There is a copyright overhaul going on in Canada. The minister in charge is Bev Oda, of the minority (!) Conservative party. This is probably a bad thing. The US has gone through a series of tragic legislative moves regarding copyright, the capper being the just-bloody-awful Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which makes it a federal crime to work around any obstacle any software might put between you and content. Even if that content isn’t in copyright, or is but you have a right to use it (that happens, all the time) or if it’s your own damn content that you made personally. Doesn’t matter. If Big Content were to say, invent a DVD ‘region-coding’ scheme where DVDs from France aren’t supposed to play in DVD players in North America, then finding a way to watch the DVD you bought in France would be a federal crime. And they did and it is. Imagine if Micrsoft invented an computer operating system which was built around the assumption that all content that might be stored or accessed through that system doesn’t belong to you and all useage must be restricted to the point of turning off your hardware if it isn’t convinced to the contrary. And they did and it will.

Okay I lied, that wasn’t the capper. The capper is the fact that about every 20 years the US government extends the copyright protection period by about 20 years. So nothing is leaving copyright, even though copyright has always been meant to be a limited deal. Which wouldn’t be such a big deal if fair-use rights (that’s rights, as in, they are) weren’t under going steady legal attack (see above) and cultural forgetting. Which they are.

Beyond and layerd on top of these petty complaints about accessing file X with gadget Y, rights to content use impinge on our capacities to do useful and cool things like Google Books, and our ability to make art that is derivative of other art. It’s just harder to rant about that.

Canada has lots of these problems, but so far we’ve been doing at least better (than the US). The fact that we’re having a copyright overhaul is therefore a jittery thing. There’s lots of opportunities for improvement. There’s lots of room between here and the bottom. The scary thing is that Bev Oda is not who you want setting your copyright law. She is, in the parlance, a stooge.

I wrote Minister Oda an email, as I hope you did too. That email, and her response, and my brief response to that response, follows (if my operating system lets it). For what it’s worth, her response suggests that she is being forced to modify her earlier position. Somewhat.

Me to Minister Oda:

Ms. Oda,

History clearly shows that when technology improves, crippling that technology to benefit old business models is not the economic or artistically beneficial choice.

The ability to transfer content from one medium to another is a feature, not a bug, of digital distribution. Think in the long term: can you possibly imagine a market future in which the cultural economy is maintained by whole-scale locking down of files to the wishes of the large studios?

Major movie and record labels should not and do not have the right to dictate copyright law. That is up to Canadians via the government. By writing into legislation the de facto illegality of anything the studios wish not to be done, we giving them [sic] the power to write law with technology. They have shown themselves wrong again and again.

Fair use is as real and valuable as balanaced copyright protection. Alternatives to today’s obsolete cultural business models exist and can be implemented to the benefit of artists, citizens, and the economy.

Please don’t be hoodwinked by the money.

Regards,

Hugh Stimson

Minister Oda to me:

Dear Mr. Stimson:

Thank you for your correspondence of January 12, 2007, regarding copyright reform in Canada. I appreciate your advising me of your views and have carefully noted your comments with respect to this matter.

Please be assured that the Government of Canada is aware of the sensitive nature of issues regarding copyright in the digital context. I am working with the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry, on new copyright legislation for Canada. These are complex issues and the Government is continuing to consider the concerns of all Canadians as it moves forward with copyright reform.

The cultural policy objective of the Copyright Act is to ensure adequate protection for creators and cultural content as well as appropriate access for all Canadians to cultural works.

Governmental officials are monitoring developments around the world as they plan the next steps that Canada will take on this matter. The Government wants to ensure that the rights of Canadian creators are adequately protected by law, and that these rights are balanced with the ability of the public to access works. Your interest in copyright reform is appreciated.

I trust that this information is useful. Please accept my best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Bev Oda, P.C., M.P.

Note that she frames the ‘point’ of copyright law as both “adequate protection for creators and cultural content” and “appropriate access for all Canadians to cultural works”. That last part is new for her.

So that’s good anway.