Guest post by Larissa Halishoff, of the SLAIS LIBR 561 Information
Policy class.

The discussion on trade agreements at the Information Policy conference focused on the TILMA agreement, with Ellen Gould (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) leading the group. TILMA’s effect on procurement policies was addressed, as it’s one of the most likely factors to affect libraries.  While the best value for the public in purchasing is through competition, there is a practical factor in having established relationships with vendors.  Under TILMA, building language into institutions’ procurement policies as to local preferences – ie. for local, small-run presses where appropriate – could leave libraries open to liability up to $5 million.  The B.C. government has stated that “only serious cases” will go forward, but the door remains open to pursue those cases it deems worthy of their attention.

Depending on where their funding derives from, it’s possible that some libraries could ask for an exemption, as some municipalities did appeal and were granted one.  If a library is funded both on a municipal and provincial level, it’s possible that they could be considered as well.

We discussed the importance of making the public aware of TILMA, since while the government has largely completed their public consultations, TILMA remains largely unknown to the public.  Ellen mentioned that some municipal consultations are continuing through to April, and that there still might be an opportunity to have our voices heard.

It was generally agreed that the BCLA should spearhead this initiative; to date, they have made a resolution on their position, and it was suggested that they go further in taking action – perhaps through news releases or in-house library displays on the issue.  Part of the reason that movement on this has lagged is that there isn’t been much in the media about it, especially lately; businesses haven’t really come up against it yet so there haven’t been any challenges to date.  Lacking a compelling point to strike off, it is difficult to arouse the momentum need for a change.  It looks like we need to focus on a more immediate impact than how hay is stacked in order to present an argument that will catch the public’s attention.

For further information and reading:

TILMA – official website
TILMA-BC Take Action group on Google Groups
The Peak – summary of potential impact for universities from SFU student paper
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – TILMA Press Release
Asking for Trouble – 43-page report on TILMA from Ellen Gould

Guest post by Michael McCarthy, of the SLAIS LIBR 561 Information Policy class

With those words, Doyen of the Digital Domain, Michael Geist, flew into town last Thursday (October 23, 2008) and, among other things, explained how digital advocacy played a pivotal role in mobilizing Canadians against Bill C-61.

Geist began by reminding us how last October’s Throne Speech said that technology, and this copyright legislation, would “ensure a prosperous future.” It wasn’t an easy sell for the government. Within days, Geist had organized a Facebook campaign to mobilize opposition. Fair Copyright for Canada’s Facebook network grew from one hundred members on the first day to 92,322 today.

YouTube also played a starring role in the campaign. A competition was organized, the self-explanatory “C-61 in 60 Seconds.” (See the winning entry). Twitter, Google Earth, and a host of other web 2.0 networks meshed to galvanize the opposition. As Geist said, before the campaign, “People didn’t think these things affected them on a day to day basis.” (BTW, check out our local grassroots coalition partner, Vancouver Fair Copyright).

Canadians connected on this issue. Torontonians took to the streets in protest. Pancake Protesters showed up at the Calgary Stampede. Thousands of hard copy protest letters arrived on Parliament Hill. All of this seems, well, somewhat unCanadian in a country presumed to be apathetic on such issues. In retrospect, the opposition to C-61 seemed vaguely reminiscent of 1960s-style activism overlaid with the instantaneity of the Internet.

In some ways, C-61 served as a test case for how the Internet will play its role in the future of citizen engagement. Geist’s final slide read: “SILENT NO MORE.” Opposition to the proposed bill also seemed to tap into a latent nationalism: it was US vs. the U.S. Yet, the bigger question remains: Are we, in fact, already the “51^st State”?

Geist stated that the Conservative government “had a pretty clear media strategy,” and that they were confident On June 12^th when C-61 was introduced. They were also “very happy with the [media] coverage” (no surprise there). However, a week later, with the grassroots’ focus on individual rights, things started heading south for the bill.

A key point made was that it wasn’t until the grassroots had done the homework that the mainstream media took up the issue. This culminated in a Globe and Mail article, “Ottawa accused of caving in to Hollywood on Copyright.”

At this point in his presentation Geist asked: “How did copyright become cool?” In a classic understatement, Geist said “I certainly blogged about it.” Copyright became cool in no small way due to his effectiveness as a change agent. Geist reminded us that “This [copyright law] is driven by political choices, not policy choices.”

