DMCA du Canada

Now, I know what you're thinking:  "Did he file six interventions or only five?" To tell the truth, in all the excitement I kind of lost track myself.  So what you should be asking yourself is, "Do I feel lucky?"

Industry Canada's "Intellectual Property Policy Directorate" and the Canadian Heritage Ministry are reviewing Canada's copyright laws with an eye to modernize them to take into account new digital technologies.  Some people are fearful that this could herald Canadian legislation parallelling the DMCA or, worse, the SSSCA. The Government asked for submissions from concerned members of the public, and there've been a lot of those.

Q: Where should I start reading first?
A: You should start with the list of Top 12 Copyright reform issues, then come back here and read the more detailed items that interest you on the lists below.

This page is one of three overlapping links pages I maintain; depending on your interests, you may find better-focused material on one of the others:

• Centigrade Minus Twenty - freedom to read, especially focused on printed books
• DMCA du Canada - restrictions on Internet and other electronic communications, especially stemming from intellectual property privileges
• ISP licensing in Canada - restrictions on Internet and electronic communications, especially stemming from child pornography fears

Contents

• Official postings (current)
• Matthew Skala's postings (current/still relevant)
• Canadian legislation
  • Bill C-36 (Library and Archives of Canada)
  • BPN 2002-38 (Internet retransmission of television - CRTC)
  • Bill C-48 (Internet retransmission of television - Commons)
  • BPN 2002-32 (HDTV)
  • Motion M-431 (broadcasters' ephemeral copy exemption)
• Blank media levy
• Consultation process:  2002
• Consultation process:  2001
• Historical documents and industry commentaries
• "Lawful access" (CanCarnivore)
• Technological Protection Measures
• Term extension
• Traditional knowledge
• Other resources

Official postings (current)

• Govt.  Copyright Reform Process homepage
• Canadian Heritage study on Technological Protection Measures, part II (June 2003)
• Canadian Heritage study on Technological Protection Measures, part I (2 April 2003)
• Section 92 report to Parliament (3 October 2002)

Matthew Skala's postings (current/still relevant)

• What I'm Thinking About - web log, updates roughly daily. 
• New Media Copyright Extensions Would Harm Canada (Submission of Matthew Skala) (24 August 2001) - roughly 24,000 words on most aspects of Canadian copyright reform
• Top 12 copyright reform issues (15 April 2002)

Canadian legislation

• Bill C-36, on the Library and Archives of Canada
  • Digital Copyright mailing list discussion (ongoing - look here for updates)
  • More on C-36:  We're already there (27 May 2003)
  • Bill C-36:  Library and Archives of Canada (25 May 2003)
  • L.M. Montgomery Copyright Term Extension Act (9 May 2003)
• CRTC BPN 2002-38, on Internet retransmission of television
  • BPN 2003-2, the decision on 2002-38 (17 January 2003), and my weblog posting of it (21 January 2003)
  • Extremely confused Slashdot story on 2003-2 and the BPN (20 January 2003)
  • BPN 2002-38 reply comments posted (10 October 2002)
  • Reply comment of Matthew Skala in response to initial comments on BPN 2002-38 (3 October 2002)
  • My analysis of first round comments:  part 1, part 2 (19, 20 September 2002)
  • First round comments (due 9 September 2002)
  • Submission of Matthew Skala in response to BPN 2002-38 (4 September 2002)
  • Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-38-1 (26 August 2002), extending deadline for first-round comments
  • Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-38 (19 July 2002), calling for comments on Internet retransmission
• Bill C-11, formerly C-48 (the "JumpTV" bill)
  • Bill C-11 (Internet retransmission) gets Royal Assent (13 December 2002)
  • National Post article about JumpTV's reaction to third reading (21 June 2002)
  • Analysis and link to debate on third reading (19 June 2002)
  • Five letters to Parliamentarians about C-48 (gzipped Postscript format)
  • My analysis of second reading debate
  • House of Commons debate at second reading
  • (first reading in House of Commons was 12 December 2001, but no discussion happened at that time)
• CRTC BPN 2002-32, on digital television
  • Government posting of submissions (due 9 September 2002)
  • Submission of Matthew Skala in response to BPN 2002-32 (15 August 2002)
  • Broadcasting Public Notice 2002-32, calling for comments on digital television (12 June 2002)
• Motion M-431, to repeal collective societies' exception to broadcasters' exception
  • House of Commons debate
  • My analysis
  • (motion proposed, and dropped, 16 April 2002)

