Canada reintroduces copyright bill

This week, the Canadian government presented the renewed bill on copyright protection. The new bill is designed to modernize the current Canadian legislation and tries to balance the demands of consumers with the concerns of the film industry.

Among others, the bill includes the following:

Reduction in damages
If the bill is passed, fines for copyright infringements will be significantly reduced. Damages are reduced to one-time payments between 100 and 5,000 Canadian Dollars, instead of a maximum fine of 20.0000 Canadian Dollars for a single violation.

Technological protection measures
The bill allows Canadians to copy legally acquired music and movies on their iPods and computers. However, the bill bars the ability for Canadians to circumvent or break through copyright protecting technical measures on books, movies, music, games. In Europe, the prohibition to circumvent/break through  technological protection measures is covered by Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonization of copyright legislation.

Canada is known for its weak copyright legislation. After Washington put Canada on the "priority watch list" of countries with the weakest copyright protection, the Canadian government thought it was time to modernize the legislation. The Canadian governement introduced a copyright bill before, but found it difficult to balance demands of consumers and demands of the film industry. Perhaps the new bill will succeed in balancing the demands.

The new bill has the same form as the previous one, so the government is positive that the bill will pass quickly and is committed to adopt the bill before the end of the year.

Reference: Reuters

By: Karen Groen