Canada's DMCA: understanding the "digital locks" provision

Canada's version of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been introduced, and while it offers a host of promises about consumer rights (such as the right to record a TV show with a PVR or rip a CD and put the music on your computer), it also allows rightsholders to confiscate those rights merely by adding a "digital lock" (also known as DRM) to the work. Breaking these locks is illegal in itself, so you don't get any rights if a rightsholder chooses to use one.

Michael Geist sez, "The digital lock provisions have quickly emerged as the most contentious part of Bill C-32, the new Canadian DMCA. This comes as little surprise, given the decision to bring back the digital lock approach from C-61 virtually unchanged. The mounting public concern with the digital lock provisions (many supporters of the bill have expressed serious misgivings about the digital lock component) has led to many questions as well as attempts to characterize public concerns as myths. In effort to set the record straight, I have compiled 32 questions and answers about the digital lock provisions found in C-32. The result is quite lengthy, so I will divide the issues into five separate posts over the next five days: (1) general questions about the C-32 approach; (2) the exceptions in C-32; (3) the missing exceptions; (4) the consumer provisions; and (5) the business provisions. For those that want it all in a single package, I've posted the full series as a PDF download."

Setting the Record Straight: 32 Questions and Answers on C-32's Digital Lock Provisions, Part One