thebookpile (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thebookpile) wrote2008-07-03 01:01 pm
thebookpile) wrote2008-07-03 01:01 pm
The PMO responds; the CNA comes out against C-61
I finally got a response from the PMO regarding my many e-mails about copyright reform and Bill C-61. It was nicely worded and polite without addressing any of the issues which I had raised.
In the meantime, the Canadian Newspaper Association has also voiced its displeasure with the bill, bringing up many of the previously stated problems, as well as an interesting one from their own point of view: whistleblowers attempting to send the press electronic information.
This echoes one of the points which I raised in my first letter to my MP and the Industry Minister: "Your government has, in recent history, been a defender of whistleblowers in the public sector. The bill your government is now tabling will weaken the position of whistleblowers in the private sector with technology relating to digital media and digital security."
In the meantime, the Canadian Newspaper Association has also voiced its displeasure with the bill, bringing up many of the previously stated problems, as well as an interesting one from their own point of view: whistleblowers attempting to send the press electronic information.
This means that journalists who come across or are sent electronic documents (for example from a whistleblower) may be unable to use them without incurring very significant liability, even though there are no barriers on using the same materials in print format. It might also mean that citing video or other content from a digitally protected work (say, a DVD movie in which a newsmaker once appeared) could incur liability.
This echoes one of the points which I raised in my first letter to my MP and the Industry Minister: "Your government has, in recent history, been a defender of whistleblowers in the public sector. The bill your government is now tabling will weaken the position of whistleblowers in the private sector with technology relating to digital media and digital security."