Lobbyists line up for reintroduction of government tech bills

Several telecommunications and e-commerce organizations have registered to lobby the government on key technology bills that the Tories are preparing to reintroduce. An informed government source told The Wire Report that the government is preparing to reintroduce bills C-27, C-46, C-47 and C-58, which dealt with spam, lawful access, and child pornography. But it’s unclear whether the bills will be reintroduced with or without amendments made to them during the previous parliamentary session. The Wire Report hears that a decision has not yet been made, but legal consultations are taking place and the bills are being discussed in cabinet. Bill C-27, the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, had progressed furthest in the legislative process, and, according to the federal registry of lobbyists, is now receiving the most attention from lobbyists. The so-called anti-spam bill would prohibit the installation of computer programs that could send electronic messages without user consent, and forbid Canadians from sending commercial messages to any electronic addresses without receiver consent. The bill would implement maximum fines of $1 million for individual offenders and $10 million for organizations. Whether C-27 will be reintroduced with or without the 64 amendments made to it during the previous session is of importance to the bill’s opponents. Its final version, sent to the Senate in early December, clarified that the law does not apply to requested correspondence, including quotes and estimates, or purchase confirmation, warranty and safety emails. Amazon.ca, PFSL Investments (Canada) Ltd., the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) and eBay Canada have updated their lobbying registrations to reflect a desire to discuss the bill with the government, namely Industry Canada. In its registration renewal, Amazon.ca said it is lobbying Industry Canada “with respect to legislative amendments concerning implied consent and private right of action.” The CMA said it is interested in the “developments of measures related to electronic commerce with regard to consumer privacy protection, anti-spam initiatives, cross border data transfer.” The CMA told the Standing Committee on Industry Science and Technology last June that it supported C-27 because “it will put in place a framework and enforcement regime to significantly reduce spam and to go after malicious online activity.” The organization also said the bill would balance “that goal with the need to promote economic activity and allow responsible marketers to continue using the channel for consent-based electronic commercial communication.” The CMA has said it has concerns, however, about the possibility of penalizing legitimate marketing activities. In a letter addressed to Conservative MP and House industry committee chair Michael Chong, dated Oct. 9, 2009, the CMA said it “wants to ensure that this legislation does not penalize legitimate marketing activities by unfairly or inadvertently placing burdens on Canadian marketers.” The CMA also expressed concern with the administrative penalties associated with breeching the bill. “We believe these levels of ‘administrative penalty’ ($1 million dollars for individuals and $10 million ) to be both unprecedented and unwarranted,” the CMA’s letter said. “It is our position that the severity of Administrative Monetary Penalties will pose unintended impacts on the economy. Penalizing ethical marketers that have inadvertently violated some aspect of the Bill could provide for catastrophic results. We believe that these potential outcomes could conceivably stifle or add tremendous burden and costs to ecommerce, instead of protecting and encouraging it.” Wally Hill, the CMA’s vice-president of public affairs and communications, said the organization is now dropping these concerns to focus on the bill’s consent provisions. “We have had discussions with MPs and the government and so on about the consent provisions in the bill. We were concerned that the consent provisions, if they are too different from Canadian privacy legislation, would impose an unnecessary cost and difficulty in doing business on legitimate Canadian businesses,” Hill said in an interview. The CMA’s position is that the consent provisions should be “largely consistent” with Canadian the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Hill said. “By putting in place proper consent requirements of the kind that exist in Canadian privacy law, you are going to put all these bad spammers on the wrong side of the law. They don’t use any consent, they go around and harvest email addresses off the Internet without any kind of permission to even collect them, let alone what they’re going to use them for.” C-27 could be reintroduced with amendments. Industry Canada spokeswoman Lauren Ehrenworth wrote by email that the government “heard from a wide range of interested parties during the last session of Parliament and the bill was amended at Third Reading in the House to reflect many of the issues raised.” A pair of bills introduced in the last session, Bill C-46 and Bill C-47, would introduce so-called “lawful access” measures. C-47 would require telecom service providers give law enforcement agencies access to decrypted intercepted communications under an order from the public safety minister, and require providers to give law enforcement agencies the name, address, contact information and mobile ID of subscribers to prevent an imminent unlawful act. C-46 would permit judges to issue orders to preserve electronic evidence and compel providers to share data relating to the communications or the location of transaction of individuals. The legislation has garnered attention from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) and Research in Motion Limited (RIM). RIM did not comment on its lobbying activities, but the lobbyist registry shows the company is interested in the telecommunications aspects of Bill C-46. Pamela Stephens, press secretary to the minister of justice, confirmed by email that the government intends to reintroduce the bill consistent with its pledge in the speech from the throne. “Those wishing to make representations will be welcomed to do so as part of the Parliamentary process,” she wrote. The CWTA has been involved in discussions on lawful access with the federal government since 2002, according to comments provided by the association to the Department of Public Safety in 2007. CWTA director of communications Marc Choma said the CWTA has not changed its position on the bills since they issued their recommendations. The CWTA supports lawful access, but it “has consistently advocated for standards-based technical requirements, appropriate compensation for Telecommunications Service Provider costs, and a phased-in approach for the implementation of any newly required technical capabilities,” according to the organization’s comments. At the heart of the issue is the costs incurred by wireless providers to meet the needs of law enforcement agencies. The CWTA’s comments said wireless carriers maintain security departments and “incur significant costs” to cooperate and work with law enforcement agencies, which should compensate providers for law enforcement services. The CWTA added that mobile telephone numbers are confidential and carriers would have to develop new systems to rapidly respond to the demands of law enforcement agencies. Choma said that if the reintroduced bills do not meet the association’s concerns, the CWTA will continue to lobby the government. “We’re going to have to wait to see the next version of the legislation, and we will obviously take a look at that. If we still have concerns we would bring those to the attention of the government,” he said. The federal government will also reintroduce Bill C-58, the Child Protection Act, which would force ISPs to tell authorities of any knowledge of IP address that distribute child pornography. Amazon.ca and PFSL Investments did not return calls, and eBay.ca declined to comment on its lobbying activities. kfournier@thewirereport.ca

Lobbyists line up for reintroduction of government tech bills

News | 03/24/2010 8:28 pm EDT

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