Canadian Internet Censorship Bill C-11

[Zephyr]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/right...212657243.html

Bill C-11 could bring SOPA-like online piracy laws to Canada

As the murky status of SOPA and PIPA keeps us in a fog, a Canadian digital policy expert warns us of a clandestine campaign to bring similar online piracy laws north of the border.
The Stop Online Piracy Act was effectively shelved - for the time being - by the U.S. House of Representatives last week. What has been dubbed the "largest online protest in history" appeared to ruffle some feathers in Congress, but Michael Geist, Internet and ecommerce law professor at the University of Ottawa, has warned of a SOPA-like bill to be reintroduced before the House of Commons in the near future.
In a recent post to his personal blog, Geist delves into Bill C-11, a copyright reform legislation that could allow our country to become "a prime target for SOPA-style rules."
"Lobby groups are likely to intensify their efforts to export SOPA-like rules to other countries," explains Geist. "In fact, a close review of the unpublished submissions to the Bill C-32 legislative committee reveals that several groups have laid the groundwork to add SOPA-like rules into Bill C-11, including blocking websites and expanding the 'enabler provision' to target a wider range of websites."
One of Geist's major concerns lies in an effort to expand on the "enabler provision" of Bill C-11. As Jameson Berkow explains in a Financial Post story, "groups such as the Canadian Independent Music Association and the Entertainment Software Association of Canada have been advocating for Ottawa to expand the provision to allow them to go after not just sites containing copyright-infringing content, but also those 'enabling' acts of infringement as well."
Similar to the proponents of SOPA, which largely consists of Hollywood film studios and major record labels, the bulk of those supporting the reintroduction of Bill C-11 earn their keep in the entertainment industry. They argue that a lack of substantial anti-piracy legislation has and will continue to put millions of industry jobs at risk.
Yet Google Inc., perhaps the largest presence to stand against SOPA-style legislation, has argued that such rules, had they been implemented back in 2004, would have made it impossible for YouTube to exist, let alone flourish into the world's largest online video service.
Geist was one of the first to raise awareness of the Canadian implications of SOPA, and his latest blog on Bill C-11 has done much of the same. But Barry Sookman, partner in the Toronto office of McCarthy Tétrault LLP, is quick to discredit Geist's arguments.
"Even if Bill C-11 is amended to cover sites that are primarily designed, operated or used to enable infringement or which induce infringement it would still be inconceivable that the section could be used 'to shut down mainstream sites such as YouTube' as he claims," said Sookman in the Financial Post.
"Michael Geist's blog post fails to point out that Section 27(2.4) of Bill C-11 has six factors that a court must consider before it can conclude that a site is liable for enablement. It is not remotely possible that mainstream sites such as YouTube could be caught."
Stay tuned, folks. It looks like the polarizing battle for anti-piracy legislation will continue for Canadians, as well as our neighbours to the south.

Hrm.

[SmAcKpOo]

This bill coincides with the online spying legislation and lawful access legislation that these Conservatives are trying to push through.

This majority Government scares the shit out of me.

[Xtrema]

Well, unfortunately Harper got the majority. So to stop this, you have to find enough PC members to kill it which IMO would be tough.

Internet freedom is no more.

[CUG]

...and I won't be voting for Harper next time.

[Tik-Tok]

You would think THEY would think ahead a little. "Derrrr, we gots us a majoritay, lets push all 'er shit through now, instead of getting the people ta' trust us, and keep us in majority more than 4 years"

[SmAcKpOo]

Considering PIPA/SOPA produced the biggest protest in history (due to social media) you would think the Government would take a step back. This is definitely a sensitive issue and I can see this potentially being an issue that could lose the Conservatives some seats next election (Maybe not in Alberta but in Eastern Canada for sure).

[CUG]

My only question is "would the lib-tards or the NDP have supported a bill like this, maybe I should vote green next time?"

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by CUG
My only question is "would the lib-tards or the NDP have supported a bill like this"

They'd be too busy financially ruining the country

[CUG]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


They'd be too busy financially ruining the country

Well, that's obvious, but seriously, I'm not a single-issue voter except for this issue.

[frizzlefry]

This article is all about attempts to get SOPA like entries slipped into the bill. None of which has actually happened. The bill is pretty far along now, doubt any additions would be added at this point. Even if they were, the big difference between SOPA and bill C-11 is that, unlike SOPA, a judge has to approve any action against a site. The big bad wolf with SOPA was that there was no judicial review required. Complainants could, on "good faith", demand ISPs block a site due to perceived infringement without any overview by the court system. To be honest, any SOPA type action is completely worthless if a judge has to approve it IMO. No judge wants their name on a precedent setting ruling that could be challenged or interpreted as censorship. And I doubt a bill that allows such action without judicial review would pass in Canada. You could pull that sh*t in the states but not up here.
I actually kinda like one part of bill C-11 that addresses personal copy write infringement vs commercial infringement. You know how the record companies and movie studios in the states would sue little old ladies and students for millions for downloading a movie? Bill C-11 has a provision recognizing personal use infringement and sets a lawsuit limit of 5000 bucks for all acts of piracy. Basically, you could download 100 movies and you can only get sued for a maximum of 5 grand. It would cost the studios 5 grand in the first 3 days of lawyer fees to sue someone. Hence they won’t make any money off suing anyone in Canada so they won’t do it. It’s a license to torrent. The whole scheme of recouping losses on crappy movies (ie the Nude Nuns with Big Guns fiasco) simply won’t work up here after this bill passes.

