Digital Copyright Canada

On November 24, 2011 we had the fifth time when the House of Commons debated Bill C-11 (at Second Reading).

The debate ended with the speaker asking if the house is ready to vote on the amendment. This vote was deferred until Monday at the end of government orders.

I believe the amendment is the one brought by Hon. Geoff Regan (Halifax West, Lib.) on the first day of debate which read:

That the motion be amended by deleting all of the words after the word “That” and submitting the following:

“this House declines to give second reading to Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Copyright Act, because it fails to:

(a) uphold the rights of consumers to choose how to enjoy the content that they purchase through overly-restrictive digital lock provisions;

(b) include a clear and strict test for “fair dealing” for education purposes; and

(c) provide any transitional funding to help artists adapt to the loss of revenue streams that the Bill would cause.

Given the Conservatives have a majority this amendment will fail the vote, but it is interesting to see what the focus from the Liberals have been.

P2pnet editor Jon Newton has decided to come out in support of a specific party, namely the NDP, as the party people should support if the issues we cover on p2pnet are important to you. While I agree with some of the specific candidates he mentions, such as Timmins–James Bay candidate and NDP digital spokesperson Charlie Angus, and Vancouver Centre candidate Michael Byers, I believe it’s the candidates we need to concentrate on, and not the parties.

Read full article on p2pnet.

Hill Times journalists Abbas Rana, Simon Doyle and Harris MacLeod have assembled a list of 57 ridings in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, where the parties won or lost by a margin of about five per cent or less in the last federal election. This is a superset of what Michael Geist called the Copyright MPs which won their riding by 10 percent or less in the last election and their riding is home to a university.

Received June 15:
;:Hello,

;:I am afraid that I do not have enough time or knowledge to give this questionnaire the response it deserves.

;:Thank you for your interest.
;:Kris Stapleton

The following was received June 17:

;:Hello,
;:I have familiarized myself with the Green Party policy on open source software. The passage below is for posting.
;:Thank you,
;:Kris Stapleton

;:Green Party Policy - Open Source Software

;:In this era of increasing technology dependence, both in business and in daily life, software has become a vital economic resource. Software applications must be trustworthy, reliable and easy to use. The Open Source Movement is emerging as a competitive rival to privately developed and marketed software, producing programs of equal or better reliability and security.