Michael Geist – The Canadian Copyright Bill: Flawed But Fixable

Michael Geist: The Canadian Copyright Bill: Flawed But Fixable

This afternoon, the government introduced the Copyright Modernization Act (or Bill C-32), the long-awaited copyright reform bill [the bill is not yet online, but I attended the media lockup in Montreal]. It is nearly two years since C-61 was introduced and nearly a year since the national copyright consultation, yet discouragingly some things have not changed. As I reported several weeks ago, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore won the internal fight over Industry Minister Tony Clement for a repeat of C-61’s digital lock provisions and against a flexible fair dealing approach and today’s bill reflects those policy victories.