edit: for those not in the know, the Nude Nuns with Big Guns thing was an attempt at a cash grab from torrenters. The movie was made for 200 grand, you could not rent it anywhere, buy it anywhere or stream it anywhere. Yet somwhow it ended up on thepiratebay and the studio that made it sued about 50,000 people for downloading it. It came out that the people who filled the lawsuit did not even own the rights to the movie anymore and were also the ones who put it on thepiratebay in the first place, hoping to make a profit by suing people because the movie was so bad it never got distribution. And it actually worked, before a judge ruled that they could not sue anyone as they did not own the rights anymore enough people were scared by the nasty-gram sent by the lawyers that they settled right away. The lawsuit made about 500 grand before it was squashed.

[J-D]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


They'd be too busy financially ruining the country

[alloroc]

Originally posted by J-D

Excatly - It takes almost two terms to see a change in the general economy from the time changes are legislated to when they finally have an impact on the GDP.

The liberals kept most of Mulrooney's policies that fixed the mistakes from the liberals that were in before Mulroony.- note the upturn at the end of the first conservative government. Then The downturn at the end of the last liberal leadership Harper is still trying to fix after the last liberal budget that messed everything up .. not to mention Harper had to deal with the downswing in the US economy that I think the conservatives managed exceedingly well.

[ekguy]

Originally posted by CUG
...and I won't be voting for Harper next time.

next time??? How could you vote for him??? EVER????

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by ekguy


next time??? How could you vote for him??? EVER????

Who do you suggest as a relevant alternative?

[Toma]

Originally posted by J-D

Yup, Conservative supporting RETARDS are clueless.

Makes PERFECT sense though. I mean really, our Conservatives= American Republicans and Fox new worshipers. What else can we expect?

[Toma]

Originally posted by alloroc


Excatly - It takes almost two terms to see a change in the general economy from the time changes are legislated to when they finally have an impact on the GDP.

Oh yeah? Where is this two term rule written that you speak of? Looks like a lag of 2-3 years, not 8 to me. It's the ANNUAL budget you are looking at here. You realize that right???

[UndrgroundRider]

The real scary thing about C-11 isn't the fines or penalties, it's the digital locks provisions:

41.1 (1) No person shall

(a) circumvent a technological protection measure within the meaning of paragraph (a) of the definition “technological protection measure” in section 41;

This basically gives content producers the right to dictate EXACTLY how you may "consume" their content. For example, it will now become illegal to copy a DVD movie that you OWN to your iPad to watch. It will be illegal to jailbreak your iPhone, that you OWN.

A digital lock can be ANYTHING. It can impose any kind of ridiculous restriction on the media. It's completely arbitrary and basically trumps ALL consumer rights. Essentially it's a loop hole through which the large studios may introduce any type of restriction on the media that they see fit, without having to amend the copyright law.

How ridiculous is it that you can go out and spend $500+ on an iPhone or iPad, and Apple FORCES you by power of law to only purchase and use third-party software from their app store that is Apple approved? And forces by power of law the creators of that third-party software to use Apple's app store (and pay a substation portion of revenue to Apple)?

Could you imagine what a different world we'd live in if Microsoft took the same approach when they released the first versions of DOS and Windows?

It doesn't matter how you slice it, this bill is not going to protect the independent content maker. It's going to give complete control of the market to the mainstream studios and distribution power houses. (And in turn, make it that much more difficult to be an independent content creator.)

[Freeskier]

Originally posted by CUG
...and I won't be voting for Harper next time.

Yeah I agree. I felt he was by far the best prime minister to take us through the recession and at the head of a minority government he did well. But now he has a majority...all of the crazier policies can get pushed through and I'm totally against that.

[CUG]

Originally posted by Toma


Yup, Conservative supporting RETARDS are clueless.

You need to be at a high point to even be able to make that remark in the first place, Toma. You're socialist/communist right? I suspect if you didn't tune everyone's cars on here, you'd have less friends on here.

You cry about people who make emotional and rash decisions, yet you label everyone who supports the Canadian conservative party as "retards". You can't even dial in your own irrational emotions on the matter, you're almost worse than a right wing Christian fundamentalist.

What makes you think you have any authoritative voice on politics at all when you respond out of frustration and lack of intelligence the way you just did? You say you're "getting old" in your other thread, I thought you had to be smart to get old?

I think the only "clueless" people here are the ones who thought the NDP would have a better fiscal plan that would survive the current economy. You're a science major, so you know though, right?

I'm sorry man, but you're just offensive. To think I've recommended you to people even though you're such a dick to me on here is a bit annoying too. I guess it's my fault though.



Over and above that, the liberals got decimated, and the NDP had volunteer karate instructors winning seats. If you're going to try to ascribe intelligence anywhere, you're failing miserably.

[Freeskier]

The last election was so fucked. I had no idea that was going to happen. The NDP was in no place to win so many seats and did no have a viable platform in place to support such popularity. I feel the liberal party had completely lost touch with their own values and therefore got paddled, and so the conservatives were the only viable choice for a lot of sensible canadians. Now that they have power though I could see a lot of voters being swung back to the liberals once they see some of the more extreme conservative policies.

(drunk. got sidetracked.)