Copyright policy is the joint responsibility of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Minister of Industry. Two committees of the House of Commons are therefore the key members who are most likely to be studying this topic and related bills.

Members of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (40th Parliament, 2nd Session. January 26, 2009 - ).

A message from Industry Minister Tony Clement (@TonyClement_MP on Twitter) has indicated that there will be no C-32 special committee struck until the fall. (parl.gc.ca says, "The House of Commons is adjourned until Monday, September 20, 2010")

This should not be taken as meaning we should all take the summer off, but that we have time to ensure that all 308 MPs have an idea of why Copyright is so controversial, and that is not about "creators on one hand, and consumers on the other". My experience over the last near decade is that the debate is largely between different creators, since many of the proposals put forward by some are aimed at their competitors and not infringers.

The CBC article Marketers want anti-spam bill altered contains an interesting notes from the Liberal critic of consumers:

Liberal consumer affairs critic Dan McTeague told CBCNews he doesn't know what the position of his party is, but that he personally supports the Conservative bill, "warts and all."

Michael Geist reports on some lobbying being done to water down an anti-SPAM bill.

At yesterday's hearing, it was discouraging to see lobbyists for Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Intellectual Property Council huddling with Liberal MPs before the start of the hearing. It was even more incredible to see lobbyists for the Canadian Real Estate Association draft a series of questions about the bill, hand them to a Bloc MP, and have them posed to the witnesses moments later.
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Consider writing to your MP or the members of the Industry Committee today asking them to support C-27 with an opt-in approach.

I recommend writing to your MP, asking them to forward the letter to committee members. This may increase the impact.

Update: The Copyright Lobby's Secret Pressure On the Anti-Spam Bill, which is referenced via BoingBoing.

MPs with positions relevant to copyright revision

This page is an attempt to identify the most relevant MPs from the perspective of copyright reform. If you are a constituent for one of these MPs, you can help ensure that they are well-educated on the issues.

Note: Page only updated for the Ministers. Parliamentary secretaries, and issue critics have not been named yet. The unknowns are marked as (U), listing the previous person holding the position.

• James Rajotte (Edmonton—Leduc, Conservative, chair) re-elected
  
• Paule Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, Bloc, co-chair) re-elected
  
• Dan McTeague (Pickering—Scarborough East, Liberal, co-chair) re-elected
  
• André Arthur (Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, Independent) re-elected
  
• Scott Brison (Kings—Hants, Liberal) re-elected
  
• Colin Carrie (Oshawa, Conservative) re-elected
  
• Mark Eyking (Sydney—Victoria, Liberal) re-elected
  
• Peggy Nash (Parkdale—High Park, NDP) lost to Liberal Gerard Kennedy
  
• Raymond Simard (Saint Boniface, Liberal) lost to Conservative James Bezan
  
• Bruce Stanton (Simcoe North, Conservative) re-elected
  
• Dave Van Kesteren (Chatham-Kent—Essex, Conservative) re-elected
  
• Robert Vincent (Shefford, Bloc) re-elected
  

Last month I blogged about why it is important to participate in the study by parliament’s Industry Committee on science and technology. I also provided a link to my own submission (OpenDocument, PDF, HTML). Michael Geist has reported that the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has also included copyright proposals in its submission.

The study is already underway, with meetings being held on April 10 and April 17.

Read the rest of this entry on IT World Canada's BLOG »

Last week the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU), a committee of the Canadian house of Commons, adopted a motion to conduct a study into Canadian science and technology. While April 18 is the last day for submissions, I made a draft of my submission available for public review and comment (OpenDocument, PDF, HTML).

I believe it is critically important that our sector, especially those using modern alternative methods of production, distribution and funding, to participate in this study.

Read the rest of this entry on IT World Canada »

The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) has announced that it will do a study on Canadian science and technology.

The Committee welcomes briefs on the themes which are connected to many of the issues that interest us:

• Science advice to government;
  
• Commercialization, venture capital and intellectual property;
  
• Federally funded research performed in government and higher education; and
  
• Big science” projects and Canada’s position in global science and technology.

We need to make submissions on Peer Production (The Wealth of Networks), Open Access (And government mandates for open access of publicly funded research, as is done by our major trading partners), DRM/Net Neutrality (Protecting the two underlying innovations that brought us "new media" and enables the "new economy"), Civic Access (and questioning Crown Copyright), etc.

The members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage have tabled a report where they make the following statement:

The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage recommends that the Government Bill entitled “An Act to amend the Copyright Act” for which notice was given on December 7th 2007, once introduced and read a first time, be referred to a Special Joint Committee made up of members or associate members of the Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage and of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology before second reading.