Jim Prentice Wishes People Wouldn't Be So Specific In Their Questions Over Canadian Copyright Law

Thu, Jun 12th 2008 10:35am

Filed Under:
anti-circumvention, canada, copyright, dmca, jim prentice

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Canadian DMCA Introduced (Finally); Pretends US Lobbyists Had Nothing To Do With It

from the 51st-state dept

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Originally slated for the end of last year, an uproar from tens of thousands of concerned citizens in Canada, made Industry Minister Jim Prentice delay the bill. He insisted that he would listen to constituents and open the process up to make sure the bill achieved the right balance -- except that no open discussions were ever held. Instead, he apparently looked to add a few "consumer friendly" provisions to the bill, legalizing things that should be perfectly legal anyway (time-shifting, ability to move songs you purchased to an iPod) and then kept all the bad things. After trying to sneak it through last week, the bill was delayed briefly. However, with Prentice promising the entertainment industry that the bill would be released before summer, he was running out of time.

And, indeed, this morning the bill was finally introduced. It's pretty much as bad as you would expect. It includes a DMCA-like anti-circumvention clause and fines of $500 to $20,000 for any unauthorized content you may have. Existing law already had similar fines, but the new law basically expands what you may get fined for. The law also does provide safe harbors for service providers (a good thing) including a "notice-and-notice" provision, rather than an American-style "notice-and-takedown" system (i.e., when informed of infringement, the service providers just need to inform the user, rather than immediately take down the content). Those make sense, but are drowned out by other problems with the bill. Prentice is pushing the angle that this bill is a "made-in-Canada" law, which is pretty laughable, since everyone knows that it was pretty much written by US industry lobbyists.

Even the supposedly "pro-consumer" parts of the bill (which weren't in the original version) have a lot of questionable fine print. And, of course, it looks like Prentice is using some procedural tricks to try to get the bill fast-tracked with as few opportunities to change it as possible. Hopefully, the expectations by some that this bill will be left to die come true. While there may be elements of Canada's copyright law that need updating, creating a mini-DMCA is hardly a step in the right direction.

Politics

Wed, Jun 4th 2008 10:33pm

Filed Under:
canada, copyright, dmca, jim prentice, michael geist, wikipedia

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Canadian DMCA Hide And Seek -- With Bonus Wikipedia Edits

from the where'd-it-go--now dept

Despite the expectations that the new Canadian DMCA would be released Wednesday, it appears that the bill's introduction has been delayed as the guy behind it, Jim Prentice, figures out what to do. Some reports note that Prentice apparently promised the recording industry that the bill would be introduced before the summer, which seems fairly ridiculous. Why should he promise one industry anything -- especially when there's so much consumer and business opposition to the bill? In the meantime, though, while not introducing the bill, it does appear that folks in Prentice's office have been busy scrubbing Wikipedia to make sure this controversy isn't on Prentice's page.

Politics

Mon, Jun 2nd 2008 1:29pm

Filed Under:
canada, copyright, dmca, jim prentice, michael geist

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It's Baaaaaack. Canadian DMCA On The Way

from the if-you-wait-long-enough,-maybe-people-will-forget dept

You may recall that last fall, Michael Geist notified the world that the Canadian government was about to announce a Canadian version of the DMCA, that was effectively a Hollywood wishlist of unnecessary copyright controls. The politician in charge of pushing this through, Jim Prentice, thought that he could get it approved quietly with no one noticing -- figuring that copyright is a boring subject that no one cares about. He was wrong. Thanks to Geist shining some sunlight on the bill, tens of thousands of individuals suddenly became quite vocal in opposition to the bill -- and even a bunch of big Canadian companies came out against the bill. Prentice delayed the bill, insisting that he would listen to consumer and business concerns... though there were never any open hearings or public discussions.

Instead, it looks like Prentice made a very minor change in the bill (allowing "time shifting") and then has waited for a convenient time to re-release the bill. It's expected that the bill will once again be introduced this coming Wednesday (just before Prentice is set to leave town). Once again, Michael Geist has all the details including what the likely talking points are in support of the bill... and why they're totally bogus. It sounds like Prentice is going to stick to the entirely false claim that Canada needs to approve this bill to meet its "international obligations" as found in various treaties it's signed. This is a common trick used by the entertainment industry and politicians to justify bad legislation. But, as Geist notes, Canada already is in compliance with the treaty in question. It's too bad Canada didn't follow the lead of other countries in standing up for the rights of its consumers.

In the meantime, as Geist notes, Prentice seems to think that this particular bill will sneak through again without much opposition. It's surprising that he thinks that, given what happened last time. But, if he's going to think people forget things that quickly, perhaps its time for Canadian citizens to make it clear that they don't forget, and they don't appreciate Prentice selling out their basic rights to folks in Hollywood who are too lazy to update their obsolete business models.

Politics

Thu, Feb 28th 2008 3:18am

Filed Under:
canada, copyright, dmca, jim prentice