Changes

This talk was done by David Fewer of . He is legal counsel for the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. He was speaking about how open source development is affected by copyright law. The , specifically, the Canadian Software Innovation Alliance . This is an organization that encourages government to continue to support the Canadian open software industry which allows has enabled Canadian developers to have a competitive advantage compared to American developersof more restricted countries like the USA. The main A point is that was stressed was that copyright law is not only for about balancing the rights of consumers and the compensation of authors but to ensure the public has access to the innovation. Jacobson vs. Katzer was brought up as an case where open distribution was upheld in a US IP Courtauthor. Licensing and copyright has laws need to have limitsand exceptions to ensure that consumers are protected. The three things which require access Three essential exceptions and limits are the ability to others copyright are enforce a license enforcement, ability reverse engineering and interoperabilitythe ability to interoperate with other technologies.  These new anti-circumvention laws would severely hinder competition in the market place. Copyright protects expressionCurrently, Canada has a very hands-off attitude towards consumer protection where it is believed that if consumers feel that they are not being treated fairly they will not ideas which purchase the product and that the market will protect itself. This is a flawed ideal in the context of the proposed legal framework as the market will no longer be open to competitors and will stifle innovation at every point possible. It is an important dividesuggested that Canada need to have a much stronger consumer protection voice in government. Reverse engineering I believe that part of this problem is essential that for people to learn other people's ideabe able to make decisions as to which products to support, they must have an understanding of the product at a conceptual level. This is fairly easy with tangible goods like a car but very difficult with intangibles like software. This is especially true in an ecosystem where proprietary, closed solutions are considered to be not only the norm, but the ideal. An important concept which was discussed was that copyright laws and patent laws are very different. Copyright is for laws protect the implementation expression of an idea where patent law is focused on laws protect invention and innovation and invention. Interoperability requires some form This is highlighted in the interoperability exception, where the ideas are being locked up by a new level of protection which removes the ability to look at the implementation of reverse engineeringa technology. There Currently there is a fair dealing exception, and specifically an interoperability dealings exception in copyright law which allow allows for reverse engineering for necessary activitiesthe purposes of interoperability. The CSIA These are all things which David represents is worried about the dangers of would be removed by a new copyright law. These new proposed anti-circumvention laws. These laws protect the technologies which protect content, for example DRM or CSS. This brings the number of layers of protection to three. There is the third layercopyright law which protects the content, technological locks which protect the first is copyright and now anti-circumvention laws which protect the second is a technological toollocks. The first proposals for these styles of laws are now proposed in motion in government. The CSIA laws says that we should not create a liability for accessing information for legal purposes and if there is a layer, there must be exceptions to support Canada with bill C-61 represent the open source model. These strongest anti-circumvention laws anywhere in the world. They are even more severe than those which are very likely to severely hinder competitionembodied in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Reverse engineeringA previously proposed law, security researchbill C-60, interoperabilitywas brought up by the Liberal government which would have balanced, protection of copyrightsonly targeting non-fair dealing actions. Unfortunately, the development and acquisition new Conservative government has included their version of tools the bill in their election platform, and technological neutralityeven with a minority government, will likely be able to push it through. The CSIA also believes  As a lawyer, I believe that David’s view on open source is that fair dealings people should be expanded to counterbalance new restrictionstreated fairly and just. Technological neutrality ensures I do not believe that there are no specific locks which are requiredhe is an open source or free software zealot but does believe in the principals of these movements. He seems to have a great understanding of the balance between the need to have open software and fair compensation of the author. David He believes that copyright laws should be fair dealings and should reflect real life, not properly balance the letter values of the law. The benefit of society should be held more important. Source authors and author is essential in ensuring fair dealing appliesthe consumers.