After a disastrous attempt to pass a copyright reform bill last year, the Canadian government is back. This time, though, it has launched town halls and a website to hear from the public before even drafting the law, and the public has a lot to say."
In 2008, the Canadian government discovered a new "third rail" of politics: copyright reform. Long considered a wonky subject of interest only to legislators and rightsholders, interest in copyright has exploded in recent years, and Canadians showed a keen interest in talking about term length, time shifting, DRM circumvention rules, format shifting, mashups, remixes, the public domain, and the levies that Canadians currently pay on things like blank CD-Rs.
When Bill C-61 was introduced in June 2008, though, it was instantly clear that consensus would be hard to find. Consumers wanted rights and flexibility, while copyright holders wanted... well, I'll let them explain it.
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