Download while you still have the chance!

Yesterday, the Act to Amend the Copyright Act (Bill C-60) was tabled in the House of Commons for its first reading. This amendment has been in the works for about four years and it was hoped it would clear up a lot of ambiguities that are currently in our Copyright Acts. Ideally, copyright works to protects the moral and economic rights of authors of an intellectual work while, at the same time, protecting users and consumers. We, the users in Canada, have enjoyed a mostly satisfactory balance in the past but it seems that this balance will pretty much be done away with when and if the bill passes as it sits. Archivists, educators, and legal scholars have weighed in already and they are pretty much unanimous in their statement that it is the recording industry, first and foremost, that is pleased with the bill (with ISPs and photographers also feeling that their lobbying has not gone unnoticed) - note, that is the recording industry and not recording artists as Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies, apparently, voiced his concerns about whether or not artists would see any benefits from the bill. The copyright law-talking guy Howard Knopf is quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying "It might as well have been called the Canadian Recording Industry of America Act." Among other things, the bill spells out that Internet Service Providers are not liable for the content traveling over their wires and would have them serve notice to potential infringers and keep their personal information on file for 6 months, gives photographers the copyright of the photographs they are commissioned to take (previously it was the commissioning body who had the copyright over the images unless spelled out otherwise in contractual law which overrides copyright), and makes it illegal to circumvent encryption even for non-illegal uses. It gives creators (read: Recording Industry) a great deal of power in controlling who gets their product and how much and how often they are going to pay for it.

What the bill does not do is clear up lingering ambiguities or address many, many concerns of the users. The best thing that has been said about it is that it could be a whole lot worse - such as the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act with is often called Draconian and Soviet. Canada has been placed on the US Watch list for possible intellectual property infringement. This is something of a mark of honour as far as I am concerned. It needs to be understood that copyright should not just be for the authors. Users have rights, too.

The jargon is pretty heavy going (I hate, I hate, I hate legalese) so, if you are interested, check out University of Ottawa prof Michael Geist's website for analysis of the bill and for the implications of what it all means.

So go out and get your fill of mp3s, as the fun isn't going to last for too much longer.
rgsc (with thanks to Loryl for her timely presentation at the ACA is Sask.)