CCA Bul­letin 20/08

June 20 , 2008

Back­ground

On June 12, 2008, the Min­is­ter of Indus­try, the Hon Jim Pren­tice and the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage, the Hon. Josée Verner, tabled pro­posed revi­sions to the Cana­dian Copy­right Act.

Bill C-61 is the first major revi­sion to the Copy­right Act since the ‘90s. The moti­va­tion for reform comes from two sources,

• Canada signed onto a World Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty Orga­ni­za­tion inter­net treaties and has not fully imple­mented the under­tak­ings it made with this agreement,

• Unre­lent­ing pres­sure from the United States and the mass media inter­ests who regard Cana­dian copy­right law as harm­ful to their eco­nomic inter­ests. (This despite the fact that the World Eco­nomic Forum rates Cana­dian copy­right law as being supe­rior to Amer­i­can legislation.)

Revi­sions to the Copy­right Act have always gen­er­ated a lively debate between the inter­ests of cre­ators, copy­right own­ers and user com­mu­ni­ties. This is why Bill C-61 is expected to be one of the most con­tentious pieces of leg­is­la­tion seen in a long time.

While the Min­is­ters asserted that the pro­posed revi­sions rep­re­sent a win-win for both users and copy­right own­ers, the debate around this leg­is­la­tion will be a pro­longed and heated one as seen by the reac­tions of the var­i­ous stake­hold­ers. Many regard Bill C-61 as an attempt to emu­late the Dig­i­tal Mil­len­nium Copy­right Act in the United States which weighs heav­ily towards the inter­ests of pro­duc­ers and man­u­fac­tur­ers to the pur­ported detri­ment of aver­age users of com­mon place tech­nolo­gies such as DVDs, i-pods, CDs and other technologies.

Given the fact that the sum­mer recess of Par­lia­ment is days away, seri­ous work on this leg­is­la­tion by Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans is not expected to get under­way until Fall. A rumour that the Prime Min­is­ter plans to pro­rogue Par­lia­ment may mean that the study of the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion may be pushed even far­ther back.

The CCA will be study­ing this leg­is­la­tion in close con­sul­ta­tion with our mem­bers and part­ners. The leg­is­la­tion is com­plex, as are the impli­ca­tions for cre­ators, copy­right own­ers and aver­age Cana­di­ans. Once this is accom­plished, the Board of the CCA will delib­er­ate both the con­tent and strate­gies related to this impor­tant leg­isla­tive process.

The CCA has always adopted a droit d’auteur approach to Copy­right pol­icy and the Board of the CCA has affirmed that this is the posi­tion it will take for­ward dur­ing the forth­com­ing debates on the pro­posed legislation.

Just the Facts

In the Sum­mary of the Bill, the Gov­ern­ment posi­tions copy­right and the pro­posed revi­sions in the fol­low­ing way:

“Whereas the Copy­right Act is an impor­tant mar­ket­place frame­work law and cul­tural pol­icy instru­ment that, through clear, pre­dictable and fair rules, sup­ports cre­ativ­ity and inno­va­tion and affects many sec­tors of the knowl­edge economy,

Whereas the Gov­ern­ment of Canada is com­mit­ted to enhanc­ing the pro­tec­tion of copy­right works or other subject-matter, includ­ing through the recog­ni­tion of tech­no­log­i­cal mea­sures, in a man­ner that pro­motes cul­ture and inno­va­tion, com­pe­ti­tion and invest­ment in the Cana­dian economy;

Whereas advance­ments in and con­ver­gence of the infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nolo­gies that link com­mu­ni­ties around the world present oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges that are global in scope for the cre­ation and use of copy­right works or other subject-matter.”

The leg­is­la­tion is intended to;

(a) update the rights and pro­tec­tions of copy­right own­ers to bet­ter address the Inter­net, in line with inter­na­tional standards;

(b) clar­ify the lia­bil­ity of Inter­net ser­vice providers;

(c) per­mit cer­tain uses for edu­ca­tional and research pur­poses of Inter­net and other dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies to facil­i­tate technology-enhanced learn­ing, inter-library loans, the deliv­ery of edu­ca­tional mate­r­ial and access to pub­licly avail­able mate­r­ial on the Internet;

(d) per­mit cer­tain uses of copy­right mate­r­ial for pri­vate pur­poses; and

(e) amend pro­vi­sions of the Act relat­ing to pho­tographs to give pho­tog­ra­phers the same rights as other creators.”

Tell Me More

For back­ground infor­ma­tion of the copy­right file, please con­sult CCA’s web­site. If you have spe­cific views on C-61 that you would like to share with the CCA please con­tact us – every opin­ion needs to be aired dur­ing this debate.