CopyNight Toronto: Meeting Tomorrow, Tuesday the 24th!

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Dear CopyNight Toronto,
As you probably know, a lot has happened in Canadian copyright
this month. Before I go further, the logistics:
Where: Victory Cafe
When: 7 P.M.
Host: Damien Fox & Todd Ritchie
(Ren is in San Francisco until August)
Hope you can join us!
Industry Minister Jim Prentice finally introduced his long-awaited
copyright "reform" bill on June 12. In the coming months, you
will hear Bill C-61's proponents say that it updates Canadian
copyright law and brings us in line with both the digital economy
and the law of other developed countries. You will hear that it
was "made-in-Canada." And you will hear that it adds all sorts of
new rights for consumers. Unfortunately, all of this spin is
designed to distract us from the proposal's fatal flaw.
The central feature of Prentice's legislation is the following:
Bill C-61 makes it illegal to circumvent the locks on digital
content--known as "digital rights management" or "DRM"--for any
reason. This is the approach that the US has successfully pushed
around the world, and it just doesn't work. It constrains
legitimate users while doing little or nothing to stop piracy.
Canadians will be poorly served if Prentice successfully pushes
this through Parliament.
To put the DRM provisions in context, none of the bill's
consumer-friendly rhetoric about back-ups and moving music to your
iPod will matter if a copyright holder decides to slap DRM on the
content you buy. The same is true for Bill C-61's educational
provisions. This is not an acceptable deal.
This is the bill that all copyright-watchers have been waiting
for, and the time to start organizing against it is now (well,
tomorrow night). Over the next months, a vigorous campaign will
be mounted to fix or kill Bill C-61, and having a cohesive group
of Torontonian copyfighters will be extremely valuable. So come
out to the Victory, have a pint, and start the rabble-rousing with
some friendly geeks!
Cheers,