Canadian Copyright

Canadians are upset about new copyright laws that are supposed to bring the country up to date in this area. A bill, with the title - made in Canada copyright reform - was introduced the lower house recently. Those incensed by the bill claim that the government of Ottawa are giving into American corporate pressure.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2279647.htm

There has been ‘considerable and aggressive online dissent ion about the changes’, with Facebook adding to 60,000 members of concerned citizens.

Professor Michael Geist, Canada research chair in Internet and E- commerce law at the University of Ottawa believes that despite the conservatism of the current Harper government, it will have to take notice of this voice of dissent. The Canadian voter, he points out, is online, with 7 million Facebook accounts in a population of 32 million. But he thinks it is necessary for the public to express their awareness to the wider community and campaign to elected officials.

Professor Geist says that the Harper Government made it clear, before they came to government 2 and a half years ago, that it would support ties with the US government. However, the Canadian business community has met the legislation with mixed feelings. There is ‘certainly support from many of these groups largely the Canadian branch groups for American industry’, but some record labels have recorded their support, while others oppose. ‘Some Hollywood interests are in favour of this, the documentary film makers are not’ and educators are also spilt in their opinion.

According to Professor Geist, the new legislation will hurt the community. He says it the laws will make it illegal to circumvent on Cds, DVDs, electronic book. This will mean that copying a movie from a DVD, a song from CD, or a television program, will become 'an act of infringement'. He agrees this as an everyday act for most Canadians; this will make most members of the community criminals.

Professor Geist believes the legislation would also affect the countries Internet economy for both individuals and businesses such as software developers. Developers, he says, depend on ‘openness’ within their business to realise new ideas. He says the new legislation would send mixed messages – encouraging the market through protection while ‘discouraging greater openness and flexibility’.

Professor Geist believes a fairer alternative to the legislation would ‘include some protection for these digital locks’ while still maintaining ‘some of the potential fair dealing and permitted usage’. He uses New Zealand’s copyright laws as an example.

Another issue is that many people have discovered that these laws ‘unenforceable’, as people will tend just to ignore them and Professor Geist does not feel that the government will be looking in people’s homes. But he warns they will hurt schools and universities, which will feel bound to follow copyright law. He says this will be limiting to both teachers and students.

While it is illegal in Australia to do much the same thing in terms of copying such materials, it does not seem to have affected our school system as devastatingly as this Canadian legislation would. Recently, I knew of a young student downloaded part of the Empirical March from the Star Wars films for an assignment and this was considered appropriate by the school. It seems that if the legislation goes through in Canada, students may be very limited to what they can use within schoolwork. Schooling is affected by the technologically saturated world we live in, and many take this for granted. It is not until our freedom to use such technology is threatened that we see how much of our lives revolves around it. In my personal opinion intellectual copyright should be open for educational and creative purposes, but with an eye to protecting those who earn the profit from such goods, and which without could not continue the work that we enjoy. It seems like a fine balance, but one which the Canadian government may need to readdress without Big Brother looking over its shoulder.