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COPYRIGHT REFORM PROCESS
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Submission from David Robillard received on July 28, 2001 4:00 PM via e-mail
Subject: Copyright Reform
I recently heard news of the Canadian government's plan to "reform" our Copyright law in order to imitate the US's DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act).
Almost all of the DMCA is a terrible breach of Fair Use and other rights (Free Speech in particular), but the circumvention device bans are the most problematic. The reasons behind all the problems are (far) to large for the scope of this message, but a search of the Internet with the term "DMCA" will turns up thousands of facts and cases presented by law professionals and the public alike.
The technology most associated with the DMCA is DVD movies. Most people don't know this, but you do not even have the right to ACCESS (not just distrubte) the movie that you thought you bought. By doing so, you can be thrown in jail for using a 'circumvention device'. Therefore, if you try to use, say, a 5 second clip of a movie for a school report, you can (and likely will if the MPAA catches air of it) be jailed for a ridiculous amount of time.
Obviously the DMCA contradicts Fair Use rights, and it also has sever negative implications for Free Speech, as is evident by the recent arrest of Russian citizen Dmitry Sklyarov for SPEAKING about encryption on Adobe products. The Americans have completely invalidated their Constitution, I hope we Canadians will not make a mockery of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well.
Any Canadian political party that pushes this imitation of America's unconstitutional laws will NEVER get my vote for the rest of my life, regardless of the other issues at hand. From reading various discussion sites on the Internet, I can tell you that many Canadians feel the same way.
I hope that Canada can lead the way in promoting the Internet's benefits, rather than try to buckle it down and destroy it for the benefit of a few corporations with flawed business models. There is no such thing as a right to profit, there is such a thing as a right to Free Speech.
On a side note, with all the recent political upheavals, I feel it neccesary to point out that I am not "anti-business" and believe Capitalism, done right (as Canada has more or less done) is by far the best economic model. On par with that, I believe that when I buy something, it is mine to use as I please. If I "buy" something, but it doesn't really belong to me and I can't use it, what have I payed for?
I would appreciate a (short) aknowledgement of my comments to confirm that they have been recieved, otherwise I shall send a letter.
Thank you,
Dave Robillard
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