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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 Dana Echtner received on September 05, 2001 11:05 AM via e-mail
Subject: Don't turn us into the US
I wholeheartedly agree that copyright laws as necessary to protect authors and give them the proper credit/compensation they deserve.
However, the kind of measures that the American DMCA dictates and that you are proposing are in contrary to our basic freedom that we enjoy as Canadian citizens.
In particular, I refer to the section when refer to "prevent the circumvention of technologies used to protect copyright material".
It should not be illegal to write a piece of code that circumvents some kind of security measure. After all, is it illegal to make knives even though they could be used as weapons? Is it illegal to make rat poison even though it could be used to kill people? No. We as citizens of this country have a responisbily to use knives and rat poison responisbly, and we do. The same way we will use those kind of tools responsibly. I should be able to buy an e-book, use Elcomsoft's tool to decrypt it and then enjoy it on my laptop on the way to work, or printed at night in bed.
If I chose to decrypt and then distribute the book then I would be guilty of copyright infringement, and I support the prosecution of individuals who re-distribute copyrighted material without permission.
But trying to pre-emptively limit the development of tools that _could_ be used for illegal purposes is a ridiculous attempt to limit the freedoms of creative minds in our society. Companies should continue to strive to find better way to protect their copyrighted material. We should be allowed to use materials that we have legally purchased in whatever way we see fit as long as existing copyright rules are followed and the rights of the author are respected.
Dana Echtner
Concordia University
Montréal, Québec
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