In my previous post I published a form-letter response that my friend Sam received from Dick Harris, the Cariboo-Prince George MP. Since the response was fairly long, I thought I would publish my analysis/comments in a separate post.

Minister of Industry Jim Prentice is obviously trying to put a very pro-Canadian positive spin on this, and at first glance I have to admit the bill didn’t look so bad. After you read the “fine print” though, you start to get a different picture.

One paragraph in Dick Harris’ response really jumped out at me:

With this Bill, you will be able to legally tape your favourite TV shows and movies, without fear of infringing copyrights. This Bill will also allow you and your family to take CD’s and songs purchased online and transfer them to your MP3 player, legally – - this Bill clarifies that this type of activity is legal in Canada.

I own an AppleTV, as well as a large DVD collection. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time copying my DVDs to an AppleTV-friendly format so that I only need one device hooked up to my TV in order to play back all my media. So the right to copy media I own between formats is very important to me. I initially found Dick Harris’ response encouraging, but thought I would double-check the actual bill to make sure. Here’s the relevant section:

29.21 (1) It is not an infringement of copyright for an individual to reproduce a work or other subject-matter that is a photograph or is contained in a book, newspaper, periodical or videocassette, or any substantial part of such a work or other subject-matter, onto another medium or device, if the following conditions are met:

 

(a) the copy of the work or other subject-matter of which the reproduction is made is not an infringing copy;

 

(b) the individual legally obtained the photograph, book, newspaper, periodical or videocassette, otherwise than by borrowing it or renting it, and owns the medium or device on which it is reproduced;

 

(c) the individual, in order to make the reproduction, did not circumvent a technolog- ical measure or cause one to be circumvented, within the meanings of the definitions “circumvent” and “technological measure” in section 41;

 

Everything looked good until I got to Part (c). Part(c) refers to technological measures meant to prevent copying, in other words Digital Rights Management (DRM). If while copying your own media to a new format, you “circumvent” the DRM, then you are in violation of the Copyright Act. As most large media companies already place some form of DRM on their audio and video, this in effect makes it illegal to copy most mainstream audio or video – even if it’s for your own personal use.

What this is really saying is that Canadians have the right to make reproductions of digital audio and video, unless a media corporation decides otherwise.

Think about that.