SOPA-style Amendments Dropped From C-11; DRM Provisions Not 50
New submitter Ashenkase writes "Michal Geist reviews what stayed and what was rejected by the Bill C-11 Committee Review. Looks like SOPA-style amendments are dropped except Digital Locks. There is still a chance for Canadians to have their voices heard before third reading: 'The Bill C-11 legislative committee concluded its clause-by-clause review yesterday as eight government amendments were added to the bill and all opposition amendments were defeated. The amendments included an expanded enabler provision and some modest tinkering to other elements of the bill. There are still several steps needed before the bill passes including third reading at the House of Commons, Senate review, and ultimately royal assent, but Canadian copyright reform is well on its way to completion before the summer starts. In the days leading up to the clause-by-clause review, many focused on three key issues: no SOPA-style amendments such as website blocking or warrantless disclosure of information, maintaining the fair dealing balance found in the bill, and amending the digital lock provisions. By that standard, the changes could have been a lot worse. The government expanded the enabler provision, though not as broadly as CIMA requested. Virtually all other copyright lobby demands — website blocking, notice-and-takedown, iPod tax, copyright term extension, disclosure of subscriber information — were rejected. Moreover, the provisions supported by consumer and education groups including user generated content protection, time shifting, format shifting, backup copies, Internet provider liability, and statutory damages reform were left untouched. This represents a major victory for the many Canadians and groups such as Open Media that spoke out on these issues.'"
Re:"a chance for Canadians to have their say" (Score:4, Informative)
I voiced my complaint to my local representative and got back a form letter that said basically everyone who read the legislation is wrong and C-11 is nothing but puppy dogs and unicorns.
Response from Gary Goodyear, P.C., M.P. (Score:4, Informative)
Dear Anonymous Coward,
Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the Lawful Access tools in our proposed legislation. I am always happy to respond to the questions and concerns of my constituents.
Our Government is strongly committed to ensuring that Canadians’ rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are respected.
The new lawful access tools proposed in our legislation will not derogate from existing safeguards and privacy protections. The need to respect a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy, as protected under the Charter, always guides law reform. Such authority will continue to be exercised bearing in mind privacy rights under other legislation, such as the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
Police will still be required to obtain judicial authorizations in order to obtain information under our legislation and law enforcement agencies will not be able to intercept private communications or obtain transmission data without being authorized to do so by law. Let me be very clear: the police will not be able to read emails or view web activity unless they obtain a warrant issued by a judge.
While technology has advanced significantly over the past four decades, the legal frameworks and investigative tools available to the police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) have not kept pace with this evolution. This proposed legislation would provide law enforcement and CSIS with the modern investigative tools they need to help fight crime and thwart national security threats.
The investigative tools created in this legislation preserve existing safeguards, such as requirements for warrants, court authorizations or other lawful authority to target specified communications. They are time-limited, and nothing put forward in the proposed legislation would reduce the existing safeguards.
Thank you again for taking the time to write regarding this issue. If you have any further questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact my office.
Yours sincerely,
Hon. Gary Goodyear, P.C., M.P.
Cambridge-North Dumfries
Re:"a chance for Canadians to have their say" (Score:5, Informative)
For the most part, C-11 is puppy dogs and unicorns. Remember that Star Wars reedit which made slashdot a few days ago? It wasn't released, copyright concerns and all... C-11 is supposed to update copyright law to reflect changes in technology. One of those technology changes is low cost and widely available production/editing software and equipment, and so one C-11's updates is to make use of copyrighted content in private noncommercial projects (like that Star Wars reedit) explicitly legal.
I've read the entire bill, and as far as I can tell the only bad thing about it is the digital locks provision, which is just a small part. If your complaint was about how awful C-11 was and SOPA this and SOPA that, like almost all of the criticisms I've seen, then they were right. C-11 is not and has never been anything close to resembling SOPA, and with the conclusion of the legislative committee, it will continue to be nothing like SOPA.
The digital locks provision certainly is distasteful, but it's hard to take criticisms of a bill seriously which fail to demonstrate more than a passing acquaintance with its actual contents.
SOPA was never in to begin with. (Score:4, Informative)