ARCHIVED — Graydon
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COPYRIGHT REFORM PROCESS
SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED REGARDING THE CONSULTATION PAPERS
Documents received have been posted in the official language in which they were submitted. All are posted as received by the departments, however all address information has been removed.
Submission from Graydon Hoare received on July 29, 2001 10:49 PM via e-mail
Subject: Comments - Government of Canada Copyright Reform
As a professional software developer and Canadian, I would like to comment on this proposed reform, in particular the recommendations in section 4.2 (legal protection of technological measures) of the consultation paper on digital copyright issues. I would like to lend agreement to the stated difficulty of drafting policy which on one hand prohibits circumvention devices, while on the other hand permits valid data transmission, publication, analysis or interaction. In my opinion such a distinction is impossible to make clearly in writing, and thus adopting any such device-prohibition laws would have a deeply chilling effect on the software industry in Canada; quite at odds with the public policy objective of encouraging "exciting new software and applications". Canada has for some time been a notably peaceful and litigation-free environment for software development, and this threatens to change dramatically if we follow the US model of prosecuting circumvention technologies rather than acts.
In general, I am pleased to see the consultation paper frame this debate in a context of public policy objectives, in addition to the protection of rights holders. I would like to point out, additionally, the affect of changes to the Copyright Act on the future success of the "Smart Communities" public policy objective, within the government's "Connecting Canadians" program. Witnessing recent proceedings in other jurisdictions, such as the DMCA in the US, it appears that rights holders, understandably pursuing profitable legislation through powerful lobbying, have come away from the bargaining table with more than their fair share of protection. This imbalance undoubtedly costs the public valuable access to educational, medical, and scientific information, by permitting and protecting technologies which unfairly restrict the use of material by the public, such as pay-per-use and/or time-limited "eBooks". It is my hope that the Canadian government, drafting its laws in a less fevered, more reasonable stage of the Internet's evolution, will see clearly that such concessions to rights holders will not be necessary to ensure compliance in the future, and represent an oppressive restriction of the concept of fair use.
In summary, I strongly encourage the Directorate to pursue minimal amendments to the Copyright Act, in order to both ensure the health of the Canadian software industry, and maintain proper balance between rights holders and the public good.
sincerely,
Graydon Hoare
(Address removed)
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