DMC-eh?
Cory Doctorow at Boing-Boing has an opinion piece today talking about a pending Canadian bill in Canada that's structured similarly to the US DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). The DMCA is not well-loved by American consumers although it has been quite supportive of the rights of copyright holders. The DMCA was used to shut down Napster and has frequently been used by TV networks like NBC to force YouTube to remove videos.
Canada's proposed law is probably worse the existing US one. The gist of the Canadian bill seems to be that if a device has functionality to prevent copying of the content, it will be illegal for anyone to circumvent that protection for any reason, even say, the perfectly legitimate one of backing up your owned content.
If the Conservatives pass this bill, then Canada will be transformed overnight from one of the friendliest countries for consumers to one of the least friendly. Plus the Canadian cult of independence almost guarantees widespread flaunting of this rule.
Posted on November 28, 2007
