The following is from my submission to the recent public consultation in Canada on proposed Copyright legislation:
"What private citizens have a right to do with their private property, if that property depends in any way on a computer program, would have been affected by Bill C-61. The bill would have taken away each Canadian's right, for example, to take his or her car to anyone but officially-sanctioned mechanics for diagnosis or repair, if the independent garage they go to would need to circumvent any type of computer program lock put in place around a component computer program by the original equipment manufacturer precisely to restrict competition from other suppliers and from independent garages. Such a power would render useless other initiatives in the public interest, such as the "Right to Repair Bill"(Bill C-273 http://www.righttorepair.ca ) Thus Bill C-61 would have provided legal protection to anti-competitive practices if those practices are implemented via computer programs. This would have fundamentally changed the legal environment across the entire economy. To continue the example, at present it is perfectly legal for any mechanic to take apart and modify any car's components in order to proceed with any diagnosis, repair or modification, even if this requires circumventing a digital lock attached to the product so that he can gain access to its internal operations. Bill C-61's exclusive delegation of power to original equipment manufactures would strengthen anti-competitive practices, particularly in market segments with one or a small number of dominant vendors. A good overview of this issue is provided by Bruce Perens, former executive of Hewlett-Packard: "Is DRM Just a Consumer Rights Issue?" http://technocrat.net/d/2006/6/6/4149
Enforcement of the rules described in Bill C-61 would have also required intrusive questions about what people do with their private property, and thus would raise the fundamental issue of privacy itself. Indeed the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said on his blog on 23 June 2008: "The privacy commissioners of Canada, Ontario and British Columbia have also said they have privacy concerns over digital rights management — the media companies use to monitor and control access to copyrighted material." http://blog.youthprivacy.ca/index.php/2008/06/23/have-you-been-following-the-copyright-debate/
DRM Erodes Competition, Private Property Rights, and Privacy
"What private citizens have a right to do with their private property, if that property depends in any way on a computer program, would have been affected by Bill C-61. The bill would have taken away each Canadian's right, for example, to take his or her car to anyone but officially-sanctioned mechanics for diagnosis or repair, if the independent garage they go to would need to circumvent any type of computer program lock put in place around a component computer program by the original equipment manufacturer precisely to restrict competition from other suppliers and from independent garages. Such a power would render useless other initiatives in the public interest, such as the "Right to Repair Bill"(Bill C-273 http://www.righttorepair.ca ) Thus Bill C-61 would have provided legal protection to anti-competitive practices if those practices are implemented via computer programs. This would have fundamentally changed the legal environment across the entire economy. To continue the example, at present it is perfectly legal for any mechanic to take apart and modify any car's components in order to proceed with any diagnosis, repair or modification, even if this requires circumventing a digital lock attached to the product so that he can gain access to its internal operations. Bill C-61's exclusive delegation of power to original equipment manufactures would strengthen anti-competitive practices, particularly in market segments with one or a small number of dominant vendors. A good overview of this issue is provided by Bruce Perens, former executive of Hewlett-Packard: "Is DRM Just a Consumer Rights Issue?" http://technocrat.net/d/2006/6/6/4149
Enforcement of the rules described in Bill C-61 would have also required intrusive questions about what people do with their private property, and thus would raise the fundamental issue of privacy itself. Indeed the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said on his blog on 23 June 2008: "The privacy commissioners of Canada, Ontario and British Columbia have also said they have privacy concerns over digital rights management — the media companies use to monitor and control access to copyrighted material." http://blog.youthprivacy.ca/index.php/2008/06/23/have-you-been-following-the-copyright-debate/
Read more:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/008.nsf/eng/00450.html
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/008.nsf/eng/02612.html
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