Rich Fiscus
12 Jun 2008 23:41
Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice called his country's proposed new copyright law a "win-win" for consumers and copyright holders alike. It seems obvious what the copyright lobby has won, since it would make sharing copyrighted material an offense punishable by a $20,000 fine. Exactly what he thinks consumers are getting out of the deal is less clear.
To be fair the law would expressly permit time shifting, such as recording TV shows with a DVR, and format shifting like encoding songs from a CD to play on your MP3 player. Both of those could be wins for the consumer - except of course for the so-called digital lock provisions. In a nutshell they make it illegal to circumvent copy protection, similar to provisions in the United States' DMCA or various implementations of the European Union's EUCD.
In return the public wins the right to be sued for up to $500 per violation when illegal copies are made solely for private use. While that may seem more lenient than say the RIAA judgements agains US file sharers, keep in mind those violations would actually fall into the $20,000 category. Private use would include things like copying a protected CD to your own music server which can only be accessed within your house.
The Canadian Music Creators Coalition doesn't seem to feel they're winning either. The group was formed to give Canadian artists a voice in copyright policy. Safwan Javed, CMCC member and drummer for Wide Mouth Mason described the proposal as "all locks and lawsuits." He also said “Suing fans won’t make it 1992 again. It’s a new world for the music business and this is an old approach.”