Tweet
Canada's proposed new copyright laws, dubbed the Canadian DMCA, has been unveiled and if passed, could mean a lot of changes, some good, some not so good.
Starting with the good bits. Time-shifting is finally officially legal, meaning people have the right to record programs for later viewing, but must delete it after an appropriate amount of time. Format shifting is also legal, which means that CD ripping is definitely not against Canadian law. Backups are legal too, but like the US DMCA, it is only legal if you do not break the DRM, no matter how flimsy the implementation is.
Fair use is also on the cards, with "research, private study, education, parody, or satire" all exempt. Mash-ups are also allowed as long as it's a non commercial production, and does not affect the original work financially.
ISPs get a boost compared to the US model, since they are only liable to pass on any infringement notices to the end user, with no expectation of blocking content or booting users - so any copyright dispute is strictly between the rights holder and the alleged infringer, the ISP is kept out of the legal fight.
P2P also gets a mention, and anyone providing services that can be primarily used for sharing copyrighted content illegally is committing copyright infringement.
Overall, the laws are less harsh than the US DMCA, but not allowing users to break DRM, even for backup or format shifting, means a win for copyright holders, against fair use for consumers.
More:
Starting with the good bits. Time-shifting is finally officially legal, meaning people have the right to record programs for later viewing, but must delete it after an appropriate amount of time. Format shifting is also legal, which means that CD ripping is definitely not against Canadian law. Backups are legal too, but like the US DMCA, it is only legal if you do not break the DRM, no matter how flimsy the implementation is.
Fair use is also on the cards, with "research, private study, education, parody, or satire" all exempt. Mash-ups are also allowed as long as it's a non commercial production, and does not affect the original work financially.
ISPs get a boost compared to the US model, since they are only liable to pass on any infringement notices to the end user, with no expectation of blocking content or booting users - so any copyright dispute is strictly between the rights holder and the alleged infringer, the ISP is kept out of the legal fight.
P2P also gets a mention, and anyone providing services that can be primarily used for sharing copyrighted content illegally is committing copyright infringement.
Overall, the laws are less harsh than the US DMCA, but not allowing users to break DRM, even for backup or format shifting, means a win for copyright holders, against fair use for consumers.
More:
Comment