IP: Canadian "DMCA" in the Works - Short Deadline

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>ALERT: Canadian "DMCA" in the Works - Short Deadline
>
>   Tell Canada to Reject Anti-Technology Bans
>
>     Electronic Frontier Foundation ACTION ALERT
>
>     (Issued: Friday, September 7, 2001 / Deadline: Saturday, September 15,
>     2001)
>
>     Introduction:
>
>    Canadian citizens, and others, are urged to contact the Canadian
>    government and express their opposition to legislation, similar to the
>    Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the U.S., that would outlaw
>    circumvention of technological restrictions put in place by copyright
>    holders. The Canadian government is accepting public comment until
>    September 15, 2001 on its proposed "Consultation Paper on Digital
>    Copyright Issues" which considers such measures.
>
>    These anti-technology bans violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and
>    Freedom's guarantee of freedom of speech, and similar guarantees in
>    the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, since such tools are
>    necessary to exercise lawful uses, including fair use. They would turn
>    scientists, fair users, journalists, programmers, and archivists into
>    criminals. While protecting copyright is important, passing measures
>    that also censor much lawful speech goes too far, without ever
>    achieving its objective.
>
>    Canada is considering adopting anti-circumvention legislation in
>    response to the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) 1996
>    Copyright Treaty. This treaty, however, does not require enacting
>    national legislation that outlaws technology with many lawful uses.
>    Given the dismal US experience with the DMCA, other countries should
>    learn from and steer clear of the U.S. Congress's mistake.
>
>     What YOU Can Do:
>
>    EFF calls upon the citizens of Canada, and other interested parties
>    around the world, to submit comments by Sept. 15, urging the Canadian
>    agency Intellectual Property Policy Directorate to remove the
>    provisions of the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues that
>    outlaw the act of circumvention and forbid providing tools for
>    circumvention of technological protection measures restricting use of
>    copyrighted works.
>
>    Comments, to be received by the government by September 15, 2001,
>    should be submitted to:
>
>    Comments - Government of Canada Copyright Reform
>    c/o Intellectual Property Policy Directorate
>    Industry Canada
>    235 Queen Street
>    5th Floor West
>    Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5 Canada
>    fax: (613) 941-8151
>    copyright-droitdauteur@ic.gc.ca (text, HTML, WordPerfect and MSWord
>    formats accepted)
>
>     Sample Letter:
>
>    This is just an example. It will be most effective if you send
>    something similar but in your own words.
>
>      To Industry Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the
>      Intellectual Property Policy Directorate and other concerned
>      agencies:
>
>      I write to express my grave concern regarding the extreme
>      intellectual property provisions of the Consultation Paper on
>      Digital Copyright Issues (CPCDI).
>
>      These measures, based on the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act
>      (DMCA), give far too much power to publishers, at the expense of
>      indivdiuals' rights. The DMCA itself is already under legal
>      challenge in the US, has gravely chilled scientists' and computer
>      security researchers' freedom of expression around the world for
>      fear of being prosecuted in the US, and resulted in the arrest of a
>      Russian programmer. The CPDCI provisions, which serve no one but
>      (largely American) corporate copyright interests, are just as
>      overbroad as those of the DMCA.
>
>      These provisions would amend the Canadian Copyright Act to ban,
>      with few or no exceptions, software and other tools that allow copy
>      prevention technologies to be bypassed. This would violate the
>      Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee of freedom of speech, and
>      similar guarantees in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
>      since such tools are necessary to exercise lawful uses, including
>      fair use, reverse engineering, computer security research and many
>      others.
>
>      I urge you to remove these controversial and anti-freedom
>      provisions from the CPDCI language. The DMCA is already an
>      international debacle. Its flaws should not be imported and forced
>      on Canadians.
>
>      Sincerely,
>      [Your full name]
>      [Your address]
>
>     Background:
>
>    For more information about the Canadian Copyright Act amendment
>    process, including the proposed digital copyright measures and how
>    Canadian citizens can become involved, see the following Web site:
>      http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/rp01100e.html
>
>     About EFF:
>
>    The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties
>    organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded
>    in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and
>    government to support free expression, privacy, and openness in the
>    information society. EFF is a member-supported organization and
>    maintains one of the most linked-to Web sites in the world:
>      http://www.eff.org
>
>     Contact:
>
>      Will Doherty, EFF Online Activist / Media Relations
>      wild@eff.org
>      +1 415 436 9333 x111
>
>      Robin Gross, EFF Intellectual Property Attorney
>      robin@eff.org
>      +1 415 436 9333 x112
>
>                                   - end -



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