform was a tradeoff for putting the “buy American” issue to bed Clement responded:

I’ve been pretty clear to the Americans and in my public statements that we are moving ahead with copyright reform. The key is, from the American perspective, they want us to be part of WIPO, which is an international treaty on protecting intellectual property. We don’t have a problem with that, but we’re going to do it in a made-in-Canada way. We’re not just going to take what the Americans are doing or what the Europeans are doing. We are going to fit it to the Canadian context and I think that is the right thing to do.

Given this refreshing dialogue, it appears that Tony Clement may actually fully understand the copyright file and the implications that modernizing the Copyright Act will have on Canadians. Hopefully Clement can parlé his encouraging views into legislation. It is going to be an uphill battle especially given the immense amount of lobbying that will be taking place in Ottawa over copyright. In fact it would appear that the industry lobbyists have already resorted to pulling out their big guns for this showdown:

Surprise memo of the month from my staff: “U2′s manager Paul McGuinness wrote you. Bono wants to talk to you about copyright”

A tweet from James Moore (the second half of the copyright reform file) this morning indicates that he received a request from U2′s manager to speak with Bono about copyright. Yes, the same Bono that wrote the infamous New York Times op-ed about saving the world by ratcheting up protection for intellectual property.

Yes Canada, it’s like déjà vu all over again. This Government has once again committed themselves to tackling this pesky copyright thingy. In today’s Speech from the Throne it took Governor General Michaëlle Jean just 14.5 minutes out of 60 some-odd minutes to mention copyright and the direction this Government will take to update Canada’s Copyright Act:

To fuel the ingenuity of Canada’s best and brightest and bring innovative products to market, our Government will build on the unprecedented investments in Canada’s Economic Action Plan by bolstering its Science and Technology Strategy. It will launch a digital economy strategy to drive the adoption of new technology across the economy. To encourage new ideas and protect the rights of Canadians whose research, development and artistic creativity contribute to Canada’s prosperity, our Government will also strengthen laws governing intellectual property and copyright.

In terms of copyright and its implications, this was essentially a carbon copy of the Speech from the Throne delivered by this same Government on Nov. 18, 2009.

With approximately 100 sitting days scheduled for the House of Commons to be in session before the summer recess, one gets the inkling that Canadians are going to see an Act to Amend the Copyright Act hit the Order Paper and most likely First Reading before the MP’s retreat to the summer BBQ circuit.

When it comes to copyright reform in Canada battle lines have been clearly drawn, on the one side we have the ‘blame Canada’ corporate lobbyists, shills and lawyers versus those of sound mind, i.e. consumers, esteemed members of academia, lawyers with sound reasoning and tech industry coalitions. Just who truly has the ear of Government will remain to be seen in the next 100 days and beyond. However, if Bill C-60 and Bill C-61 are any indications consumers are going to be in for a rough ride as distributors will continue to push for locked down content and legislation to protect their imposed locks.

Even if this government comes to its senses and crafts a truly balanced copyright bill, Canada, and the rest of the developed world for that matter, have the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) looming over their heads. This secretly negotiated trade agreement represents a particularly vile form of policy laundering that if enacted, threatens to override Canada’s domestic copyright policy, reformed or otherwise. ACTA seeks to provide an unprecedented level of control to ISP’s, pseudo-law enforcement and content distributors to dictate how, when and where consumers can access content and associated products in the high tech economy. Yes, folks be afraid, be very afraid.

It appears that the American arm of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is keenly interested in ‘circumventing’ Canada’s domestic copyright regime, reformed or otherwise, by employing the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). On September 23, 2009 a meeting of the U.S./EU IPR Enforcement Working Group took place in Washington DC, attended by the old guard: private sector industry reps and lobby groups. The listed objectives were as follows:

• To promote enforcement
• To fight piracy and counterfeits
• To promote public & private partnerships on piracy and counterfeits

Both the U.S. and EU governments and industry representatives shared concerns on IPR enforcement in Canada. ESA representatives went on to suggest that ACTA be used as a means of “raising the bar” in Canada to force Canadian government to respect TPMs and uphold its IPR commitments. U.S. representatives responded by stating that they expect all parties involved in ACTA to uphold the provisions put forth in the agreement, and will not accommodate the “lowest common denominator.”

It now appears that even if Canada modernizes its copyright regime to meet its international obligations, ACTA could be used to ‘circumvent’ domestic copyright laws and tip the balance between consumer and creator rights in favour of distributors, lobby groups and litigious-happy lawyers. While the Canadian government has been open with their public consultations on copyright reform, Canadians are left wondering how and why ACTA, an agreement which threatens to supersede the domestic Copyright Act, is so secretive and non-transparent.

With less than 5 days remaining in the Canadian Government’s consultations on copyright reform (ends Sep 13, 2009) all Canadians are encouraged to speak out this crucial issue now while the opportunity exists. To that end the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights has updated its position on copyright reform in Canada (PDF). This position statement has also been formally submitted to the consultations on copyright reform.

