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IP: Canadian "DMCA" in the Works - Short Deadline
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 03:33:32 -0400
ALERT: Canadian "DMCA" in the Works - Short Deadline Tell Canada to Reject Anti-Technology Bans Electronic Frontier Foundation ACTION ALERT (Issued: Friday, September 7, 2001 / Deadline: Saturday, September 15, 2001) Introduction: Canadian citizens, and others, are urged to contact the Canadian government and express their opposition to legislation, similar to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the U.S., that would outlaw circumvention of technological restrictions put in place by copyright holders. The Canadian government is accepting public comment until September 15, 2001 on its proposed "Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues" which considers such measures. These anti-technology bans violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom's guarantee of freedom of speech, and similar guarantees in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, since such tools are necessary to exercise lawful uses, including fair use. They would turn scientists, fair users, journalists, programmers, and archivists into criminals. While protecting copyright is important, passing measures that also censor much lawful speech goes too far, without ever achieving its objective. Canada is considering adopting anti-circumvention legislation in response to the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) 1996 Copyright Treaty. This treaty, however, does not require enacting national legislation that outlaws technology with many lawful uses. Given the dismal US experience with the DMCA, other countries should learn from and steer clear of the U.S. Congress's mistake. What YOU Can Do: EFF calls upon the citizens of Canada, and other interested parties around the world, to submit comments by Sept. 15, urging the Canadian agency Intellectual Property Policy Directorate to remove the provisions of the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues that outlaw the act of circumvention and forbid providing tools for circumvention of technological protection measures restricting use of copyrighted works. Comments, to be received by the government by September 15, 2001, should be submitted to: Comments - Government of Canada Copyright Reform c/o Intellectual Property Policy Directorate Industry Canada 235 Queen Street 5th Floor West Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5 Canada fax: (613) 941-8151 copyright-droitdauteur () ic gc ca (text, HTML, WordPerfect and MSWord formats accepted) Sample Letter: This is just an example. It will be most effective if you send something similar but in your own words. To Industry Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Intellectual Property Policy Directorate and other concerned agencies: I write to express my grave concern regarding the extreme intellectual property provisions of the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues (CPCDI). These measures, based on the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), give far too much power to publishers, at the expense of indivdiuals' rights. The DMCA itself is already under legal challenge in the US, has gravely chilled scientists' and computer security researchers' freedom of expression around the world for fear of being prosecuted in the US, and resulted in the arrest of a Russian programmer. The CPDCI provisions, which serve no one but (largely American) corporate copyright interests, 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, since such tools are necessary to exercise lawful uses, including fair use, reverse engineering, computer security research and many others. I urge you to remove these controversial and anti-freedom provisions from the CPDCI language. The DMCA is already an international debacle. Its flaws should not be imported and forced on Canadians. Sincerely, [Your full name] [Your address] Background: For more information about the Canadian Copyright Act amendment process, including the proposed digital copyright measures and how Canadian citizens can become involved, see the following Web site: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/rp01100e.html About EFF: The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression, privacy, and openness in the information society. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to Web sites in the world: http://www.eff.org Contact: Will Doherty, EFF Online Activist / Media Relations wild () eff org +1 415 436 9333 x111 Robin Gross, EFF Intellectual Property Attorney robin () eff org +1 415 436 9333 x112 - end -
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