[SVTGuy02]

More word on Canada's version of the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which Industry Minister Jim Prentice is rumoured to be ready to release tomorrow: it will include a $500/download fine, which means that if your kids download a couple of $0.99 singles without paying for them, the American labels will be able to take $1,000 out of her college fund (and those are Canadian dollars, still worth something on the international market).


Some sources say that it comes as a result of Prentice's concern that the Conservatives could be tied to huge damage awards against teenagers for peer-to-peer file sharing. If that is indeed the case, it is not clear how this provision will solve that concern. While there are still many questions about this provision (does it target downloading or uploading? does it exempt sound recordings covered by the private copying levy? is the $500 a set amount or a maximum? is it per infringement or cover all activity? does it require actual evidence that files made available are downloaded?), consider a case involving 1000 song files, not an unusually high number. The "retail" value of those files is roughly $1000, yet on a per infringement basis the Prentice proposal could lead to a damage award of $500,000. Even small scale cases would lead to huge awards - 50 songs could lead to a $25,000 fine. Ironically, the prospect of huge damage awards comes as Canadian musicians and songwriters have both rejected lawsuits against individuals. If Prentice hopes that the provision reduces the concern associated with file sharing lawsuits, this move may actually have the opposite effect.

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It looks like Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice is about ready to roll out the Canadian version of the dread US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a terrible copyright bill that has been drafted without consultation with the scores of Canadian organization clamoring for input into the law (on the other hand, it's a sure bet the US trade rep had quite a lot to say about the text). Michael Geist has a handy guide to the likely talking points that the Minister will use to spin his sellout to his buddies in the American entertainment industry.
QUOTE

The bill is the result of extensive discussions with the Minister of Canadian Heritage to ensure that the Canadian approach strikes the right balance between protecting creators and ensuring appropriate access [in reality, the bill as drafted last December was only modestly amended to include a few user-oriented provisions such as time shifting. As mandated by the U.S. and willingly followed by Prime Minister Harper and Prentice, the DMCA-like anti-circumvention provisions remain largely unchanged].
The bill includes important provisions for consumer rights such as time shifting [while long overdue, the time shifting provisions are rendered ineffective in the digital environment by the bill's anti-circumvention provisions. In the event that the bill also includes a format shifting provision to allow for music to be transferred to iPods, the same concern arises since copy-controlled CDs cannot be legally shifted].

The bill ensures that Canada lives up to its international copyright commitments having signed the WIPO Internet treaties in 1997 [Canada is currently fully compliant with its commitments since signing a treaty does not mandate ratification. Further, the government will speak about "implementation" rather than "ratification" since this bill will still not allow Canada to fully ratify the treaties and sticking to implementation will enable the government to delay meeting its commitment to debating international treaties before ratification. Finally, there is great flexibility within the WIPO Internet treaties such that the Canadian approach could easily be far more balanced and still allow for eventual ratification].

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