Canada's Heritage Minister ready to bring back DMCA-style copyright, throwing out results of copyright consultation

Michael Geist sez,

Since his appointment as Canadian Heritage minister in 2008, James Moore has carefully crafted an image as "Canada's iPod Minister." Young, bilingual, and tech-savvy, Moore has expressed regular support for the benefits of the Internet and is always ready with a quick "tweet" for his many followers. Yet according to the scuttlebutt throughout the copyright community, Moore may be less iPod and more iPadlock. As the government readies its much-anticipated copyright package, Moore is said to be pressing for a virtual repeat of Bill C-61, the most anti-consumer copyright proposal in Canadian history.

The copyright bill may still be several weeks away, but reintroducing Bill C-61 with only minor tweaks – a bit more flexibility for recording television shows or transferring content from one format to another – would leave in place the core provisions of the bill that generated widespread discontent. These include U.S.-style legal protection for digital locks known as anti-circumvention legislation and a rejection of the flexible fair dealing approach that attracted considerable support during the copyright consultation as a balanced, technology-neutral solution.

Recent experience indicates that the copyright bill isn't final until tabled, but after spending the summer of 2008 fighting Bill C-61 and the summer of 2009 revisiting copyright reform as part of the national consultation, copyright is unquestionably on the public radar screen. Canadians had been promised a forward-looking, technology neutral approach, but they may soon find that someone has hit the delete button on those promises.

Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore: The iPadLock Minister?

(Thanks, Michael!)