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Canadian Privacy Minister expresses concern over copyright amendments

22 January 2008 0:48 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 8 comments

The Canadian government has recently been considering changes to their copyright law, laregely in response to complaints from content owners and the U.S. government regarding the country's lack of DMCA-style legislation to make bypassing Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures illegal. However, at least one government official is worried about the implications of legal protections for DRM.

Last Friday Jennifer Stoddart, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, sent a letter to Minister of Industry Jim Prentice and Minister of Canadian Heritage Jos�e Verner expressing concern over the use of DRM to violate consumers' privacy. She pointed to Sony's now infamous rootkit fiasco in 2005, when a number of that company's CD releases included a program that automatically installed itself when inserted in a computer running Windows without asking, or even notifying the user.

She noted that "If one of these copy-protected CDs was played on a computer connected to the Internet, it was capable of reporting back to Sony BMG information such as when the CD was played, the IP address it was being played at, and whether and how often attempts were made to copy it."

The letter closes with concerns about proposals that would require Canadian ISPs to cooperate with copyright holders who are investigating alleged infringement on their networks or face a fine of up to $10,000.

"Allowing a private sector organization to require an ISP to retain personal information is a precedent-setting provision that would seriously weaken privacy protections. When this provision was proposed in a previous proposal to amend the legislation it did not include any threshold that had to be met before the notice could be issued, nor did it provide any means for the ISP to contest the demand to retain the data. The extended retention periods create additional privacy concerns."

You can read the entire contents of the letter on the Canadian Government's Parliamentary Activities webpage.

Permalink to this article

Canadian songwriters want to share their music (24 February 2008)

Clarification to British copyright proposal (23 February 2008)

Verizon VP says no plans to examine customer traffic (30 January 2008)

France to mandate ISP monitoring of customers for copyright infringement (29 January 2008)

Suspected virus author in Japan arrested for copyright infringement (24 January 2008)

EU culture committee finalizes recommendation to Parliament without IFPI changes (23 January 2008)

Proposed 'iPod Tax' struck down again in Canada (13 January 2008)

America's privacy situation worsens (6 January 2008)

Microsoft continues fight against piracy (11 December 2007)

Canada to get tougher on piracy (17 November 2007)

CRIA allegedly shuts down Demonoid (25 September 2007)

CRIA disputes Canadian MP3 player levy (17 September 2007)

Canadian theaters follow American lead and offer rewards for caught "pirates" (11 August 2007)

Canada introduces anti-piracy legislation (2 June 2007)

US Ambassador to Canada speaks about piracy (28 May 2007)

Warner blames Canada for film piracy (9 May 2007)

Canada is a "haven for pirates" says Microsoft (3 May 2007)

DMCA-type bill making its way to Canada (15 April 2007)

New study says more teens are legally purchasing music online (13 April 2007)

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Discuss this article!
dude845 (Senior Member) 22 January 2008 1:09
What the heck. Why do people have to be so money greedy :/. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 22 January 2008 17:57
vinny13 (Inactive) 22 January 2008 1:23
They better keep their mouths shut... Bastards. I've had a couple close calls myself >: (+[PSP]%) = 3.52M33-4 "I get no respect, I tell ya!" [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 22 January 2008 1:23
nikolias (Newbie) 22 January 2008 11:05
there alway makeing stuff harder to ripoff [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 22 January 2008 17:58
chubbyInc (Member) 22 January 2008 12:33
Time to get these wacks out of office. I say Revolution! Down with government! I was under the impression the Levy we pay on each blank disc goes to the "content owners" therefore we are allowed to make copies of our purchased merchandise for archival purpose. How about the government focus their attention on real crime..... [ + quote]
ematrix (Junior Member) 22 January 2008 13:54
Slightly offtopic, i don't understand why some people are willing to support Blu-Ray so blindly, when clearly BD+ has the potencial and intent to do the same that Sony's infamous rootkit did in 2005. BD+ basicly is a executable program included on Blu-Ray discs, that automatically instals itself when inserted in the player without asking, or notifying the user. And if Blu-Ray players such as PS3, are capable to connect to the Internet, can report back to Sony information such as when the Blu-Ray disc is played, the IP address or memory footprints, whether you made attempts to tampered the player or if you actually made and played copies of BD movies, and without your consent, BD+ can instruct your player to transform the audio and video output, so that parts of the content or all the disc will not be viewable. [ + quote]
binkie7 (Moderator) 22 January 2008 18:00
@dude845 & nikolias Watch the language - keep it clean . Forum Rules Do this before posting [ + quote]
o0cynix0o (Newbie) 22 January 2008 21:10
*Originally posted by nikolias:* there alway makeing stuff harder to ripoff And harder to spell. [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 18 February 2008 1:41
*Quote:* She pointed to Sony's now infamous rootkit fiasco in 2005, when a number of that company's CD releases included a program that automatically installed itself when inserted in a computer running Windows without asking, or even notifying the user. You know in some places this mayb called as a virus :P can we sue them for giving us a virus. A virus in my dictonary is anything that gets installed on my computer that makes my computer not function correctly. [ + quote]