Millions of Canadians speak out
p2p news / p2pnet: Many of Canada’s leading digital security companies, including Third Brigade, Certicom, VE Networks, and Borderware Technologies, have issued a public letter to Ministers Bernier and Oda on copyright reform.
The letter, signed by Brian O’Higgins (widely regarded as a world leader in authentication and digital security issues as a founder of Entrust and Third Brigade) makes a powerful case for why anti-circumvention legislation would be harmful to these innovative Canadian companies. Moreover, the letter closes by noting that:
“In our view, debates over copyright policy have focused myopically on the demands of the multinational content industry, and not enough on Canada’s needs for laws that foster innovation and security in a digital environment. Canadian innovators rely on the unacceptably narrow defence of fair dealing for the legality of reverse engineering and security research. Our American competitors face no such uncertainty with respect to the broader US defence of fair use, which clearly captures reverse engineering. It is time to address this competitive disadvantage by harmonizing fair dealing with fair use.”
By my count, in the past two months we have seen Canadian musicians, artists, students, librarians, privacy commissioners, museums, and now security companies all speak out against anti-circumvention legislation.
I don’t know what the Conservative minority government will ultimately do with the copyright file, but I do know that when dozens of organizations representing millions of Canadians speak out on this issue, the days of one-sided arguments from the copyright lobby are over.
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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Also See:
issued a public letter – Tech firms protest ‘extreme’ copyright, June 22, 2006
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June 24th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
“I don’t know what the Conservative minority government will ultimately do with the copyright file, but I do know that when dozens of organizations representing millions of Canadians speak out on this issue, the days of one-sided arguments from the copyright lobby are over.”
…but will they listen to us?
June 25th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Maybe .. What’s in your wallet ?
June 27th, 2006 at 12:45 am
Exactly – as an Australian – the latest State of the United States – do you actually think your copyright law is going to come from your government…. The USA will just tie it to a trade agreement.