Proposed changes to Canada's copyright law

In a display of serendipidity, Jon sent along a link to this Toronto Star article on proposed revisions to the Copyright Act:

Canadian consumers could face damages of $500 and upwards for owning bootleg copies of music, books and other copyright material, under legislative reforms introduced today.

There would be fines of up to $20,000 for public infringements of copyright law, such as posting music to the Internet or even giving a iPod loaded with your music.

The Conservative today unveiled long-awaited changes to the Copyright Act, a bid to bring the law into the digital age.

And if you're confused about the changes, the government has some advice — go see a lawyer.

"If you need to know how the law applies to a particular situation, please seek advice from a lawyer," read the warning printed on the information sheets distributed to reporters this morning.

"Intellectual property is complicated," a government official told a briefing this morning.

This does seem to support some of the things reported in the article I linked to earlier today.

Update: According to Cory Doctorow, this is just like the American DMCA, except worse:

Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced his answer to the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act today as planned, and it's even worse than the US DMCA. The Canadian DMCA allows every single exception to copyright to be eliminated by adding DRM: whatever the law allows you to do, a corporation can take away, just by using DRM to prevent you from doing it. Breaking DRM is illegal, unless you fit into a tiny, narrow, useless exception for security research.

It used to be that Parliament got to write copyright law. Now, it's Hollywood companies, who get to overrule Parliamentary law with whatever "business rules" they put in their DRM.

Michael Geist has the depressing analysis. Makes me want to cry. Watch this space for tips on getting in touch with your MP to make sure that this farce dies in Parliament.