[free-sklyarov] [dave@farber.net: IP: Canadian "DMCA" in the Works - Short Deadline]

[Seth David Schoen]

I've seen this before, but it's a good letter-writing target for those
in Canada.

----- Forwarded message from David Farber <dave at farber.net> -----

Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 03:33:32 -0400
To: ip-sub-1 at majordomo.pobox.com
From: David Farber <dave at farber.net>
Subject: IP: Canadian "DMCA" in the Works - Short Deadline


>ALERT: Canadian "DMCA" in the Works - Short Deadline
>
>  Tell Canada to Reject Anti-Technology Bans
>
>    Electronic Frontier Foundation ACTION ALERT
>
>    (Issued: Friday, September 7, 2001 / Deadline: Saturday, September 15,
>    2001)
>
>    Introduction:
>
>   Canadian citizens, and others, are urged to contact the Canadian
>   government and express their opposition to legislation, similar to the
>   Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the U.S., that would outlaw
>   circumvention of technological restrictions put in place by copyright
>   holders. The Canadian government is accepting public comment until
>   September 15, 2001 on its proposed "Consultation Paper on Digital
>   Copyright Issues" which considers such measures.
>
>   These anti-technology bans violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and
>   Freedom's guarantee of freedom of speech, and similar guarantees in
>   the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, since such tools are
>   necessary to exercise lawful uses, including fair use. They would turn
>   scientists, fair users, journalists, programmers, and archivists into
>   criminals. While protecting copyright is important, passing measures
>   that also censor much lawful speech goes too far, without ever
>   achieving its objective.
>
>   Canada is considering adopting anti-circumvention legislation in
>   response to the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) 1996
>   Copyright Treaty. This treaty, however, does not require enacting
>   national legislation that outlaws technology with many lawful uses.
>   Given the dismal US experience with the DMCA, other countries should
>   learn from and steer clear of the U.S. Congress's mistake.
>
>    What YOU Can Do:
>
>   EFF calls upon the citizens of Canada, and other interested parties
>   around the world, to submit comments by Sept. 15, urging the Canadian
>   agency Intellectual Property Policy Directorate to remove the
>   provisions of the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues that
>   outlaw the act of circumvention and forbid providing tools for
>   circumvention of technological protection measures restricting use of
>   copyrighted works.
>
>   Comments, to be received by the government by September 15, 2001,
>   should be submitted to:
>
>   Comments - Government of Canada Copyright Reform
>   c/o Intellectual Property Policy Directorate
>   Industry Canada
>   235 Queen Street
>   5th Floor West
>   Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5 Canada
>   fax: (613) 941-8151
>   copyright-droitdauteur at ic.gc.ca (text, HTML, WordPerfect and MSWord
>   formats accepted)
>
>    Sample Letter:
>
>   This is just an example. It will be most effective if you send
>   something similar but in your own words.
>
>     To Industry Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage, the
>     Intellectual Property Policy Directorate and other concerned
>     agencies:
>
>     I write to express my grave concern regarding the extreme
>     intellectual property provisions of the Consultation Paper on
>     Digital Copyright Issues (CPCDI).
>
>     These measures, based on the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act
>     (DMCA), give far too much power to publishers, at the expense of
>     indivdiuals' rights. The DMCA itself is already under legal
>     challenge in the US, has gravely chilled scientists' and computer
>     security researchers' freedom of expression around the world for
>     fear of being prosecuted in the US, and resulted in the arrest of a
>     Russian programmer. The CPDCI provisions, which serve no one but
>     (largely American) corporate copyright interests, are just as
>     overbroad as those of the DMCA.
>
>     These provisions would amend the Canadian Copyright Act to ban,
>     with few or no exceptions, software and other tools that allow copy
>     prevention technologies to be bypassed. This would violate the
>     Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee of freedom of speech, and
>     similar guarantees in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
>     since such tools are necessary to exercise lawful uses, including
>     fair use, reverse engineering, computer security research and many
>     others.
>
>     I urge you to remove these controversial and anti-freedom
>     provisions from the CPDCI language. The DMCA is already an
>     international debacle. Its flaws should not be imported and forced
>     on Canadians.
>
>     Sincerely,
>     [Your full name]
>     [Your address]
>
>    Background:
>
>   For more information about the Canadian Copyright Act amendment
>   process, including the proposed digital copyright measures and how
>   Canadian citizens can become involved, see the following Web site:
>     http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/rp01100e.html
>
>    About EFF:
>
>   The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties
>   organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded
>   in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and
>   government to support free expression, privacy, and openness in the
>   information society. EFF is a member-supported organization and
>   maintains one of the most linked-to Web sites in the world:
>     http://www.eff.org
>
>    Contact:
>
>     Will Doherty, EFF Online Activist / Media Relations
>     wild at eff.org
>     +1 415 436 9333 x111
>
>     Robin Gross, EFF Intellectual Property Attorney
>     robin at eff.org
>     +1 415 436 9333 x112
>
>                                  - end -



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----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Its really terrible when FBI arrested
Temp.  http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/ | hacker, who visited USA with peacefull
down:  http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF) | mission -- to share his knowledge with
     http://www.freesklyarov.org/      | american nation.  (Ilya V. Vasilyev)