Blank media levy

• Public Lending Right Commission - charge applied to library books to compensate authors for the books that people borrow instead of buying. 
• Interim tariff (logged 17 January 2003), carrying on the 2001-2002 tariff on until the 2003-2004 tariff gets through the objection process. 
• Extremely confused Slashdot story on 2003-2 and the BPN (20 January 2003)
• CPCC Preliminary Statement of Position
• Formal objections
• Pre-hearing conference transcript (21 May 2002)
• BML comic by Matthew Skala
• Blank media levy FAQ by Neil Herber
• Statement in Parliament about the levy (15 March 2002)
• Ottawa Citizen article (15 March 2002)
• My commentary (15 March 2002)
• National Post article (14 March 2002)
• Question in Parliament about the levy (14 March 2002)
• Proposed Tariff for the years 2003 and 2004, including levies of $21/G on MP3 players and $8/G on flash memory.  Also includes information on objection procedure.  (9 March 2002)
• Response to Smith and Henshaw (also linked above, 17 October 2001)
• Section 82 of the Copyright Act, which establishes the blank media levy (circa 1997). 

Consultation process:  2002

• Govt.  Copyright Reform Process homepage
• Section 92 report to Parliament (3 October 2002)
• Further comments on copyright reform (22 April 2002)
• Ottawa consultation meeting (11 April 2002)
• Toronto consultation meeting (26 March 2002)
• Alan Truesdale's report from the 21 March 2002 public meeting in Montreal
• Russell McOrmond's report from a private meeting he had with Heritage Canada representatives on 19 March 2002
• Steve Shack's report (in his capacity as Brother Representative of the Edifying Fellowship) from the 15 March 2002 public meeting in Vancouver
• Chris Palmer's report from the 8 March 2002 public meeting in Halifax
• 3 March 2002 bulletin re:  consultation meetings

Consultation process:  2001

• Govt.  Copyright Reform Process homepage
• Response comment of Matthew Skala to the submissions of Aliant Inc., et al.; Telus Corporation; DirecTV, Inc.; and Information Mechanics Ottawa, Inc. (20 October 2001)
• Response comment of Matthew Skala to the submissions of Eric R. Smith, PhD, and Coridon Henshaw (17 October 2001)
• Response comment of Matthew Skala to the submissions of DirecTV, Inc.  and Kyle Lahnakoski (15 October 2001)
• Govt.  posting of reply comments (Fall 2001)
• New Media Copyright Extensions Would Harm Canada (Submission of Matthew Skala) (24 August 2001)
• Govt.  posting of public comments (22 June - 1 October 2001)
• Consultation Paper on the Application of the Copyright Act's Compulsory Retransmission Licence to the Internet (22 June 2001)
• Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues (22 June 2001)
• A Framework for Copyright Reform (June 2001)

"Lawful access" (CanCarnivore)

The Justice Department's comment process on "lawful access" (introduction of a wiretapping regime to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime) is not really about copyright, but it's closely related.  I'm not following it as closely, but I did write a submission.  For more detailed information I recommend Jason Young's page on the Cybercrime consultation.  Here are some other links:

• Toronto cop demands access to encryption keys, data retention, warrantless searches (2 April 2003, 336 words)
• Lawful access slides and links from my 24 March 2003 talk at UofT
• eBay to Law Enforcement - We're Here to Help (LawMeme, logged 17 February 2003)
• Protecting lawful private communications:  Submission of Matthew Skala (16 December 2002)

