ARCHIVED — Darin Christopher Sunley
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COPYRIGHT REFORM PROCESS
SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED REGARDING THE CONSULTATION PAPERS
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Submission from Darin Christopher Sunley received on September 8, 2001 PM via e-mail
Subject: Public Comment on Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues
To the Department of Canadian Heritage, Industry Canada, and the Intellectual Property Policy Directorate, the Right Honorable Reg Alcock, MP, as well as any other concerned agencies:
I wish to express my grave concerns regarding the intellectual property provisions of the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues (CPCDI), which, in my opinion as well as that of many others, are extreme and unwarranted.
These measures, based on the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), give far too much power to publishers, at the expense of individuals' rights. The DMCA itself is already under legal challenge in the US. It has gravely chilled scientists' and computer security researchers' freedom of expression around the world for fear of being prosecuted in the US, and has resulted in the arrest of a Russian programmer. The provisions of the CPDCI, which serve no one's interests but those of (largely American) corporate copyright holders, 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. Such tools are necessary to exercise lawful uses, including fair use, reverse engineering, computer security research and many others. While the World Intellectual Property Organization's 1996 Copyright Treaty does mandate amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act, such amendments should not, and must not, be allowed to drastically impair fair use, free speech, and free scientific inquiry. Intellectual property is not a more basic right then freedom of speech.
I urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to remove these provisions from the CPDCI language. They are basically opposed to the spirit of the Charter Rights granted to all Canadians. The controversy seen in the United States regarding the DCMA, and their ongoing imprisonment of a foreign national should give us all pause, to determine if this is really the sort of legislation we should be emulating. The DMCA is already an international debacle. Its flaws should not be imported and forced on Canadians.
Sincerely,
Darin Christopher Sunley
(Address removed)
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