ARCHIVED — Jason J. Woodside
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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 Jason J. Woodside received on September 17, 2001 via e-mail
Subject: The CPDCI
To Industry Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Intellectual Property Policy Directorate and other concerned agencies:
I wish to voice my concerns regarding the intellectual property recommendations of the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues (CPDCI)
The paper outlines measures similar to those implemented by the United States in the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is currently under challenge in US courts. The DMCA has generated considerable protest in the scientific and technology communities worldwide, due the harsh freedom of expression restrictions it mandates. The DMCA exists primarily to serve the minority interests of the copyright holders, at the expense of the majority rights of legitimate users, and I fear the CPDCI serves the same interests.
The provisions defined in the CPDCI 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. Computer software is as much a means of personal expression as is a book, poem, or song; by extension, restricting what an individual can write in a programming language such as C, Java, or any other language violates a citizens' Charter Rights just as much as does disallowing the use of the words "Our home and native land", "La belle province" or "A mari usque ad mare".
Of particular concern are the restrictions on the circumvention of copy protection. Often, these mechanisms are implemented through the matematical manipulation of the copyrighted data. The Patent Act (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-4/78427.html) specifically prohibits the statutory protection of such processes, stating "No patent shall be granted for any mere scientific principle or abstract theorem." R.S. 1985, c. P-4, s. 27(8). Instituting such protection in the Copyright Act would essentially contradict this legislation.
I hope that you will carefully consider the mistakes that were made in the DMCA, in the hopes of not repeating them in our country. Please try to protect the rights of all Canadians, not just those with financial interests in digital media.
Sincerely,
Jason J. Woodside
(address removed)
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