The CCER physically mails a copy of every letter submitted via our letter wizard to each of the ministers responsible for copyright reform in Canada

TorrentFreak has posted an article entitled: Prevent Canada from Becoming a Copyright Police State. In this article, Ernesto details how the old guard of corporate interests and lobby groups are threatening to direct copyright legislation in such a way to protect their antiquated and outmoded business models.

Well, TorrentFreak appears to have struck an especially sensitive chord amongst Canadians as the CCER has seen a tremendous boost in its Letter Writing Wizard submissions. Less than 24 hours ago @copyrightcanada tweeted “We’ve received over 1000 formal submissions!” Since this tweet went out CCER has received more than 1300 submissions to the official consultations on copyright via our letter writing wizard, more than doubling the number of submissions to the Government consultations on copyright thus far.

Although it is the middle of summer, and the Government’s Copyright Consultation website has not been well advertised and the Round Tables have been criticized as closed door and imbalanced, the opinions and passion of average Canadians cannot be ignored.

As a consumer of digital media and electronics you stand to be greatly impacted by changes to Canada’s copyright regime. Fortunately, the Government wants to hear from consumers and creators alike so that the interests of all Canadians can be taken into account. Until September 13, 2009 you can participate in the recently launched government consultations on copyright by visiting www.copyrightconsultation.ca and registering for an upcoming townhall meeting, webcast or by making a submission via email.

If we do not voice our concerns en masse we run the risk of having a draconian system of copyright rules imposed upon us. Imagine living in a country where corporations dictate how you consume information and media and utilize technology. Canadians need to speak out against such proposals and push for greater flexibility in the law to provide a balanced, fair approach on digital reforms. To that end, Michael Geist has just launched www.speakoutoncopyright.ca. The site is designed to inform and help foster greater participation by bringing together online discussion (ie. the Twitter #copycon stream), postings, videos, news reports, etc.

The Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights has also updated its letter wizard allowing you to easily submit your concerns in both official languages directly to the government copyright consultations as well as those minsters responsible for modernizing Canada’s Copyright Act.

En tant que consommateur de médias numériques et électroniques, vous serez directement affectés par les changements du régime de droit d’auteur canadien. Heureusement, le gouvernement désire entendre la voix des consommateurs et des créateurs, afin que les intérêts de tous les canadiens soient pris en compte. Jusqu’au 13 septembre 2009, vous pouvez participer à la consultation publique sur les droits d’auteur que le gouvernement vient de débuter, en visitant le site http://droitdauteur.econsultation.ca. Vous pouvez aller en personne dans les assemblées publiques ou être présent durant les diffusions en simultané sur le web, ou à tout le moins exprimer votre position par un message ou email.

Si nous n’envoyons pas un message clair au gouvernement en exprimant notre opinion, nous risquons de nous faire imposer un système de droits d’auteur draconien: Imaginez vivre dans un pays où les corporations seraient en mesure de dicter comment vous pouvez utiliser vos médias et les technologies qui s’y rattachent…. Les canadiens doivent se lever pour s’opposer à l’approche proposée dans la réforme des droits d’auteurs, et exiger des lois flexibles pour un obtenir un juste équilibre. À cette fin, Michael Geist a fait le lancement du site www.speakoutoncopyright.ca. Ce site ontient une foule de renseignements et encourage les participants à discuter en ligne (par le flux Twitter #copycon), rapporter des nouvelles, écrire des commentaires, poster des videos, etc.

La coalition canadienne pour les droits numérique a aussi mis à jour la lettre que vous pouvez envoyer en français ou en anglais, directement au comité de consultation des droits d’auteurs et aux ministres responsables de la modernisation des droits d’auteurs canadiens.

As Stephen Harper tries to stem the tide of his waning support, we finally see the much anticipated Conservative platform. (Yes Mr Layton, it’s not under his sweater vest anymore). Although littered with the usual political jargon and electioneering, the Fair Copyright for Canada group, and for that matter all Canadians should pay particular attention to Page 14:

“A re-elected Conservative Government led by Stephen Harper will reintroduce federal copyright legislation that strikes the appropriate balance among the rights of musicians, artists, programmers and other creators and brings Canada’s intellectual property protection in line with that of other industrialized countries, but also protects consumers who want to access copyright works for their personal use.

We will also introduce tougher laws on counterfeiting and piracy and give our customs and law enforcement services the resources to enforce them. This will protect consumers from phoney and sometimes dangerous products that are passed off as reliable brand-name goods.”

So where does this leave us? Unless Dion can continue to pull the entire rabbit out of his hat and gain additional seats or if hell freezes over and the left can find some way to form a coalition, we’re going to be right back where we left off. A Conservative minority government with lobby and special interests calling the shots. All right Geist et al looks like after a short reprieve we’re heading back into the fire.