p2pnet - rss feed: Business coalition against Canadian DMCA
p2pnet news | Politics:- When Industry Minister Jim Prentice tries to justify a Canadian DMCA, he frequently claims that the business community is demanding these reforms.
Those claims have now been completely undermined. Sources report that a powerhouse group of companies and business associations in Canada spoke up for fair and balanced copyright.
The Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright includes a who’s who of the telecom, Internet, retail, and broadcast communities. Signatories include the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), Canadian Association of Internet Providers, a division of CATAlliance (CAIP), Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA), Canadian Wireless and Telecommunications Association (CWTA), Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Retail Council of Canada (RCC), Google, Third Brigade, Tucows, Yahoo! Canada, Cogeco Cable, EastLink, MTS Allstream, Rogers Communications Inc., SaskTel, and Telus.
Yes - you just read right - Google, Yahoo!, Rogers, Telus, Cogeco, and dozens of other companies are speaking out as the largest cable companies, largest retailers, largest broadcasters, largest Internet companies, and most of the major telcos have all joined forces to oppose a Canadian DMCA.
What does this new coalition stand for? An excerpt from the proposed package includes:
1. Expanded Fair Dealing - "if Canada is to truly modernize its copyright legislation, then the time has come for Canada to broaden the existing fair dealing rights in the Act by adopting a more flexible approach that is illustrative rather than exhaustive."
2. TPMs - "rules against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by rights owners in connection with the exercise of their rights must not prohibit Canadians from engaging in non-infringing activities."
3. Making Available - "to the extent necessary to meet its WIPO obligations, Canada should introduce only a very narrow exclusive right of making available for those rights owners who need it to protect the legitimate online distribution of their works."
4. Private Copying - "the government should seriously question the continued existence of the private copying regime."
5. Avoid Copyright Liability for Technical Processes - "the Act should be amended to grant broadcasters a full and meaningful exception from the reproduction right, similar to that which exists in most other developed countries."
6. ISP Liability - "as all of Canada’s major trading partners have long recognized, Internet service providers should face no copyright liability when acting as intermediaries."
7. Rational and Effective Enforcement - "while those who infringe copyright on a commercial scale or to the material prejudice of rights holders should be subject to appropriate penalties, courts should have more flexibility to limit damages in circumstances where there is only minimal harm to rights holders resulting from the conduct."
It is difficult to overstate the importance of this new coalition and its support for fair copyright principles. With such an impressive list of backers, the Industry Minister must now surely recognize that his proposed bill is opposed by the very industries that he has promised to support. In the past, I’ve described a Canadian DMCA as anti-education and anti-consumer - it is now unquestionably anti-business as well.
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.]
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February 13th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
How does one sign up???
February 13th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Why can’t I get my comments on here? Some get through, some don’t. I just wrote a piece, clicked submit and the web page refreshed and went to the top, without my comment appearing. Reposting says I’ve made a duplicate comment and won’t allow me to post it. Changing the text a bit doesn’t help, either.
February 13th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
That last one got through, see? But not the one before. Why not and how to fix it?
February 13th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
It’s a WordPress quirk and it happens to me too. Sorry —- I have no idea how to fix it.
Cheers!
February 14th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
“Why not and how to fix it?”
Write you coment on a txt editor fisrt and copy and past. If it does not work you can repeat.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
CRIA says to Jim Prentice, “ignore them, we’re the *real* business”
But seriously, how is MAFIAC going to respond to this?