The Canadian government is about to enter round three of amending its outdated copyright legislation after two prior attempts, Bill C-60 and Bill C-61, died on the parliamentary floor.
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It is difficult to wade through the jingo of the proposed on-line copyright changes, but in a nutshell the bill legalizes existing practices like personal format transferring (copying a CD to an ipod – which is technically illegal at the moment), and outlawing cracking of digital devices (with the exception of cell phones) and digital media that has been locked by the producer in order to restrict ‘unlawful’ use and distribution.
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The potential law will also differentiate between file sharers for personal use and file sharers for commercial use. Infamous Canadian file shares like, Geremi Adam, who recently got a two and a half year sentence for film piracy, would still be liable for extensive fines and jail time, whereas little Jimmy sharing with his friends at elementary school won’t face hard time for uploading the latest Hanna Montana single – though little Jimmy could face a fine up to $5000.
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The proposed bill has plenty of critics, as did the last two bills that entered cardiac arrest, and no doubt there will be a fight over this piece of shoe leather just as there was over the last. One proposed alternative to the bill is taxing digital devices, ipods specifially, in the same way as blank DVD’s and CD’s are taxed to make up for lost revenue due to pirating and file sharing.
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Check out the various links in this entry to figure out how the law will affect you, and how it could change the Canadian copyright landscape.
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