ARCHIVED — A Rhonda Hyslop 5
Archived Content
Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats on the "Contact Us" page.
COPYRIGHT REFORM PROCESS
REPY COMMENTS
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.
Reply comment from Rhonda Hyslop received on October 21, 2001 via e-mail
Subject: Reply comment
In the comment from Jeffrey Streifling dated September 04, he writes:
"Locksmiths are given special privileges we don't want to give to just
anybody. I propose chartering a "Digital Locksmith Society" that would
register people with a legitimate interest in possessing devices,
programs, and know-how that could be used for circumventing protection
measures. Such a society would be both a professional society for
cryptologists engaged in research that might otherwise be questioned in
regards to copyright technological protection mechanism circumvention and
a facility through which persons and entities granted fair-dealing rights
in the Copyright Act can exercise, or obtain the means to exercise, those
rights when technological protection mechanisms are employed."
I don't agree with this suggestion; mainly because it would require that people wishing to make fair use of their property pay a "digital locksmith" for something that is currently a right. As one example, consider researchers. Photocopiers are a useful tool here in that you can make a copy of the pages of interest for later reference, leaving the original for other people. With digital "copyright protection", making a simple photocopy (or digital equivalent) would be impossible without paying a "digital locksmith".
I also don't think it would work; even if a library had access to the same tools as the "digital locksmith", they would likely put them in publicly-accessible areas, much as photocopiers are, so that the librarians are not required to, in short, "do your photocopying for you." This public access would completely bypass the idea of having only licenced people able to circumvent "copyright protection" mechanisms. This is not an argument for restricting libraries from having 'circumvention devices', but an argument for not making such devices illegal or restricted. Please take a hard look at the proposed law, and ask yourself: if this law were to be passed, and public libraries did not already exist, would this law make the idea of a public library illegal? If so, it would be a very bad idea to allow the law to pass.
Thank you for the opportunity to reply on this issue.
-Rhonda
(e-mail address removed)
--
(Footer removed)
- Date modified:
