Copyright bill delayed
I have been remiss in not posting on the delay in the Copyright bill. (My blog has been moved to a new server, which has resulted in some temporary internal access issues.)
For those of you who have not been following this, the copyright reform bill that was to have been introduced earlier this week was delayed as a result of a firestorm of protest. That’s a good thing, as the bill was expected to include things like the US based DMCA approach that would make it illegal to bypass DRM. It would have been a step backward.
For more detail about what’s wrong with the expected bill, and what we can do about it, take a look at Michael Geists’s blog, and the resouces listed on the Facebook Fair Copyright for Canada Group.
This is an issue that is relevant to everyone, not just the entertainment industry. What the government should do is take a fresh, high level look at the issues surrounding copyright as a whole in the context of modern and future technology, consumer desires, and the protection that creators reasonably require.
The issue has been delayed, but it is not over.
The rise of the movement against the bill over the last few weeks has been interesting in itself. Prior to that, there were a number of people who had spoken out against the expected bill, dating back at least to the bill that the former government proposed. Michael has been the most prolific opponent. Others, including myself, have offered their 2 cents worth as well. (See my posts under “copyright” on my tag cloud.)
Over the past couple of weeks the movement against the bill has spread through the blogosphere, been captured by the mainstream press, and the Facebook group started by Michael has grown to over 24,000 members as of this morning.
