OTTAWA, ON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — ccording to sources, it took pressure from Washington to put copyright reform legislation back on track in Canada.
It had been delayed earlier this week.
Last week, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives filed a notice indicating the bill would be introduced this week. It will now be tabled in the House of Commons today (Dec. 13) by Industry Minister Jim Prentice.
A storm of intense negative Internet-based activity, including blogs and a Facebook campaign overseen by Michael Geist, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa, put pressure on Prentice and the minority Conservatives to delay the bill. Prentice apparently ordered revisions of several sections of the legislation.
A source indicates that only an artificial amendment was made before the decision was made to introduce the bill in Parliament.
Critics are fearful that the new legislation will mirror the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and contain controversial anti-circumvention legislation (dealing with the use of technology that blocks users from gaining access to information without paying for it, and imposing stiff penalties on those breaking through the barriers).
Critics also contend that there will likely be no flexible fair dealing in the copying of digital materials, making illegal such acts as television time shifting, file-sharing of music and video files, and copying files to DVDs or MP3 players
Copyright
Word has just come that new copyright reform legislation in Canada, which had been expected to arrive in the House of Commons today (13), has again been held back. Probably to 2008.
Journalist/broadcaster/researcher Larry LeBlanc has been a leading figure in Canadian music for four decades.
He has been a regular music commentator on CTV’s “Canada A.M” for 35 years, and has been featured on numerous CBC-TV, CTV, YTV, Bravo! MuchMusic, MusiMax, and Newsworld programs in Canada; VH-1, and EEntertainment in the U.S.; and BBC in the U.K.
Larry was a co-founder of the late Canadian music trade, The Record; and, most recently, the Canadian bureau chief of Billboard for 16 years.
