Canadian grad student choice

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by bendable

Without opening up the debate on this again (I've noticed that there are quite a few threads on that already), does anyone know of a reputable resource that discusses the Canadian laws/views on DRM removal? Not just opinions, but actual analysis of the current law?

The thing is, we don't have a law.

We have repeated and ridiculously restrictive proposals for bills from our current Conservative government (the latest edition, Bill C-32, says something along the lines of "oh, we'll protect fair use and backup purposes, and even allow you to get the tools to open 'digital locks', but that protection goes away if you actually try to use your legal tools to open said 'digital locks' to begin with, because that's going to be illegal now").

And it doesn't help when one of the MPs pushing it calls the entire collective mass of consumer protection groups, law and technology experts, and people in general writing in to tell him it's a bad idea as-is "extremists", comparable with the Taliban. Though of course he went on to backpedal and deny he ever said that, even though his comments are available on video. And that's what we have for a Heritage Minister, unless Harper's done yet another Cabinet reshuffle while I wasn't looking.

So for right now it's all up in limbo. We have no laws either for or against DRM and its removal.

More on the issue can be read collected at the blog of Michael Geist, who is one of those law/technology professors I mentioned, at some sort of Ontario university, I think. He often writes about copyright and net neutrality issues.

Hope this helps.

[bendable]

Thanks ATDrake. It helps in the sense of giving me an overview of where things are at. It sounds like something might be coming that would make it 'illegal' to remove DRM in Canada. I'll check out the Geist blog and see if I can learn anything else.