Grassroots copyright lobbies targeting MPs over the summer

OTTAWA—Grassroots lobbying is picking up on the government’s copyright bill as MPs head home for the summer and the legislation now awaits second reading vote and a trip to a special legislative committee in the fall. Consumer and public interest groups have created a copyright action page at online portal digitalagenda.ca, encouraging the public to contact their MPs through a letter-writing wizard. “We’ve seen in the past the amazing power of grassroots concern about where we’re going with copyright,” NDP MP Charlie Angus, his party’s digital affairs critic, said in an interview. “I think the grassroots campaigns are going to be growing over the summer.” A new group called Balanced Copyright for Canada emerged last week, calling on Canadians to “Take action and be heard” and contact their members of Parliament in support of the government’s Bill C-32. The campaign attempts to engage the public through social media, encouraging them to voice their support for C-32 and pick holes in media reports and comments that are critical of the bill. “Use your voice to tell your Member of Parliament to pass this legislation and protect the right of thousands of Canadians to make a living doing what they love,” its website says. The campaign site posts links to articles for the public to comment on through social media, and suggests talking points in support for the bill, on the need to fight piracy, and even take jabs at user-rights advocate Michael Geist, the Canada research chair of Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa. But Balanced Copyright for Canada’s “about” page does not say who the organization represents, and critics last week questioned whether the project is an “Astroturf” campaign. The organization initially displayed members’ names on its website, but after some critics began asking questions about the names, the list was removed. TVO’s Jesse Brown, host of the program Search Engine, wrote on Twitter on June 14 that after conducting searches of the group’s members, he found that many of them work for the major sound recording labels. On his blog, Geist called the project a “major Astroturf campaign.” The Wire Report asked for an interview through Twitter and the group’s website on Thursday, but did not receive a reply by deadline Friday. “When it gets to this point in the process, about the only leverage the public has is to contact their MP,” David Fewer, director of the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), said in an interview. CIPPIC is involved in the digitalagenda.ca campaign, which has also launched a “Twitter petition” that encourages the public to send tweets to Moore “to stop digital lockout.” The grassroots user lobby is focusing on Bill C-32’s proposal to create strict legal protections for digital rights management—the “digital locks” on content and devices—as the Conservative government’s former Bill C-61 proposed in 2008 in line with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That bill died on the order paper due to an election. But Bill C-32 also proposes several new exceptions that user groups have celebrated, such as new rights for “format shifting” (copying content from one medium to another), “time shifting” (storing content for later use), a so-called “YouTube exception” permitting users to remix “legitimately acquired” content for non-commercial purposes, as well as other exceptions for parody, satire, and education. Digitalagenda.ca’s letter-writing wizard—which focuses on the digital lock provision in the bill—finds a user’s MP by postal code and auto-generates an email to their Member of Parliament, Heritage Minister James Moore, Industry Minister Tony Clement, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The site encourages users to edit and rewrite the letter to suit their personal views, but the suggested letter says the bill includes “many excellent and long-overdue reforms that will bring copyright law into conformity with the reality of how Canadians experience content,” and that these rights “are undermined by C-32’s extreme position on digital locks.” User groups argue that Bill C-32’s legal protection for digital locks will trump the bill’s proposed exceptions on locked content. But Moore has said that some industries, such as the video game sector, depend on digital locks and need legal protection for them to support their business models. The rights holder lobby is also making this argument. Balanced Copyright for Canada ran a blog posting on its site Friday by McCarthy Tétrault lawyer James Gannon, who wrote that digital rights management helps distributors market works at different price points. Content with digital rights management will have use restrictions and can be offered at lower prices, or free, he wrote. Grassroots campaigns are also likely to target members of the legislative committee that will be struck to study the bill in the fall. The House of Commons adjourned for the summer on Thursday, and will return to business Sept. 20. Clement told The Wire Report on Parliament Hill this week that Bill C-32 will be sent to a legislative committee—expected to be comprised of members from the House industry and heritage committees—after second reading in the House. Such a move means that the general principle of the bill is agreed to before the committee stage, preventing wholesale amendments at the committee. “You vote at second reading on the general principle of the bill. I don’t anticipate any problem on that. It’s certainly the details that will be debated quite extensively, I’m sure, but that’s the way it should be,” Clement said. Moore said during Question Period this week that the bill has the support of both consumers and rights holders. "According to the chamber, Bill C-32 is an important step toward maintaining a competitive, thriving economy,” Moore said. “Bill C-32 is a monumental and essential measure that will go a long way toward maintaining a stable and competitive business environment in Canada.” In what some saw as a controversial statement, Moore cited support from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce as evidence that consumers support the bill. The Canadian Consumer Initiative, a coalition of six consumer groups, reacted swiftly to the comment, releasing a letter to the minister that said the Chamber of Commerce does not reflect consumer interests. The letter noted that the coalition’s members are “united in opposing the digital lock provisions of Bill C-32.” Russell McOrmond, a consultant and a user rights advocate in Ottawa, wrote on his blog Digital Copyright Canada that advocates like himself have a “busy summer ahead,” and urged readers to contact their MPs. “While the members of the current Heritage and Industry committees are the most likely to want to be on the special legislative committee for C-32, this is never a certainty. Your own MP is always your best gateway to talk to other MPs, including the members of any current or future committees,” he wrote Thursday. sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Grassroots copyright lobbies targeting MPs over the summer

Broadcast | June 18, 2010

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Grassroots copyright lobbies targeting MPs over the summer

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