Bill C-32 - Why You Should Care

Yesterday the Federal Government introduced Bill C-32, an attempt to re-write copyright legislation to acknowledge and deal with the age of digital content.  Why should you care?  Well, as a consumer - but more specifically as an educator - C-32 has some significant ramifications for everyday life.

On the surface, there is a considerable amount to like about the bill:

• It limits personal liability for copyright infringement.  Fines for individuals could range from $100 to $5,000, a significant reduction from the current Canadian limit of $20,000 and a far cry from the millions of dollars the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has tried to bilk from file-sharing consumers in the U.S through court action.  These lower limits will not apply to those who attempt to profit from their copyright violation or those who commit the violation within a commercial enterprise.
• It legalizes format shifting.  This means that consumers will be within their rights to convert a CD to a format (MP3, WMA, ...) playable on other digital media players.  Although I couldn't find a specific reference to video content, I would presume that this would also finally make it legal to copy video from older formats like VHS to DVD or Blu-ray.
• It legalizes time shifting - sort of.  That means it is finally legal to record your favourite TV show on your PVR so that you can watch it later; however, the law states that it is not legal to record streamed content for the purpose of assembling a personal library.  (This recording will self-destruct in 10 seconds. Thank you Mr. Phelps.)
• It legalizes making backup copies of content.  So you can create a backup of your MS Office CDs and store them off-site.
• It legalizes mash-ups, provided they are not done for commercial gain.  So it would be legal - in Canada at least - to fire that video of your baby dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" up to Youtube.  Take that, Artist Formerly Known as Obsessed with Himself.
• And, a big on for educators, it makes exceptions for fair-dealing/fair-use, for the purposes of satire, parody, commentary, and education.

So far, so good.  Now, are you ready for the bad news?  Here it is ...

All of these clauses can be trumped if the content creator/provider decides to use any form of digital lock, copy protection or digital rights management (DRM) to protect the content from being copied. This bill would make it illegal for anyone to circumvent this protection.  Furthermore, the bill makes it a crime to provide software or any other mechanism which makes such a circumvention possible.  And to top it off, the bill outlaws websites which appear to encourage or promote the circumvention of digital locks.

In other words, if the content provider chooses to implement any form of digital lock, then time-shifting, format shifting, backups, mash-ups and fair use all go out the window.  At a time when content industries have been moving slowly but steadily away from digital locks, this legislation is like an open invitation to undo all that progress.  If you're not clear why digital locks are a bad idea, spend a day or two trying to manage your DRM music collection on more than one computer and more than one Ipod or media player.  Then go off and try to do anything with a Blu-ray disc other than shoving it in your player and praying it will play - or smashing it with a sledge hammer.  Even though Industry Minister Tony Clement acknowledges the trend away from DRM within the music industry, he doesn't seem to recognize how his own legislation could reverse thiat direction.

In my humble opinion, this over-riding clause negates almost all the positive aspects of the bill from the consumer's standpoint.

Certainly, the fact that the press conference announcing this bill was held in the Montreal offices of a U.S. video game developer sends a fairly clear message about whom the legislation is intended to appease.

For more detailed coverge, Michael Geist provides a number of links to news articles.