p2pnet.net News:- Proposed new Canadian copyright legislation could cripple businesses and face IT security researchers and technology developers with civil and criminal lawsuits, says a coalition of Canadian firms.

Legal protection for TPMs (technological protection measures ) is the, “equivalent of making screw-drivers illegal because they can be used to break and enter,” says Bob Young, Canadian co-founder and director of Red Hat, and founder and ceo of Lulu Enterprises.

His remark comes with news that the group today demanded that industry minister David Emerson and heritage minister Liza Frulla safeguard the interests of Canada’s security community with respect to anticipated legislation to amend the Copyright Act.

“Good legislation targets the illegal act, not the legal tools the crook might use,” says Young.

The legislation in question stems from the 1996 Copyright and 1996 Performers and Phonographs treaties, together called as the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Internet treaties, crafted under WIPO auspices.

They call for member states to provide legal protection against the circumvention of TPMs such as the CSS (content scrambling system) used by the entertainment industry to control the types of devices and software that can access DVD content; and, the DRM systems used by Microsoft in its Windows Media Player to control copying and distribution of content files.

Canada is already well-served by laws protecting copyright and, “Outlawing the technological tools - the screw-drivers of the technology community - undermines Canada’s commitment to fostering an economy built on innovation and opportunity,” says Young.

The proposals throw a shroud of legal risk over members’ businesses, “and place crucial security research at risk,” says Brian O’Higgins, Third Brigade cto and coalition spokesman.

“A number of nations have already enacted legislation to implement their anti-circumvention obligations under the WIPO Internet treaties,” says professor David Fewer, legal counsel for CIPPIC, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law.

“The results have been very troubling from a technology perspective.”

The US experience under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the DMCA), America’s implementation of the WIPO Internet treaties, demonstrates that anti-circumvention rights are often used for reasons other than copyright protection, to reduce competition or segment markets, for example, says the coalition, going on:

“More troubling from a public policy perspective, however, are circumvention claims seeking to silence critical security research. Such attempts are at base motivated by a desire to maintain control over security research in respect of particular platforms or applications.”

Canada should be learning from the American experience, not copying it, suggests Fewer, pointing out that the DMCA has had a demonstrably negative impact on security research in the United States.

“The DMCA includes exceptions for security research, and they have proven inadequate and ineffective in protecting security researchers from threats of litigation,” he says. “No one will benefit from the ‘liability chill’ these laws will create.”

Rights holder groups have been actively consulted on this legislation, states the coalition, declaring that the departments have even gone so far as to, “request one rights holder coalition to prepare draft legislation implementing these treaties”

But in direct contrast, the security community has yet to be consulted by the government, it states, adding that it intends to play, “an active role in reviewing any bill ultimately introduced by the government, and to participate in hearings on the legislation”.

You’ll find relevant .pdfs at:

• http://www.cippic.ca/en/news/
• http://www.cippic.ca/en/news/documents/Letter_to_Ministers_Emerson_and_Frulla_from_Security_Business_Community.pdf
• http://www.cippic.ca/en/news/documents/Press_Release_-_Security_Businesses.pdf
• http://www.cippic.ca/en/news/documents/Backgrounders_of_Participants.pdf

(Thanks, Russell)

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