Bill C-11 and ACTA

Shortly after my previous blog post, SOPA and PIPA were tabled by congress until it could be determined how much they needed to be altered, or whether they should be passed at all. However it wasn't long until two other bills reared their heads: ACTA and Bill C-11.

Let's start with ACTA: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. And unlike SOPA and PIPA, this is global. Unlike SOPA and PIPA, ACTA is an agreement that seeks to be signed by as many countries as possible. The main purposes is to normalize copyright agreements across all of the affected nations. One of the key points of criticism is the removal of clauses that keep internet service providers from being liable for their clients actions, which means they are legally required to comply with the provisions laid out. It would also allow trademark and copyright holders to claim that anybody suspected of infringement has violated it until proven otherwise, without due process. Very similar to SOPA, as you can see. It also stops ISPs from providing free content which could access copyrighted material, which includes a wide range of technologies; most of which fall under the modern umbrella of Web 2.0.

Canada has already signed ACTA, though it is not yet in motion.

In the meantime we have to deal with what is being called SOPA's Brother, Bill C-11 (formerly Bill C-32). Though this analogy doesn't hold up across the board (the bill is not as vague as SOPA, nor is it as inflexible), it essentially causes the same problems thanks to it's core effect: the inability to remove digital locks on copyrighted material. The biggest effect that most people would think of is the inability to unlock and rip material from a movie or video game onto one's computer; while some might see this as copyright infringement, it is actually perfectly legal under the current fair dealing laws in Canada so long as you do not redistribute a significant portion of the work, or redistribute it for means other than education, parody, or criticism. Furthermore, digital locks are far more prevalent than the average person might assume.

Cellphones are locked, and under Bill C-11 it would be illegal to obtain the tools to unlock them and transfer the data not hem to another device(including games, music, and images that came with the phone). eBooks are also locked, and Bill C-11 would prevent anybody from using them for research or private study purposes. Instead, new educational material distributed electronically and containing copyrighted material that would be perfectly legal would have to be destroyed because of the bill. Bill C-11 would also make the very concept of PVRs illegal, which is incredibly jarring as nearly everybody owns one in some form, and in this modern age it is rare for somebody to watch a television show live.

These by themselves are frightening, but the fact that this is a Canadian bill makes it simply bizarre. Canada is not exactly a huge pioneer of internet-based enterprises; big shots like Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Twitter are all based in the United States. This bill creates serious problems for Canada if this country wants to try and compete with these. Studies have shown that the threat of a website being shut down without warning or due process is a huge turn-off for potential investors, and there are many creative minds who are scared to put their work out into the world on the off chance that it might allow some kind of copyright infringement because of looming laws like this. Clearly it is a problem that occurs in any country with a SOPA-esque document in the works, but Canada tends to make a big deal about how products from here is overshadowed by American businesses; something that will certainly continue if C-11 were to pass.

There is an upside to all of this, however. The SOPA protests proved that the majority of the internet community is awake and on the lookout for anything that could threaten them like SOPA has. From massive media moguls to the most insignificant tumblr user, people are constantly getting the information out there and ensuring people have a way to fight back against these bills - while they still can, that is.

A Brief Internet Skirmish

A major issue going on these days which you have (hopefully) heard about are the controversial bills SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). If passed these bills would essentially allow the US Government to take down any site suspected of hosting pirated content without due process. Sure it sounds nice, but the bills are worded so poorly that it means they could take down such major sites such as Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube; furthermore they could use it as a way to censor any website saying things they dislike.

This week the subject took a...war-like turn.

Part 1: Wikipedia (and at least 7000 other sites) blacked out or otherwise advertised the dangers of SOPA passing, in an attempt to spread the word to more common internet browsers. This was, ironically, called an "abuse of power" by those who support the bill. The thing is: It worked.
- http://www.thestar.com/iphone/news/world/article/1117925--sopa-protest-works-key
A huge amount of people called their representatives and encouraged to pull their support, and a very good number did.
- http://projects.propublica.org/sopa/

Part 2: The FBI raided and shut down Megaupload, a popular file-sharing website, and charged the founders with criminal copyright infringement. Now I'll be the first to say that Megaupload isn't exactly the bastian of human morality, and that there was a lot of pirated stuff on there, it was still a mostly-legitimate business that was shut down with very little due process. But regardless of the site's intentions, the timing of this shutdown is very suspicious indeed. Which leads to...

Part 3: Anonymous goes batshit.
- http://www.periscopepost.com/2012/01/megaupload-shut-down-anonymous-targets-government-and-entertainment-websites-in-revenge/
Oh Anonymous, those famous hacktivists with their Guy Fawkes masks and their Borg-like demeanor. It should be pointed out that there have been many times where they did a lot of good, and their demand for free speech and justice does outweigh all of the suspicious stuff that they do, but this rebuttal, which came hours after Megaupload's death, is being compared to the second shot in "the first cyber war". I wouldn't go that far, but it looks like things are going to be very interesting in the next few weeks as SOPA and PIPA make the rounds...

Wait, let's just make that SOPA making the rounds.
- http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/reid-shelves-protect-ip-act-in-response-to-recent-events.ars