ARCHIVED — Kenneth Peerless
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Submission from Kenneth Peerless received on September 8, 2001 via e-mail
Subject: proposed Canadian DMCA
Dear Sir/Madam:I write as a Canadian Citizen concerned about the possibility of the Federal Government enacting legislation similar to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US.
Aside from freedom of speech rights, fair use, and the power this kind of legislation puts in the hands of Corporations, this legislation has led in the US to the refusal of many foreign scientists and software developers to set foot on American soil... some in protest and some in fear. We would be pretty stupid to follow suit.
This kind of legislation is anathema in the rest of the world and is powered by huge USian media corporations with deep pockets who want to make them even deeper and is not in the Canadian National Interest, which you have been hired or elected to protect. This kind of legislation is in the interests of USian media corporations, and by extension, Canadian media corporations... not the Canadian Public who pay your salaries and depend upon you to represent THEIR interests.
Forgive my sounding a little testy, but as a 62 year old Canadian I am dismayed at the extent that our National Identity has been eroded over the past 60 years by similar decisions to march in lock step with USian business interests in a direction that 60 years ago would have been called fascist.
Further... I do not believe, nor am I aware of any scholar who believes, that the framers of the US constitution would not be aghast at the misuse of copyright as it exists in the US today.
In a similar questionnaire promulgated by the EU recently, and having to do with a related issue, ergo software patents, engineers, small software companies, open source advocates and individual software developers were 100% against mimicking the US position on this issue. They represented an overwhelming majority of respondents. The only supporters were large corporations and their lobbyists with US ties.
If we are to seek foreign counsel on something as important as this, then let us look to our European allies and trading partners for direction, rather then the vested interests to the south of us.
I ask you, as a citizen and as a senior citizen, not to even contemplate enacting this, or similar legislation.
I remain, with little optimism,
Kenneth Peerless
(address removed)
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