My letter to the federal government re copyright legislation

In light of the recent news that the federal government appears poised to introduce a bill that could make the DMCA look like a twist-tie on a prison cell, I decided to follow Michael Geist's link to send a letter via the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights.

I used the existing form letter, but added a couple of bits of my own just ahead of the last paragraph. I encourage anyone and everyone to submit a letter to the list of government members listed at that page. If you want to send paper copies yourself, remember that postage is not required if you're sending to an MP's office address.

Here is my version:


Dear Ministers,

In the summer of 2009 the Government of Canada held public consultations on copyright and Canadians engaged in those consultations at unprecedented levels.

Unfortunately, it now appears that the Government may be poised to ignore the vast majority of Canadian consultation submissions and proceed with anti-consumer copyright reform legislation. Legislation that would employ strong protection for digital locks, a rejection of flexible fair dealing, and support for specific technologies and business models. Legislation that may indeed be more stifling than the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which, over the course of the last decade, has proven to be a backwards, ill-conceived approach to copyright.

To ignore the input of thousands of Canadian consumers and creators when modernizing Canada’s copyright regime would be irresponsible. Alternatively, I urge this Government to heed what Canadians have told them and only proceed with legislation to reform copyright that is technologically neutral by not integrating protection for specific technologies or business models (e.g., all-encompassing prohibition of circumvention devices and technologies). Legislation that expands and protects fair dealing to ensure Canada has the legal framework to adapt to future business models and new forms of creativity we have yet to discover.

To date, the evidence put forward by industry groups in support of such restrictive legislation, has been shown to grossly overstate (in favour of the industry groups) alleged rates of illegal copying. Even the Conference Board of Canada had to retract their report on the topic once it was exposed that they included rates of alleged illegal copying that could not be substantiated.

In the balance, such restrictive laws would render illegal (for example) the conversion of an electronic book to a form that could be used by a person with visual impairment. In this day and age, we should be looking for ways to be more accessible and inclusive of all our citizens rather than allowing self-serving industry groups to dictate policy in order that, rather than adapt to a new paradigm, they can perpetuate a business model that is archaic in a digital world.

Fortunately, there remains time and opportunity for this Government to reassess its approach on copyright reform and ensure that the input provided by Canadians via public consultations process is taken into full consideration.

Sincerely,