What would be the impact on citizens if the proposed Copyright reforms became law?
Based on the 2004 Heritage Committee’s Interim Report, here are some of the effects the new law might have, as I understand it. I am not a lawyer. Digital files, media and documents protected with technology that prevents editing or copying would gain a special protected status in Canada. It would be illegal to bypass this technology. This means that if you buy an audio CD that has copy prevention technology within it, it might become illegal to bypass that technology in order to do perfectly harmless things like making a backup copy of the audio or transferring the audio to other equipment — such as an iPod or other portable storage. Such digital restrictions are called Digital Rights Management (DRM). Even when you buy and legitimately own such media, what you can do with your media is dictated by the DRM manufacturer. Even the authors/artists are not in control. Legal protection of DRM does not protect authors, but instead protects the rules laid down by the DRM manufacturer (e.g.
