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Canadian Gov’t Considers Own Version of US’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act

By crooky | May 21, 2008

In the next two weeks, it is likely that the Canadian Minister for Industry, Jim Prentice will introduce a Canadian version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This piece of legislation has been struck down in the past in Canada and has been very controversial in the US.

There are a number of problems with the DMCA in the US but here are the highlights (from the Electronic Frontier Foundation):

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Since they were enacted in 1998, the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”) have not been used as Congress envisioned. Congress meant to stop copyright pirates from defeating DRM restrictions (aka content or copy protections) added to copyrighted works and to ban the “black box” devices intended for that purpose.

In practice, the DMCA and DRM have done nothing to stop “Internet piracy.” Yet the DMCA has become a serious threat that jeopardizes fair use, impedes competition and innovation, chills free expression and scientific research, and interferes with computer intrusion laws. If you circumvent DRM locks for noninfringing fair uses or create the tools to do so, you might be on the receiving end of a lawsuit.

EFF has fought hard against the DMCA in the courts, Congress, and other forums. Learn more through the links below, and take action now to support DMCA reform.

The Church of Scientology has successfully mis-used the DMCA to obliterate its detractors.

The RIAA has used the DMCA to sue (or force into a settlement) innocent people accused of trading MP3s online.

Is this what we really want in Canada? Do we want to empower this kind of strong-arm tactics? If you, like me, think this is a bad idea - Michael Geist has some advice for you on how you can encourage the government to drop this again.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for ten years.

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Topics: Policy, Technology |

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