A starting point

Fundamental questions of human rights and social priorities lie at the heart of copyright law. There are profound questions and difficult balances to be solved. Most of us know this, and naturally begin our discussions with these basic ideas as natural starting points for honest debate. In this digital millennium, Canadians have a new and rapidly changing relationship with all forms of media and information. Whether we create, distribute, or consume information, digital technologies are radically and beneficially changing our activities. This calls us to question our human rights and social priorities, and makes our old laws obsolete and unenforceable. Canadians must take a long, hard, and very deep look at these issues. This is the true heart of copyright reform.

Bill C-61 presupposes the answers to the real fundamental questions of human rights and social priorities. It was not based on public discussion or input. It was introduced to frame the discussion, shifting the debate away from any reasonable middle ground, and to avoid the possibility of fundamental issues ever being questioned or addressed. Bill C-61 is an underhanded attempt to hijack and command the process of real copyright reform that Canada needs.

Bill C-61 is based on obsolete legal principles, extended in ways that are deeply flawed, designed only to suite the special interests of certain industries. It is so fundamentally flawed in its guiding principles, its detailed execution, and its excessive complexity, that Canadians should not be forced to incur the very real costs in money and time of debating it, or even trying to fully understand it.

Instead we need to take away this simple lesson: public consultations need to be undertaken before the basic principles and priorities of copyright reform can even be understood. Our human rights and social priorities must be made very clear with full agreement by all parties, before they can act as a solid foundation for the development of fair and balanced laws.

Canada needs real copyright reform. Bill C-61 blocks that reform, and makes real debate impossible. Human rights and modern social priorities are the only true starting points of the open public debates we need. If we do not kill C-61 immediately, then we will never get to publicly debate these first principles, and we will pay the price most dearly by having broken laws that guide us to very real disaster and suffering.

BILL C-61 MUST BE ABANDONED.