CLA Advocacy Material on Bill C-61

The CLA has posted some advocacy material on Bill C-61, available here.

Although the suggested letter contains some good points, I'm frankly puzzled by what is meant by the term "Technical Prevention Measures" and what the CLA means by:

New copyright legislation should punish copyright-infringing behaviour, but should prohibit the circumvention of technological prevention measures for legal purposes.

HK

PS - the site now says:

Prohibitions against the circumvention of digital locks should be limited to acts of copyright infringement, but should not prohibit the circumvention of technological prevention measures for legal purposes.

This makes more sense, but I still don't know what is meant by technical "prevention" [sic?] measures.

Another suggestion would be to update the CLA's copyright infromation page
which includes some obsolete and less than useful references, and does not include such useful material as Laura Murray's and Sam Trosow's excellent book, which is the best single source book on copyright for librarians at the present time.

Canadian Library Association Press Release

Here's a very constructive press release from the Canadian Library Association, on behalf of its 21,000,000 users and 57,000 library staff. Here's an excerpt of the CLA's letter to the Ministers, which includes some very specific, positive and well reasoned positions:

- Any new copyright legislation must be carefully crafted so that it punishes copyright-infringing behaviour but does not ban devices that might be used to circumvent technological prevention measures. "Technological measures can be used to invade privacy and prevent Canadians from invoking their rights," Butcher said.

"The legislation must protect Canadians who are merely upholding their rights."

- The Government needs to recognize that government documents and government data belong to all Canadians and that all Canadians should have liberal access to these materials.

"Current Crown copyright rules can mean Canadians pay multiple times for the same information," Butcher said. "The increased costs are barriers to learning."

- Persons with perceptual disabilities must have the same right to access copyrighted materials as all Canadians have. This right should apply regardless of format in order to accommodate their particular needs. Legislation is required to give persons with perceptual disabilities access equity with others.

"Digital information is extraordinarily useful in overcoming physical, learning and perceptual disabilities," Butcher said. "This is a real opportunity to level the playing field."

- Libraries oppose legislation that makes the same mistakes as the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act. American law makes no differentiation in penalty between a counterfeiter circumventing technical protection measures for illegal profit and an individual circumventing technical protection measures to make a single copy.

"Even one of the architects of the DMCA has admitted it is flawed legislation," said Butcher. "Let's not make the same mistakes."



HK