p2p news / p2pnet:- Bill C-60 to be referred to a legislative committee, not Heritage or Industry

I received the following reply to a letter I sent to Hon. Tony Valeri, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons.

Dear Mr. McOrmond:

On behalf of the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Tony Valeri, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your correspondence dated July 27th, 2005, concerning the study and implementation of Bill C-60, An Act to amend the Copyright Act.

As you are aware, Bill C-60 was introduced and read for the first time in the House of Commons on June 20th, 2005 by the Honourable Liza Frulla, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for Status of Women. As you may be aware, given the complexity and the magnitude of this issue, we intend to refer the bill to a legislative committee, rather than to the Heritage or Industry committees.

Since the issue you raise falls within the purview of the Honourable David Emerson, Minister of Industry, and the Honourable Liza Frulla, I have taken the liberty of forwarding your correspondence to them for information and consideration.

Thank you again for your interest in this matter.

Yours sincerely,
Janice Oliver
Directory of Parliamentary Affairs
c.c.: The Hounourable Mauril Bélanger, P.C., M.P.
Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Jonathan Nagle
Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage
Ms. Janice Nicholson
Office of the Minister of Industry

For reference, below is the letter I sent.

Dear Hon. Tony Valeri, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Copy to: Hon. Mauril Bélanger, Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

In the Frequently Asked Questions document that was sent to MPs about Bill C-60 it states that the decision of which parliamentary committee will consider C-60 is decided by Leader of the Government in the House of Commons.

(Question 14) http://www.digital-copyright.ca/billc60/fromgov/questions_and_answers_e.pdf

Those of us actively involved in copyright reform have noticed that the members of the Heritage committee have not been open to the wider implications of the legislation they are contemplating. They also seem inadequately familiar with technology to be able to evaluate the false and otherwise misleading claims of certain providers of technologies which are being given legal protection under this bill.

While copyright is often as cultural policy, the proposals in C-60 are primarily economic in nature. While the incumbent content and “software manufacturing” industries claim the bill is about “stopping copyright infringement”, those of us who are harnessing new methods of production, creation and funding of creativity and innovation recognize that the current proposals are really about “stopping competition”.

This policy protects the incumbent production, creation and funding models from necessary modernization and transformative change (See “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, by Clayton M. Christensen).

There is a conflict of interest with having the same department and committee responsible for funding arts (Heritage) also being responsible for the economic policy that governs this sector. This creates a bias towards the interests of groups and existing “Super Stars” with existing relationships with the department, and create a bias against newer creators. This is especially true of new methods that don’t demand large grants from the government.

The Industry Minister is defined as the Minister of Industry (Section 2, Definitions). This is except for section 44.1 (Importation of certain copyright works prohibited) where the Minister is the Minister of National Revenue.

As competition policy and other critically important economic and technology policy considerations are best understood Industry Canada and Industry Committee, it is extremely important that the bill be referred to Industry, Natural Resources, Science and Technology (INDU).

Thank you.
Russell McOrmond
http://www.flora.ca/#contact

Russell McOrmond – p2pnet contributing editor
[McOrmond is an independent author (software and non-software) who uses modern business models and licensing (Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Creative Commons).]

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