A voice of common sense in Canada ?
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080311-canadian-mp-dont-use-wipo-as-excuse-for-canadian-dmca.htmlAs Canada considers a new copyright bill with some apparent similarities to the US DMCA, one MP is trying to clear up misconceptions. New Democratic Party MP Charlie Angus has written an open letter to Industry Minister Jim Prentice, arguing that Canada can ratify a key WIPO treaty without passing draconian DRM legislation. Here's a taste: "Parliament must also stay away from the more hysterical claims that we need to start banning circumvention devices. This is like saying we need to ban axes because they could be used to break down a door."
For months now, rumors have swirled about a new copyright bill being prepped by Prentice (though the text has never been officially introduced). The bill was pulled from Parliament's calendar late last year after a popular uprising against several of its leaked proposals. Critics charged that the bill was simply a "Canadian DMCA," while proponents often claimed that the bill was necessary since Canada had signed (but never ratified) some key World Intellectual Property Organization treaties in the 1990s.
As we have noted before, signing the WIPO treaties does not actually bind a country to ratifying them. In addition, the treaties allow for discretion on key areas like DRM. While countries like the US have adopted a "maximalist" approach to the issue that outlaws most circumvention and circumvention devices, other countries have ratified the WIPO treaties while allowing DRM circumvention in cases where the intended use of the content is legal.
These are exactly the points that Angus hits. "Minister Jim Prentice needs to come clean with the Canadian public over the fact that restrictive, U.S. style DMCA legislation is not synonymous with ratifying the WIPO treaty," he says. "Under international trade obligations Canada could ratify WIPO and still maintain a wide variety of choices of how to go about setting up appropriate copyright legislation for the 21st-century."
In addition, he argues that DRM has already shown its dark side (he mentions the Sony BMG rootkit incident), and he sees no reason to give content owners a blank check to use code to enforce content restrictions. He also wants to make sure that useful technologies like peer-to-peer aren't simply shut down by regulation.
This man seems to have a grasp of most of the important issues unlike many politicians who merely reach out for a check from the Cartel and a script and still cash their salary check of joe publics tax dollars, lets wish him well
