[Announce] Update on Bill C-11 : the final few weeks...

[Russell McOrmond]

   I'm sending a general note in case anyone in these lists aren't aware 
of the current happenings with Bill C-11: the Copyright + Paracopyright 
(TPM) bill.


   This is the identical bill as C-32, re-tabled on September 29, 2011.

   It passed second reading this Monday, and the new special legislative 
committee had their first meeting on Tuesday where the Conservatives set 
the time allocation for how much longer there would be any witnesses and 
all discussions for clause-by-clause of this massive and still widely 
misunderstood omnibus bill.

   http://c11.ca/com


   The imposed plan is to meet for 12 hours per week (normally 
committees only meet 4h/week), with all work ceasing on March 29 at 
which point the bill will be reported back to the house. There will be 
witnesses starting Feb 27'th after the break, with clause-by-clause of 
the bill starting on March 14'th.

   That's it folks.  The Conservatives, with 3 parliamentary secretaries 
in the committee, seem to be stick handling this one stronger than I 
think we've seen any bill.   It was obvious from the first meeting that 
anything proposed by a Conservative was quickly passed, and any 
amendments proposed by the opposition was rejected.

   If this bill is to get fixed, it will need to be the Conservatives 
that do it.  This is a majority government, and the Conservatives are 
aggressively using all the power that gives them.  An opposition party 
member can help get a message in front of the Conservatives at 
committee, but ultimately the Conservatives need to be convinced.

   The committee met again this morning (in-camera) to discuss the 
witness list.  I fully expect to see a repeat of the Toronto Town Hall 
where those in support of the primary aims of the bill (Read:  excessive 
Paracopyright / TPM / DRM / infringement of IT property rights / 
whatever you want to call it) will dominate the remaining witness list, 
even though they represent a minority of stakeholders.   They'll claim 
this bill is urgent, we have some sort of fake international obligation, 
that the sky is falling, and that if anything far more draconian 
measures are needed (The SOPA/PIPA style amendments discussed elsewhere 
already).


   There are links between this bill and other bills in Canada and 
elsewhere that may be helpful in thinking our way forward on this. 
There have been some recent successes that we can draw from.


   Is Bill C-11 related to SOPA/PIPA?  http://c11.ca/5405

   How about the gun registry, given the Conservatives fought so hard to 
get rid of that:  http://c11.ca/5414

   I discuss what I consider to be the worst part of ACTA 
(far-beyond-WIPO TPMs), problems mirrored in C-11  http://c11.ca/5406


   There are also links to C-31, the "Lawful Access", "You are with us 
or with the child pornographers", "Internet spy" bill.

   People worry about information the government claims isn't private 
being accessed without warrants by police.  How do they feel about all 
the private information available to device manufacturers who hold keys 
to many mobile devices, when owners (read: parents trying to protect 
their kids) can't secure them?  Do we know what employees are accessing 
this information, and what their background is?

   Even if you are one of those people only ever worried about "the 
government", the fact is that the more information device manufacturers 
have on us the more they can turn over to police.

    Securing our mobile and other communications devices from 
unauthorised third party access and control is being called 
"circumventing a TPM", something that should be legally protected and 
not legally prohibited.

     "It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual
      property -- it's not your computer. And in the pursuit of
      protection of intellectual property, it's important not to
      defeat or undermine the security measures that people need
      to adopt in these days."
         - Stewart Baker, then US Department of Homeland Security's
           assistant secretary for policy, speaking to a group
           of copyright holders in 2005.



   Unfortunately far too many people focus on TPMs on content rather 
than the orders of magnitude more harm that comes from TPMs on devices. 
   One is an anticompetitive/anti-trust problem that harms certain 
markets, something we are rightfully concerned with.   The other is an 
infringement of our property, privacy, and other rights.


   While the Conservatives set a short timeline, this just means we need 
to be louder than we ever have before.


   There are several offline and online petitions one can sign onto 
http://c11.ca/petition   (Openmedia, CCER, ACTA/TPP)




   The offline/paper ones take more time, but are more "in the face" of 
parliamentarians as they are tabled as part of the parliamentary process 
just before question period.  Having the right MP or group of MPs (if we 
get enough signatures) tabling them can make these quite effective.


   We need to use social media to the fullest.  At this point we need to 
get the attention of Conservatives.   Make the connection with 
friends/family/allies/enemies/etc who may swing a little right of centre 
with the gun registry, or even with the C-30 which some conservatives 
and Conservatives have already come out against. Make them understand 
that C-11 legalises and legally protects an attack on our IT property 
rights, and that they should force the Conservatives to uphold their 
founding principles and protect these property rights as well.


   We're down to the last few weeks...  Please dive in and have your say!



   And sorry for the rant rather than a simple update :-)



Note: I copied the following lists, in case anyone wants to catch all 
the discussion:

http://www.cluecan.ca/mailman/listinfo/discuss/
https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfc-discuss
http://list.digital-copyright.ca/mailman/listinfo/discuss

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://l.c11.ca/ict

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
   portable media player from my cold dead hands!" http://c11.ca/own