Tories to Reintroduce Copyright Bill

Breaking digital locks, regardless of the reason, could soon become illegal.

The Conservative government is set to re-introduce legislation today that would tweak the country's copyright laws to make it illegal to break digital locks on CDs, DVDs, and other media formats. Industry Minister Christian Paradis will introduce the same bill, Bill C-32, that had been reviewed but never voted upon in previous sessions of Parliament. C-32's biggest change to the Copyright Act would be to make breaking digital locks illegal, even if someone did it for a reason that was otherwise legal, such as using music from a CD for a video they post to YouTube. The new amendments would update provisions of the Act to allow Canadians to record or duplicate media they've purchased so long as it would be used for private or non-commercial purposes. The opposition parties are worried that the Tories will fast-track the bill through Parliament and not let the dozens of new MPs in the House give it due consideration. A full accounting of the bill can be found here.