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Industry Minister Jim Prentice tabled Bill C-61, an Act to Amend the Copyright Act, in June.
If passed into law, Bill C-61 would make it illegal to circumvent or bypass technologies that control access to material protected by copyright. It would also make it illegal to provide, market or import tools designed to enable circumvention.
Though the bill does include exemptions for encryption research and developers working on making software interoperate, some experts say the bill also has serious ramifications for security researchers and software developers.
Therefore, we have posted a petition online asking the government to prohibit the circumvention of technological measures only in cases where the party is circumventing them for the purpose of copyright infringement.
If you sign the petition, you are asking for an amendment to Bill C-61 that would change section 41.1 of Bill C-61 to read: “No person shall circumvent a technological measure within the meaning of paragraph (a) of the definition “technological measure” in section 41 for the purpose of violating the rights of a copyright owner …” and to remove sections 41.1 through 41.21.
As it stands, Bill C-61 would make it illegal to possess these technological measures - regardless of whether you are actually using them to violate copyrights - except in very specific circumstances.
“It errs on the side of making technology illegal as opposed to making behaviour illegal,” said Bob Young, CEO of online publisher Lulu Inc. who founded Linux vendor Red Hat Inc. in 1993. “It’s the equivalent to making screwdrivers and pliers illegal because they can be used to break and enter instead of making the act of breaking and entering illegal”.
Bill C-61 includes exemptions for schools, allowing them to use material posted on the Internet by copyright holders “without an expectation of compensation” and to transmit content to students located off campus. Bill C-61 also includes an exemption for developers who circumvent technological measures for sole purpose of making computer programs interoperable. It also includes exemptions that allow people to remove technological measures for the purpose of reverse engineering, security testing and encryption research.
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