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Bill C-61 – New Copyright Bill Now Available

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It has now been posted on the Canadian Parliament website:

Bill C-61 – First Reading

Hat tip to John Sadler, Chair of the Copyright Committee of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries / Association canadienne des bibliothèques de droit who shared the link via the CALL listserv.

Comments

  1. Simon Fodden
    June 12th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    Take a look at Goodreads, a blog by Timothy Comeau. He’s posted a Letter to my MP, in which he offers a good critique of the government’s bill. Here’s an excerpt related to blogging:

    I very much object to the idea – introduced in the bill – that posting
    copyrighted material online (specifically pictures) could make one a
    criminal. This would have a serious effect on blogging, where it has
    become normal to re-post images copied from the source. In fact, it is
    often used as a mean to link to the original source. And blogging is
    one of the examples of the transformative effect the net has had on
    our culture … a vibrant arena for debate, discussion, and the
    dissemination of new knowledge. To make any part of its culture
    illegal would be equivalent to introducing limits to the freedom of
    expression, or – in 20th Century language – to interfere with the
    freedom of the press.

  2. Connie Crosby
    June 12th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

    Michael Geist has given a preliminary summary of concerns in The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print. He says the bill is

    big, complicated, and a close model of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

    He goes on to look at five different points to start, with a promise of more analysis to follow.