Archived - Pereira, Justin

As a college student who will eventually be creating software for profit, I am sincerely concerned about the direction copyright law has been headed in this country and around the world. It is important to protect the rights of the creators, but in order to ensure the enrichment of our lives and culture it is even more important that individuals be able to have control over the products and services they paid for.

Laws restricting circumvention of digital locks would do more to harm citizens by unfairly controlling how we use our technology. Similarly, having one's internet access revoked or limited due to infringement accusations would be a horrible abuse of the citizen's rights. Hopefully the abuses of the DMCA abroad will act as a warning rather than a precedent for future direction.

As someone who enjoys both consuming and producing creative content I believe it is important that the rights of consumers be protected. Corporations should not be allowed to dictate how Canadians lead their lives simply so they can rearrange the system to their favour at the loss of our freedoms. Creativity will not stem from a system filled with restrictions on how we consume our content.

It is also important that copyright term limits be set at more reasonable levels. It is not unreasonable for a term to be set at around 20–30 years, with a charge to renew every five years until year 40–50 or so. This would allow the work to be exploited for profit for a more than fair period while ensuring that the public can later benefit from better access to the works. The rate at which works are created and consumed is so much faster now than in the past, necessitating and increasing the benefits of shortening the term limits.

Thank you,

Justin Pereira