GTALUG Position on Bill C11?

[Mike Kallies]

Hello Everyone,

C-11 is The Canadian Government's most recent attempt to live up to
their promise to support the WIPO treaty of 1996.  It's similar to the
previous attempt of Bill C-32, and the one before that, C-60.  With some
exceptions, for GTALUG C11 seems mostly okay.

Canada has agreed to fulfill obligations of the 1996 treaty.  If we
oppose all changes to the current copyright law, we may in the future be
presented with something as ugly as what they have down South.  GTALUG
PAC would like to present a constructive message to our representatives
about GTALUG's position on C-11.

As a member of GTALUG, how does C-11 affect you?  Are there particular
concerns which are not being addressed or protected?

Two concerns were identified by the GTALUG PAC:

For digital locks:  the right to open digital locks to research the
origin of software so as to uncover suspected acts of copyright
infringement *must* be ensured. --  The GPL uses copyright to ensure
that the works we share are always shared.  Digital locks could hide
modified and redistributed works.  If it is impossible or illegal to
break those digital locks to research a suspected act of infringement,
it could mean that it is impossible to identify or prove infringement of
your rights.

C-11 notice-and-notice provisions:  these have measures for alleged
copyright holders to require service providers to forward notifications
of alleged copyright infringement to their customers.  There needs to be
a protection from abuse of this system.   Fees might be one way to do
this, however, 41.26 section 2 makes it unclear as to whether service
providers will be able to pass fees on to the alleged copyright holders
who may be abusing the system.  For this to work, a maximum fee needs to
be set at the time of legislation.


Are there other concerns in the proposed amendments in the copyright act?

Thanks for any input,

-Mike (and the GTALUG PAC)

<http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=5144516&File=9>
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