Below is my letter to Joy Smith, M.P. for Kildonan-St. Paul, regarding the forthcoming copyright bill. It will be going in the mail tomorrow. I borrowed some elements from here and here. Please feel free to use any or all parts of the letter to write your own letter to your MP.

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7 December 2007

Ms. Joy Smith, M.P.
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Dear Ms. Smith:

My name is Stephen Woodrow. I have lived in your riding for 23 years, and hold a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Manitoba. I am writing to you let you know that I am deeply concerned about the forthcoming copyright reform bill announced in the most recent throne speech. I have two primary concerns regarding the forthcoming bill and the approach taken in bringing it before the House of Commons.

1. Openness and Consultation With Stakeholders and All Canadians
While the prospect of a copyright reform bill was announced in the throne speech, the government has since been uncommunicative about the contents of this bill. Despite growing public concern regarding the bill, the Minister of Industry has declined to discuss the issue with the CBC and other media outlets. I find this behavior unacceptable from a minister introducing legislation in the name of all Canadians.

Also, it is not apparent that any effort has been made to consult with the various stakeholders affected by copyright legislation, or to allow all Canadians to voice their opinion on this matter, as has typically occurred leading up to previous Canadian copyright reform proposals. This approach makes me very uneasy about the openness of our government to its citizens, as well as how accurately the forthcoming bill will reflect the interests and needs of all Canadians.

2. Ratification of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties
The Minister of Heritage has stated that they are working to bring Canadian copyright policy into conformance with WIPO treaties, and the forthcoming bill will presumably be the instrument for conformance. This concerns me for a number of reasons. First, the WIPO treaties proposed for ratification contain a number of provisions that would prevent Canadians from exercising their fair dealing rights in legitimate circumstances. Such provisions would have a chilling effect on research and criticism, stifle competition and innovation, and criminalize the behavior of ordinary, productive, and otherwise law-abiding Canadians. For these reasons alone, I believe these treaties should not be ratified.

Further, the United States has nearly ten years of experience in implementing the WIPO treaties through their Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This experience has shown that the DMCA restricts end-users rights and allows for abuse of DMCA provisions by monopolistic content owners, again to the detriment of user rights. The Supreme Court of Canada affirmed in a 2004 ruling that the balance of owners’ and users’ interests is an essential part of the Copyright Act. By ratifying the WIPO treaties through this forthcoming bill, the essential balance of owners’ and users’ rights would be severely upset.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I sincerely hope that you and the other members of our government take action to increase the openness of the copyright reform process, consult all Canadians on this matter, and reject legislation that upsets Canada’s balanced approach to copyright. The freedom of Canadians to equitably create and enjoy the content that comprises our nation’s unique and cherished culture depends on it.

Would you be willing to meet with me and other members of your riding to discuss this further?

Sincerely,

Stephen Woodrow

Please consider writing your MP (paper is better than email if you can — it’s harder to ignore). This is the most important thing you can do.

Mailing Tips:

• Mail your letter for free by sending it to Parliament. Be sure to include “M.P.” after their name on the envelope.
• Use this tool to figure out who your MP is and their parliamentary address.
• For what it’s worth, be sure to put your return address on the envelope — I’ve heard this can affect the priority of handling your mail based on whether or not you appear to be from the MP’s riding.

Once you’ve done this, consider another one of the 30 things you can do, as suggested by Michael Geist.

And stay informed. Join the facebook group or read Geist’s website for all the latest.

Edited to add additional note about return addresses in “Mailing Tips” above.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 4:40 am and is filed under Fair Copyright. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.