Who Will Police Canada’s Copyright Landscape?
The tabling of Canada’s new copyright legislation is still being scrutinized as critics and proponents get a handle on how it’s actually going to work and whether it’s a step forward or a step backward. (If you’re interested in the nitty gritty, there’s no better place than Michael Geist’s blog.)
Stepping back from the political/legislative fray, one issue that jumps out is how the copyright regime will be enforced.
Given the restrictions on what consumers could do with digital content that is copyright-protected (e.g. it will be illegal to sell an iPod to someone unless you remove all the content on it; and you won’t be able to send a MP3 file to a friend via e-mail if you’re really excited about a new song), how will “illegal” activity be policed?
Will the onus be on ISPs to monitor and report “illegal” activity on their networks? Will the federal government be compelled to create a Copyright Protection Bureau that uses employs hundreds of people and sophisticated packet-sniffing technology to monitor all Internet traffic in Canada?
Given the draconian nature of the proposed legislation, created with little external input or discussion, my sense is a lot of activity will likely go underground. Technology to unlock DRM protection, IP-blocking tools and private, members-only P2P networks will be created as consumers figure out ways to circumvent the legislation.
All of this sounds very Orwellian but if Canada’s new copyright legislation is enacted, this will be the new reality. Make no mistake, this legislation is a political animal created by a government cowering in the wake of enormous pressure from the U.S., which wants every country to embrace its approach to copyright. While the federal government is desperately trying to sell this legislation as a “Made in Canada” solution, don’t be fooled.
For more views, check out Mathew Ingram, who takes a measured look at the good and the bad about the proposed legislation, while Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow opines that Canada’s plan is worse than the U.S.’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act. University of Ottawa law professor Jeremy de Beer also makes some has good insight.
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