Canada's DMCA proposal: not great, could be LOTS worse

via Cory @ Boing Boing: Canada's DMCA proposal: not great, could be LOTS worse.

The Canadian government has introduced its draft legislation for a "Canadian DMCA" -- a suite of laws to bring Canadian copyright into harmony with the bad treaties that broke the American copyright system in 1998 with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In many respects, this is vastly superior to the US version -- after seven years of horror stories, it would be criminally stupid for any government to consider a law as bad as the DMCA -- but there are still some substantial problems.

and Michael Geist, the Canadian academic copyright lawyer and columnist, has a great first look at the new proposal here:

The devil will be in the details but this represents a major shift away from the embarrassingly one-sided Canadian Heritage Standing Committee recommendations issued last May. While that report clearly pushed the agenda forward, the government’s response has certainly recognized the need for some balance.

Thanks Cory

Here's what CAN GOV: says, as well as this Statement and FAQ

update: itBusines Canada (aka Computing Canada) comments: Copyright reform plan veers away from U.S. approach

and this is why DMCA and DRM is bad: How DRM will harm the developing world

Tim Bray is noticing in "Calling all Canadians and comments:

If this turns into a futile attempt to shore up failed business models by forcing the development of user-unfriendly technology, I’m not going to take it lying down...With a minority government in Ottawa, we may even get some leverage.

and reminds me of The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (RSS feed now added to the BlogRoll).

More Under the Category:CopyRight/Canada