Letter regarding Bill C60 and DRM

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December 6, 2007

Dear Sir,

I am a constituent who lives in the Toronto Parkdale/High Park area and cares about Canada's cultural policies. I am writing in regard to recent legislative proposals for "copyright reform". Bill C-60 provided some very sensible approaches to this complicated topic but it also left much room for improvement.

It is my hope that you will work to ensure that any new legislation does not invalidate the sensible policies set out in Bill C-60.

Specifically, I do not believe that "digital rights management" (DRM) technologies should stop the public from making lawful uses of their legitimately acquired media. Publishers use DRM to disregard the delicate balance between copyright and the rights of the public - a balance set according to an assessment of the public interest by legislators - and replace it with one-sided rules that reflect publishers' private interests. The artists themselves disagree with publishers' anti-consumer use of DRM, as evidenced by the recently formed Canadian Music Creators Coalition. Therefore, as in Bill C-60, new copyright reform legislation should not make it illegal to circumvent DRM for lawful purposes.

I am also concerned that the use of DRM can threaten computer security and consumer privacy. As content companies routinely use technological measures to control how people enjoy entertainment in the privacy of their own homes, it becomes clear that DRM serves at best only to inconvenience honest users and at worst to violate their rights, as in the recent Sony-BMG "Rootkit" fiasco.

These concerns are shared by a substantial and growing number of informed Canadian citizens. I hope that you will take them into account when considering any changes to Canadian copyright law.

Thanks very much for your time.

The above is mostly taken from Online Rights Canada, as they provide a great form for generating a letter to members of parliament regarding Bill-C60. I only modified it slightly to give it more of a Hwan-smell. Yes, I was lazy and only did the e-mailing bit. I did MEAN to write them up as actual letters, but I received a response from my MP (well, her aide) merely hours after sending, telling me she herself would respond soon. I received that response this morning, a well-worded and well meaning letter, at least in terms of consumer rights. Also, it's always cute when politicians use the word "cyberspace".

Oh, and the letter was also sent to The Honourable Josée Verner, PC MP as well as The Honourable Jim Prentice PC MP, which is important because he had an open house on Monday, where, apparently, he pretty much ignored questions that didn't come from the media. Well there is some news on that: It looks like the Canadian DMCA will be held off until after the new year. So... yay? If anything I'd say that the concerned citizen response was large enough to cause them to pause and contemplate a new strategy, or perhaps dig in their heels and get ready for the beginning of the end of the beginning....

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