IT World Canada: Copyright critics promote cause with comic book

IT World Canada: Copyright critics promote cause with comic book
Rafael Ruffolo

“The point of the comic was to try and get as much information in as small a space as possible,” Duggan said about the nine-page comic book. “A lot of this information as been scattered, sort of like the people fighting against this legislation. The cartoon captions are all real quotations, made by the politicians and activists depicted, so if you see something you’re intrigued about you can click on it and read it in more depth.”

The comic book was released online just prior to last week’s Bill C-61 announcement. The long-awaited legislation, which would amend the Copyright Act to prohibit users from removing technical protection measures (TPMs) on software or other digital media, has been referred by industry activists as the Canadian equivalent of the heavily criticized U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Vocal opponents to the bill such as University of Law professor Michael Geist, Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow, NDP MP Charlie Angus, and Barenaked Ladies front man Stephen Page are all depicted as freedom of expression fighters in the comic book. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Industry Minister Jim Prentice, and Liberal MP Dan McTeague, and Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) President Graham Henderson are portrayed as supporters for the U.S.-inspired copyright reform movement.

“If the tobacco industry submitted studies to the government that showed it had no damaging effects on health, these statistics would be dismissed,” Duggan said. “But yet when the music and film industry put these studies in front of the government, they ignore their own studies in favour of those industries. This is no different than writing health laws based on stats from the tobacco industry.”