C-60 Needs a Rethink

This bill has been bothering me since I read Michael Geist's column a little while back about the possibility of legislation coming forward from Heritage Canada and Industry Canada jointly. I think the Ottawa Citizen sums it up quite well here (PDF format). It begins,

"Proposed changes to the federal Copyright Act, if adopted as law, would punish legitimate users of copyrighted material without making much of dent on illegal file sharing."

There are a number of issues with this bill. Michael Geist does a great job of outlining them:

It also expresses concern for user interests, concluding that "lost in the middle...may be the customers themselves." The paper is troubled by the potential loss of fair dealing rights as well as the inequity of bundling copy-protection, anti-circumvention legislation, and the private copying levy.

Some may quibble with its characterization of anti-circumvention provisions and some fair dealing rights given the bill's link between circumvention and copyright infringement. However, I think the concern that locked down content, when combined with uncertainty over whether fair dealing covers a certain use, could indeed lead to a chill in uses of materials that are currently permitted under Canadian Copyright law. More generally, the editorial's focus hits the right issue as the paper obviously wants to ensure that user interests are fairly and fully addressed by the new bill.

As I see it, there is still ample opportunity to get changes to this bill. As Liberals, especially my fellow bloggers, we need to make sure that Liza Frulla and David Emerson as well as our MPs know that we have reservations about this bill.

Now, don't get me wrong, this law is better than the crap in the United States but we in Canada can do better. Our government should not be propping up the Canadian Recording Industry's failing business models. Lower your prices, offer better services and people won't need to download illegally. It's that simple. And, that doesn't even get into the argument about downloads themselves.

A Wharton professor, Peter Fader has done extensive research on this. He notes that downloading actually increases CD sales. I attended a lecture of his where he had download stats for 50 cent and aligned them with first week sales of CDs. Downloading can and should be used by labels to seed the market. Check out his article. The sad truth is that the Recording industry just can't get their shit together to come up with a succesful business model that appeals to consumers. In the US, the proliferation of legal high quality streaming services have demonstrated some success. That is proof in my view.

Another bone I have to pick, is the levy on blank CDs that consumers have to pay. If they are now changing the law then I think that the levy should be reavaluated. I hope the money goes to Canadian Artists and not the Recording Industry.

Drop them an email, and let them know what you think. Check out Michael Geist's website for more detailed analysis. Also, he has some great columns in the Toronto Star about this.

Let me hear your thoughts!