Anita Neville
MP, Winnipeg South Centre
June 21, 2005

I am writing to you in order to register my opposition to BILL C-60 ("An Act to amend the Copyright Act") which had its first reading on June 20. I am concerned about rights and freedoms of citizens in the modern age, and have closely followed the background to this legislation from its origins in US lobbies through to the WIPO Treaty at the United Nations. As a politically involved citizen and voter, I can tell you that I would hesitate to support any political party that passes this legislation.

The media industry in Canada (represented by Canadian Recording Industry Association, CRIA) has been actively trying to have its particular business interests addressed by government. For this reason, all Canadians already pay a significant levy on blank recording media such as CDs to compensate industry for a perceived theft of intellectual property. Bill C-60 would be the second major change to law for the benefit of the recording industry, with detrimental effects for individual Canadians from all walks of life.

Bill C-60 grants new legal protection for digital information, but does so in a way that excessively favours the interests of commercial content producers without appropriately addressing the negative consequences for the general public. The problem is that Bill C-60 does not adequately protect or clarify individuals' rights to "fair use". The Bill also threatens an individual's right to privacy and freedom of speech under some situations. Other significant consequences exist for Internet search engines and digital public archives, as the new law would introduce barriers to data collection and storage. This threatens routine activities which are beneficial to the Canadian public. I do not welcome these amendments to law, which lack provisions to protect the public's interest.

Before the tabling of this Bill, approximately 1800 Canadians signed the Petition for Users' Rights to call on Parliament to reject the majority of what was later included in Bill C-60. These signatures come from all walks of life, including engineers, university researchers, teachers, librarians, literary and music authors and performers. These people all wish to protect their creative and communication rights, as well as their businesses, against the special privileges granted to industry by WIPO and Bill C-60.

In short, this legislation lets down individual Canadians by placing the interests of the media industry ahead of the interests of individual citizens. Copyright law is designed to strike a balance between the rights of creators and the rights of the general public. In my view, the proposed legislation tips the balance too far in favour of content creators and does not represent the interests of the public. Bill C-60 is not good for Canada.

Jem E. Berkes
Graduate student, Electrical and Computer Engineering