What You Had...And What You'll Have

 Industry Minister James Moore speaks out about on copyright reform, and "extremists" that are against it. Moore claims the new copyright law (Bill C-11) will be beneficial to our economy (because the United States has been pushing for Canada to tighten up copyright laws) and will kill piracy. However, the anti-circumvention law just provides a means so that copyright holders can keep profiting from the resales of their products, making us pay for them again, after we own them. But, this will not stop piracy, and it may in fact stifle innovation and create less exposure for creators and artists-which in turn may actually hurt out economy. Moore claims in his speech that people who are against the implementation of Bill C-32 (now Bill C-11) are fear mongers, who are against copyright reform whatsoever, and must be silenced, essentially. This is funny, because he is the one creating fear here, fear of any opposing opinion. He outlines only the good parts of the bill, hoping we will overlook the fact that the anti-circumvention provisions actually take away our rights as consumers and hands over control to copyright holders.

According to a CBC report covering the story, this is what Bill C-11 will do to modernize our copyright law and give more balanced rights to both copyright holders and consumers:

• The express legalization of format shifting, or the copying of content from one device to another, such as a CD to a computer or an iPod.
• The express legalization of time shifting, or recording television programs for later viewing but not for the purposes of building up a library.
• Allowing consumers to make a back-up copy of content to protect against loss or damage.
• A YouTube clause that allows people to mash up media under certain circumstances, as long as it's not for commercial gain.
• A "notice-and-notice" system where copyright holders will inform internet providers of possible piracy from their customers. The ISP would then be required to notify the customer that he or she was violating the law. The violator's personal information could then be released to the copyright holder with a court order.
• ISPs and search engines would be immune from the copyright violations of their users.
• A differentiation of commercial copyright violation versus individual violation. Individuals found violating copyright law could be liable for penalties between $100 and $5,000, which is below the current $20,000 maximum.
• New exceptions to fair dealing that will allow copyright violations for the purposes of parody, satire and education.

BUT, the part of the law regarding the breaking of digital locks would mean you  could have NONE of these rights. The bill would make it illegal for a person to crack a digital lock placed on a device, disc or file.So, it says you can copy a CD for personal use, the copyright holder could place a digital lock on that CD and it would become illegal for you to do so. So, essentially, the government is putting the power into the hands of corporations and copyright holders to actually dictate and control our online behaviour. A digital lock could be placed on anything-articles, journals, music, video, TV shows, video games...just about anything you currently download online. Please let you opinion be known to our government and visit 

http://openmedia.ca/copyright to have your say, and sign our online petition at 
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/copyrightorcopyfight/