Election
Call
Shakes
Up
Copyright
Debates
On
the
Digital
Front
-
CNC
Edition
By
Jeremy
Johnson
Hello,
I
am
Jeremy
and
this
is
my
column,
"On
the
Digital
Front".
For
those
who
have
had
the
opportunity
to
read
the
official
student
newspaper
of
UNBC
in
the
last
couple
of
years,
I
ran
a
long-running
column
with
the
same
name.
Well,
I
have
successfully
landed
here
at
CNC
for
the
first
time
and
when
I
found
out
that
there
was
a
student
newspaper
here,
I
jumped
at
the
chance
to
continue
my
column
here.
For
those
who
don't
know
what
I
write
in
this
column,
I
write
commentary
on
the
ever-changing
digital
landscape
that
usually
focuses
on
how
it
affects
Canadians
as
it
happens.
More
often
then
not,
I
usually
cover
a
very
hot
topic
surrounding
internet
related
issues
like
copyright
and
how
technology
is
interacting
with
it.
While
this
is
what
I
usually
cover,
I
also
cover
many
other
things
related
to
technology
-
usually
pretty
controversial
stuff
like
privacy.
I
hope
you
will
enjoy
my
column
as
much
as
(or
more,
that
doesn't
hurt
at
all)
students
over
at
UNBC.
I
am
extremely
excited
about
this
opportunity
and
hope
to
bring
relevant
news
for
those
who
have
an
interest
in
technology
and
the
internet.
One
more
thing
to
note
things
happen
at
an
extremely
fast
pace
online,
so
if
an
issue
I
cover
becomes
old
news
and
something
else
is
happening,
I
apologize
for
not
being
able
to
have
anything
in
print
in
time.
5
College
of
New
Caledonia
-
Ion
So,
as
of
this
writing,
an
election
is
expected
to
happen.
The
only
thing
left
that
hasn't
occurred
is
the
official
word
that
parliament
has
been
dissolved.
For
experts
in
the
field
of
Canadian
Copyright
issues,
it
brings
back
old
memories
because
the
current
iteration
of
copyright
reform
legislation
-often
called
the
Canadian
DMCA
by
some,
named
after
one
of
the
most
controversial
copyright
laws
in
the
United
States
-
will
die
on
the
order-paper.
In
the
previous
government,
an
equally
controversial
copyright
reform
bill,
Bill
C-60,
also
died
on
the
order-paper
on
2006
when
the
Liberal
government
fell.
What
did
cause
the
two
copyright
reform
bills
to
be
so
controversial
in
the
first
place?
While
some
may
tie
criminalizing
unauthorized
file-sharing
in
Canada,
effectively
overriding
a
court
decision
that
spelled
out
that
copyright
holders
need
evidence
to
obtain
private
customer
information
from
ISPs
to
prosecute
an
alleged
copyright
infringer,
there
is
an
extremely
large
list
of
grievances
many
advocates,
organizations,
businesses
and
customers
alike
feel
-
particularly
now
because
Bill
C-61
is
here
and
now.
One
of
the
controversies
surrounds
the
requirement
to
make
classroom
lessons
"destroyed"
30
days
after
lectures
took
place.
Some
teachers
fear
that
this
would
force
them
to
scrap
lessons
every
semester
just
because
they
used
a
copyrighted
source
to
teach
students
and
have
to
legally
resort
to
simply
over
head
transparencies.
This
is
a
very
bitter
proposition
for
those
who
teach
courses
that
requires
movie
excerpts,
etc.
Another
controversial
part
-
also
related
to
education
-
is
the
education
exception
which,
on
the
surface,
appears
to
protect
educational
institutions
-
like
CNC
-
so
if
a
teacher
wanted
to
use
the
internet
for
educational
purposes,
it
would
be
legal.
As
Michael
Geist
expressly
encourages
when
considering
the
bill,
read
the
fine
print.
Some
suggest
that
merely
putting
the
words
"All
Rights
Reserved"
would
override
this.
Am
I
making
this
up?
Read
section
30.04
(1)
yourself
(you
can
Google
the
law
yourself,
it's
online
-
but
heaven
forbid
you
teach
this
to
a
class).
Want
to
use
an
example
from
Google?
Too
bad.
Would
an
online
manual
be
useful?
Off
limits.
What
about
a
video
you
posted
on
YouTube?
No
can
do.
Is
there
anything
not
related
to
course
material?
Plenty.
The
anti-circumvention
provision
is
a
whole
can
of
worms
in
of
itself.
Let
me
ask
you
this,
do
you
think
it's
a
crime
to
quote
a
line
from
a
movie
(properly
cited
no
less)
in
an
essay?
Under
bill
C-61,
you
could
get
sued
for
that
if
it's
merely
on
a
DVD.
Yes,
normally
this
is
a
Fair
Dealings
issue
which
allows
quotation
under
current
copyright
law,
but
since
DVDs
are,
by
default,
encoded
with
a
"digital
lock"
known
as
CSS,
the
work
is
legally
protected
from
what
would
otherwise
be
legal
if
the
bill
passed.
What
if
you
were