Canada may be about to get its own anti-circumvention law, akin to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, PaidContent reports. In response to calls from the US entertainment industry to tighten up its copyright enforcement, the Canadian legislature is considering a bill called C-32 which contains such a provision.
The DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision, that prohibits users from cracking digital rights management even to make fair use of devices and media they own, has been a fairly controversial law in Internet circles ever since it was passed. Canada, however, has largely been able to avoid such a law—until now.
The bill does appear to be in a bit of trouble judging by the description here. Canadian copyright reformer Michael Geist notes that all three Canadian opposition parties have registered opposition to the anti-circumvention rules, and the ruling Conservatives will need help from at least one other party to get the act through Parliament.
The anti-circumvention provision criminalizes everything from copying DVDs to unlocking e-books to modding the Playstation 3 to run Linux. The fact that Canada does not have it has long been a big advantage Canadian media purchasers have had over their American brethren. Hopefully this bill’s anti-circumvention rules will fail to pass.
Your news is a little out of date on this, Chris 🙂 This has been an ongoing news item for some months now, with Geist being the go-to for reliable information. Last I heard (from his blog) was that the powers that be were open to negotiating on the digital lock provision because there is no way the bill could get passed this way, and even creator’s groups were opposed. Geist himself has been testifying at hearings.