The introduction of new legislation regarding copyright should not come as a surprise to any informed Canadian. After all, ours is the country where peer-to-peer downloading is currently legal. Yet the recently released details of Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s Bill C-61 are a shock to many.
The bill describes explicitly what consumers can and cannot do. You can record a television program for later viewing, provided that you delete it as soon as you see it. Transferring music to your iPod is allowed, but you can only make one copy per device and keep the original. Copying DVDs is almost certainly prohibited. Media technology has progressed at such a rapid pace, Canadian law can barely keep up—making clear what is and isn’t allowed under the law is a welcome development.
But what the bill giveth, it also taketh away. It allows for an undeniably harsh 500-dollar penalty for peer-to-peer downloading, and an even more ridiculous maximum of 20,000 dollars for illegally sharing content. Illegal sharing includes actions as benign as posting copyrighted material on YouTube, or sharing MP3s on Limewire.
In an astonishingly Machiavellian twist, Bill C-61 removes all the ‘rights’ it gives. If copyrighted material has digital rights management (DRM) technology that prevents the copying or transferring of content to other devices, bypassing this is illegal. Simply put, consumer’s rights are firmly in the hands of media companies.
Accusations that the bill was ‘made in the US’ are well- founded. Pressure over the past few years from prominent American political figures, ranging from California governator Arnold Schwarzenegger to US ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, made it clear that American movie studios and record labels have had a hand in Canada’s recent attempts at copyright reform.
They are also terrified about their future—perhaps with good reason. Ask any record store owner how sales are lately, and the answer will invariably be ‘slow.’ The industry’s figures are indeed dismal: in the first quarter of 2007, CD sales dropped 35 per cent in Canada. According to The Times of London, global music sales last year fell to their lowest levels since 1985. This is only one piece of a multi-billion dollar global industry. But is painting a target on the backs of Canadian citizens a logical solution to the problem of slowing sales?
According to Statistics Canada, 45 per cent of home Internet users downloaded music in 2007. Lobbing lawsuits at otherwise law-abiding citizens will not make the problem go away. Limiting consumers’ freedom by implementing frustrating DRM technologies only encourages further downloading. Anyone who has bought a CD only to find it won’t play in their car stereo or be copied to their computer knows the pain of dealing with an industry trying to protect itself in the laziest way possible.
Rather than lobbying for draconian laws, media companies are better off developing technologies that keep the customer in mind. Consulting with consumer groups and artists—something the government did not do when drafting bill C-61—would be a good first step towards a profitable model.
Already, the backlash against the proposed bill is noticeable: a Facebook group entitled Fair Copyright for Canada, created by University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, has 85,000 members. By bending backwards for American lobby groups, the Tories might lose a lot of votes in the next election if this controversial bill passes.
“This bill reflects a win-win approach,” said Jim Prentice recently at a press conference. But who exactly is winning?
