Professor uses Youtube, Facebook in copyright fight

Computerworld Canada - In an effort to combat the Canadian government's impending copyright reform bill -- legislation which some say could affect privacy and property rights for Canadian consumers and businesses -- one industry activist is taking his fight to the digital streets.

Michael Geist, research chair of Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said the Conservative's copyright reform bill is likely to include anti-circumvention provisions for technical provision measures (TPMs), a tool used to restrict the use of a digital work, making it illegal to modify, improve, back-up or make products that interact with any devices fitted with a TPM. He compared the impending legislation, rumored to be unveiled in the next few weeks, to the Canadian government's version of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

To get the message out to Canadians, Geist has started a digital awareness campaign on both Facebook and YouTube. His YouTube video outlines 30 things that Canadians can do if they oppose the potential bill, including writing to various governmental bodies and interest groups. And to take advantage of the social networking tool Facebook, Geist created the Fair Copyright group; which has signed up over 2,000 members since its launch earlier this week.

An unwanted US import

Geist says the inclusion of anti-circumvention legislation eliminates user rights in the digital era by squashing the use of digital works for research, private study, criticism and news reporting. By bowing to U.S. lobbyist pressures, he said, Canada is following the disastrous lead of the DMCA legislation and significantly harming citizens' rights in the process.

"It's puzzling and very disappointing to see a government moving forward in this fashion," Geist said. "It's also worth nothing that the last time we even had a consultation on digital copyright in this country, with the government even making an attempt to speak with Canadians about this issue, was back in 2001. This is really a lifetime ago for new technology and changes to the Internet, so surely the government should be listening to Canadians and not just to the U.S. government [and] some well-heeled lobby groups."

But that listening process doesn't seem to be on the agenda, as Geist said the legislator behind the expected bill, Industry Minister Jim Prentice, has not made the time to consult with the user community.

"To me this is very striking, especially when you look back to last week's spectrum auction results, where Minister Prentice indicated soon after that he had given each of the major telecom companies a full hour to make their case on both sides of the issue," Geist said. "We know that in the copyright issue, he has spent time with the U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, but there's no sense that he has provided any time for consumer groups, privacy groups, researchers, or educators who are going to be directly affected by the legislation."