Canada copyright reform bill
p2pnet news | Politics:- Yesterday’s House of Commons debate featured some discussion on the forthcoming copyright reform bill. Industry Minister Jim Prentice expanded on the government’s plans:
Our government is aware also of the need for copyright reform and that this is essential to ensuring that Canada remains competitive.
We will introduce legislation in the next few months that will provide legal measures for rights holders, clarify the rules relating to copyright as they apply to Internet service providers, address the educational and research use of copyrighted materials and address consumer interests.
No big surprises here – the bill is coming, it may be Industry rather than Heritage that leads, the bill will include DMCA-style provisions (the “legal measures for rights holders”), ISPs will get their safe harbour, and the government may try to curry favour with the provinces with an Internet exception for education.
The inclusion of consumer interests is noteworthy – I’ve argued that the government must surely include a strong consumer package to generate popular support for the bill and this is the first indication that the bill might include such provisions.
Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for the download, and here for details. Click here or here to learn how to by-pass censorship in your area.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
BlogKast says: One way or the other I want clear cut answers.