As Paul Whitney told our class during his visit on October 8^th, the CLA, due to differences of opinion within the association, doesn’t do enough on the issue. Michael Geist, on the other hand, can make a definitive statement. And he has. I can’t think of anyone who has done more to further debate on Canadian copyright law than Geist. In many ways, he is the public face of the issue. His 60-minute presentation took us on a whirlwind tour of Bill C-61’s convoluted history and ended on an upbeat prognosis for the future, at least as far a social networking and political change are concerned. I particular liked his take on what’s at stake here: “our digital future is about our creative future.”

Canada, the United States, the European Commission, and six other countries are secretly negotiating a trade agreement that could sacrifice fair dealing and privacy rights, violate civil liberties and the due process of law, and have a chilling effect on free speech, all in the name of strengthening intellectual property laws.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is only getting attention now because a discussion paper with some details of the agreement was leaked to Wikileaks on Thursday. Since then, there have been two stories about ACTA on Slashdot and articles in a number of Canadian newspapers, including the Globe and Mail and various components of the Canwest empire.

Among other things, ACTA would:

• make infringement a criminal, rather than a civil matter (you can go to prison for trivial non-commercial infringement under ACTA);
• give border guards the authority to search your possessions for infringing content, and confiscate and destroy your laptop or iPod if they decide it has infringing content on it;
• require ISPs to spy on their customers’ online activities and block access to infringing content; and
• allow governments to share personal information about their citizens, evading domestic privacy laws.

These provisions are excessive. First of all, IP protections already quite strong, and existing agreements like TRIPS already cover the concerns ACTA is intended to address. Proponents of the new treaty have presented no evidence that it is necessary. The proposals stem from an unquestioned assumption that stronger IP rights are a good thing, despite vociferous objections from the library community, public interest groups, and ordinary people who feel that IP laws are already too harsh and unbalanced. Unsurprisingly, ACTA apparently makes no attempt to safeguard fair dealing or other end user rights — it’s all about defending the interests of intellectual property owners, with no recognition that copyright and similar laws are supposed to strike a balance between creators’ and users’ interests.

But it’s the new powers proposed to defend owners’ interests that are most alarming. Of particular concern is the plan to turn border guards and ISPs into copyright cops. Border guardsa and ISPs are not qualified to determine what qualifies as infringing content. Border guards in particular are paid to blindly enforce poorly designed rules (as anyone who’s had their toothpaste or hair gel confiscated at a security checkpoint can tell you). They are not IP experts, and no matter how well-trained they may be, they are not qualified to evaluate whether or not you have the right to have a copy of some song on your iPod.

The same is true of the ISPs, as we’ve seen over and over again in the years since the DMCA came into effect in the United States. ISPs have neither the time nor the expertise to judge infringement claims on their merits; as a result, they end up taking infringement claims at face value. In the US, where a notice-and-takedown system prevails, claims of copyright infringement are frequently abused to attack people exercising their free speech rights. The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse documents hundreds of these abuses. ACTA would only make the problem worse by expanding it to other countries — including Canada.

Underlying these concerns is the plain fact that the ACTA proposals would violate the due process of law. Border guards would be permitted to examine, seize, and destroy your property without judicial oversight or proof of guilt. ISPs could cut off your Internet access, not even because you’re a proven infringer, but because some random entity claims you’ve infringed their IP rights. That’s not how things are supposed to work in a democratic society.

But of course, there’s nothing democratic about ACTA. The agreement itself has been developed behind closed doors. It will likely be tabled for discussion at the upcoming G8 meeting this July, but so far no draft text has been released for public scrutiny. Civil society groups have been systematically excluded from the process of drafting the agreement (private industry lobby groups, by contrast, have apparently been involved from the beginning). There was a three-week consultation period in April, but if the government is only giving the public three weeks to respond to something, you can be sure they’re not particularly interested in what the public has to say. Organizations with limited resources, like BCLA, often can’t research the subject, draw up a response, and submit it within that period.

Even the structure of the agreement is anti-democratic. It’s being negotiated among powerful developed countries with strong intellectual property regimes. Developing countries, which have a very different IP agenda, have so far been excluded from the discussion. If ACTA is enacted, those countries will be forced to sign on, and are expressly forbidden from renegotiating the terms of the agreement when they do so.

ACTA is a bad piece of work. It’s unnecessary, unbalanced, and excessive; its development and proposed implementation are profoundly undemocratic; and it will seriously undermine fundamental rights and principles like privacy, free speech, and the due process of law — all in the service of narrow private interests. Librarians, and all Canadians, should oppose this alarming agreement.

UPDATE, May 30: Michael Geist reports that ACTA is “gaining steam, with a binding international agreement likely by the end of the year.”