Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Copyright Reform and Bill C-32

In the fine Canadian tradition I wrote an angry letter. I wrote this letter to Heritage Minister James Moore who called me a "radical extremist," not directly you understand but indirectly. So wrote this letter:
Dear Mr. Moore,

I'm not a content creator or a copyright holder, and I'm certainly not an expert on copyright law. But from what I've read ( http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/06/23/copyright-heritage-minister-moore.html, http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/crp-prda.nsf/eng/h_rp01153.html#amend and http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/23/a-canadian-authors-p.html ) about what has been tabled in C-32 I believe the bill has problems. Making me a criminal (or a "radical extremist") for copying a CD I own to my computer (which I also own) if it happens to have a digital lock is asinine. The TPMs are NOT in favour of the copyright owner like you suggest. They are in favour of the companies that distribute copyrighted material, like Cory Doctrow points out.

I'm not your constituent and I can not tell you how to vote on this particular bill, however Mr Uppal is my MP and I can tell him how to vote. I feel strongly that this bill needs serious amendment before being passed and that voting in Parliament should reflect this.

Thank you for your time.

-Shaun McGregor


It's short hopefully his attention span doesn't wander before the end. I encourage you to read about what C-32 is and form your own opinions, then based on what you decide send a letter like the one above or a completely different one to Minister Moore at: moorej@parl.gc.ca. If you do send an email please post what you have sent in the comments for others to see and copy off of.

The links I mentioned in my email to Minister Moore are below: