Campaign to Stop Bill C-60 (Canada’s DMCA)

Tyson Whitehead writes “Bill C-60 is supposed to bring the Canadian Copyright Act in line with the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WCT) and Performance and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT).

In truth, it goes overboard. It awards damages in the absence of actual infringement and makes manufacturers responsible for the users of their devices. This repeats the folly of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and opens the Canadian copyright system up to the same blatant abuse by industry.

Canada does not have to do this. Neither the WCT nor the WPPT require that manufacturers be held responsible for consumer actions, and provisions in the treaties can be used to require actual infringement before awarding damages. There is still a small window of opportunity to contact your Member of Parliament (MP).

Further information is available here (an MP contact list, a template letter, and two in-depth documents discussing the WIPO treaties, the DMCA, Bill C-60, the Canadian Recording Industry Association, Internet file-sharing, and the Canadian Copyright Act).”