Historical documents and industry commentaries

• Transcripts of U.S. DRM hearing (17 July 2002), from the "Understanding Broadband Demand Digital Rights Management" workshop in Washington. 
• Jamie Kellner (Turner Broadcasting) interview in which he claims that the "tolerance for going to the bathroom" comment was not serious, but repeats his claim that fast-forwarding through commercials will kill television as we know it.  (12 July 2002)
• The Internet Debacle by Janis Ian (May 2002, opposing record companies' exploitation of musicians)
• Open Letter From Harvey Reid About Internet Radio (April 2002, calling for independent musicians to support Webcasting)
• The original posters of the Jamie Kellner "I guess there's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom" interview have made that page of their site pay-only.  Since they apparently want to avoid any chance of benefiting from the publicity of the article, I'm going to help by not mentioning their name.  Instead, here's a link to an item in The Shifted Librarian containing pertinent excerpts.  (April 29, 2002)
• Courtney Love does the math (16 May 2000, opposing record companies' exploitation of musicians)
• Testimony on Home Recording of Copyrighted Works before the Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary, [U.S.] House of Representatives, Ninety-Seventh Congress.  From 1982, various movie and television industry representatives claim that fast-forwarding through commercials will kill television as we know it.  Source of the Jack Valenti "Boston Strangler" quote. 
• Speech by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) from 7 December 1906, in favour of copyright as a natural right, and infinite term extension (although he acknowledges that that would not be Constitutional). 
• Speech by Thomas Babbington Macaulay from 5 February 1841, against copyright term extension. 
• Letter by Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson, 13 August 1813, against copyright as a natural right. 
• The Statute of Anne, or more formally An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Author's [sic] or Purchasers of Such Copies 8 Anne, c. 19 (1709), often thought of as the first modern copyright law. 
• Lots of historical documents about U.S. copyright law from the book The Founders' Constitution.  Two of the links above are into this site. 
• Some earlier documents and references are described in a section of the Skala submission above. 
• Earliest known copyright expansion attempt:  the Statement of Yakval Enti, spokesman of the MPAA (Mnemonists, Praise-singers, and Anthemists Association) to His Highness Hammurabi, King of Sumeria
• Support for the claim that all new media are first used for pornography:  Sumerian "religious" literature from the dawn of written language

Technological Protection Measures

• Why unbreakable codes don't make unbreakable DRM (Edward Felten, logged 4 December 2002)

Term extension

• CTEA de Canada - terms in FTAA treaty requiring term extension laws here (logged 17 January 2003)
• US Supreme Court 7-2 in favour of copyright extension (Lawrence Lessig, logged 15 January 2003)
• FAQ on Peter Pan copyright expiry (Stanford Centre for Internet and Society, logged 5 January 2003)

Traditional knowledge

• Protecting Traditional Knowledge (American Association for the Advancement of Science, logged 21 March 2003)
• Trademark on traditional knowledge - news story from India about granting of intellectual property privileges on the body of architechtural practices called Vastu.  (logged 8 January 2003)

Other resources

• Supreme Court decision in Harvard College v. Canada - patenting of higher life forms (5 December 2002)
• Ontario Privacy Commissioner's Report on DRM (7 October 2002)
• Ross Anderson's TCPA/Palladium FAQ
• "My list" - an index to the govt.-posted submission documents, filtered based on similarity to the EFF form letter and labelled as to length.  Intended to be useful if you're trying to read all of the hundreds of submissions.  Also, my (Matthew Skala's) working notes on others' submissions used while writing my response submissions.  This will eventually be cleaned up and posted on ansuz.sooke.bc.ca; it's at edifyingfellowship.org for the moment for convenience in updating. 
• The Edifying Fellowship of Ook, which made a submission of its own linked off that page in various formats. 
• Canada DMCA Opponents at flora.org; a mailing list and a list of links. 
• World Cultural Intelligence Network, with its own view on copyright issues.