http://www.michaelgeist.ca/con…

The Bill C-11 committee has just opened the clause-by-clause review of the copyright bill with 39 amendments on the table: 8 from the goverment, 17 from the NDP, and 14 from the Liberals. The good news is that the misinformation campaign on issues such as fair dealing, user generated content, consumer provisions, statutory damages, and Internet provider liability has largely failed as the government is not proposing significant changes to those provisions. These all represent good compromise positions that will likely remain intact.

Unfortunately, the digital lock provisions will also remain largely unchanged as the government is not proposing to link circumvention to copyright infringement (both the NDP and Liberals will put forward such amendments). The music and movie lobby are getting one of their demands as the enabler provision will be expanded from targeting sites “primarily designed” to enable infringement to providing a service primarily for the purpose of enabling acts of infringement. The CIMA demand for an even broader rule has been rejected as has calls to add statutory damages to the provision.

A summary of some of the proposed amendments, by party (note: subject to possible change should a party decide not to introduce the amendment):

Conservatives

change enabler provision to providing a service primarily for the purpose of enabling acts of infringement

a slight tightening of the private purposes copying exception and the time shifting exception by limiting to the specific individual

a new limitation on computer interoperability exception that restricts the use or disclosure of the information reproduced for the purposes of making the programs interoperable

a new limitation on disclosure of security flaws that requires advance notice to the copyright owner unless it is in the public interest to have it disclosed without such notice

a change to the network provider safe harbour that allows for extraction of meta-data

a limitation on the injunction power against information location tool providers