The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
We Canadians managed to dodge a bullet last week, and many people are not even aware that it was out there looking for us. Industry Minister Jim Prentice was to introduce into the House of Commons a bill that was basically the Canadian equivalent of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that is causing so many problems down in the U.S. Thankfully, through a huge grassroots groundswell of political dissatisfaction led by University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, this bill has been delayed for now and will hopefully never reappear. Copyright issues are huge. In a developed nation such as ours, the protection of artists, authors, musicians, videographers, etc. and their works is of huge importance. But the problem is that the Conservatives were pressured by U.S. industry to adopt the same act that they operate under. The problems with this legislation are many and becoming more important and more obvious all the time. For example, under this act, even with music that you legally own, you would be forbidden to burn it onto CDs to ensure that you have a back-up copy or a copy to use in your vehicle. You would not be permitted to make a copy of something for even private study or research. This means that teachers wanting to record a TV show for classroom use would be breaking the law. This act would also make the act of time-shifting programs by recording them on your satellite's DVR illegal. It would also no longer protect parody as a form of free speech, which would mean that shows like This Hour has 22 Minutes and The Mercer Report would be operating in murky legal waters. Please do not get me wrong. I am all for fair and new copyright laws. I also truly believe that our outdated act in Canada badly needs to be updated to include all of the ways and means that information can be digitally traded. But locking down information and files, not allowing forms of speech that have been protected by Canadian law for years, and also not allowing Canadian consumers to do what they want with their own property is simply wrong. Professor Geist thankfully caught this coming up in the House of Commons a few weeks ago. He blogged about it, wrote about in his Ottawa Citizen column and then started a Facebook group about this issue. Now as much as I hammered on Facebook last week in this column, its power to connect people cannot be denied. This group grew to the point where today, as I write this, it has almost 20,000 members! These people organized protest marches and wrote letters. In only a few weeks, politicians were forced to sit up and take notice. Professor Geist began appearing on news shows and also wrote on his blog a list of 30 things that people can do to make their voices heard. All of this activity over an issue that is usually not very interesting or exciting to Canadians got the notice of many of our politicians and thankfully now the bill has been withdrawn. But that is not to say that it is dead. All the government has promised is that they will take some time to look at the issue more deeply and actually consult with Canadian stakeholders and industry before making any further moves. I urge you to take some time to learn about this issue, read Professor Geist's blog (www.michaelgeist.ca) and take a stand. Tech Notes runs Mondays.
