p2pnet news view | Politics:- Today is the day newly re-anointed Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper will tell us who’ll be acting for, and on behalf of, Hollywood and the corporate music industry for the next little while.

Other than industry minister Jim Prentice, that is. Because today is the day Canadians will learn who’s doing what in the new old government.

And Prentice will keep his portfolio, suggests the Toronto Star, and with Prentice still around, “a copyright reform bill will be back on the agenda,” says Michael Geist, although it will, “presumably take a back seat to more pressing economic concerns”.

However, that doesn’t mean copyright issueswill disappear entirely, Geist (right) states, continuing:

“User groups were outspoken about Bill C-61 after its introduction, yet many of the groups lobbying for DMCA-style reforms were largely silent (other than the initial thanks to the government for introducing the bill). A recent Toronto conference included a panel on copyright that provides some indication of the likely response from those groups once a bill is tabled and goes to committee.

Far from, “thanking the government for anti-circumvention measures that mirror the US DMCA,” it appears likely the groups will, “adopt a strategy of ‘the best defence is a good offence’,” and, “Practically, this will mean that they will argue that the successor to C-61 does not go far enough,” says Geist, ie »»»

• that a making available right should be included.  U.S. courts have recently required evidence of actual distribution for that right to apply, but Canadian groups will argue that this requirement is unnecessary
• that the new distribution right for tangible media should be expanded to cover intangible copies
  
• that the notice-and-notice approach for Internet intermediaries should be replaced with U.S. style notice-and-takedown
  
• that the safe harbour provision for ISPs should be more narrowly constructed
  
• that the search engine safe harbour provision should be more narrowly constructed
  
• that the $500 cap on downloading liability should be scrapped

“The message here is clear,” says Geist, adding:

“For those people that think the bill will be fixed at committee, note that MPs will face a barrage of claims for changes that skew the copyright balance even further. ”

Meanwhile, “those elected officials who think that they will find strong support for a C-61 approach should think again.”

Toronto Star – PM plans big cabinet overhaul, October 30, 2008
Michael Geist – Copyright Lobby Groups Gear Up For Further Reforms, October 29, 2008

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 8:27 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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