Bill C-61 critic says new government must ensure fair copyright bill

The political party that wins this October’s federal election should enact copyright legislation that ensures basic user-rights are not totally wiped out, says Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor who has been a vocal critic of the now defunct Bill C-61. “I would like to see an approach modelled from any number of countries, including our own Bill C-60, that creates a direct link between circumvention and copyright infringement so that we preserve some of those basic fair-dealing rights,” says Geist, in an interview with Canadian New Media. In June, Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced legislation to reform copyright laws in Canada. But Bill C-61 was criticized for being too draconian. Geist was one of the bill’s sharpest critics, churning out material on his blog denouncing aspects of it and writing extensively about the intended legislation in newspaper columns. In July, he launched a national video competition channel on YouTube to protest the bill. The winners of the competition were announced on September 15. “I have been pretty consistent in speaking out for a balanced fair approach,” he says. “The kind of principles there speak to the need for—from an anti-circumvention perspective—ensuring that the existing user-rights, the existing balance that we have in the Copyright Act, is not eviscerated in the digital realm.” With an election on the way, Bill C-61 died on the order paper, but Geist says a new copyright bill will be back soon, no matter who forms the government. However, he says it is important that a new bill should guarantee and protect fair dealing. Despite attempts to create such an exception in Bill C-61 through format shifting and time shifting, there were so many conditions and restrictions placed on them that they were rendered unworkable, Geist adds. Asked how he would rate the Harper government on copyright issues, Geist says the record isn’t particularly encouraging because there was no consultation on Bill C-61, despite calls to do so. The legislation, he says, ignored the concerns of Canadians and didn’t strike the right balance. On how the other political parties performed on copyright issues, Geist notes that “there was an element of uncertainty” on where they stood, although he commends the NDP and Liberal MP Marlene Jennings for speaking out against Bill C-61. Looking back, Geist suggests Bill C-61 had the “record industry and U.S. trade representatives written all over it,” but says he feels vindicated that his criticism of the bill served to galvanize the public to speak out. “Certainly, the government’s decision to delay the legislation from December until on to June reflects the large number of Canadians speaking out,” he says, adding that the addition of exceptions like format shifting and time shifting were also a result of the public’s outrage. “We don’t know really know what would have happened this fall, but I think it’s pretty clear that all parties were paying an increasing amount of attention to the issue and to a lot of concerns Canadians were expressing.”

Bill C-61 critic says new government must ensure fair copyright bill

News | 09/22/2008 6:30 pm EDT

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