Canadian DOJ Warned About Unconstitutionality of Copyright Digital Lock Rules 64
An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian House of Commons may have passed the Canadian DMCA, but
the constitutional
concerns with the copyright bill and its digital lock rules will likely
linger for years. Michael Geist has obtained
internal government documents that indicate that the Department of
Justice issued a legal opinion warning about the potential for
constitutional violations. The DOJ legal opinion warned of the need to
link circumvention with copyright infringement and of the particular
danger of not providing the blind with an exception. The Canadian law
misses the mark on both counts with no link to infringement and an
exception that blind groups say is 'nullified' by strict conditions."
Re:Ministry of Justice (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong. Department of Justice is the correct legal name (and they should know!). (Though it is Ministère de la Justice in French.) The head of the department is the Minister of Justice.
Canada Got it Backwards (Score:4, Informative)
the Department of Justice issued a legal opinion warning about the potential for constitutional violations.
Quick pro-tip, Canada: You're supposed to stuff your DoJ with ex-RIAA lawyers [tomsguide.com], then you won't have that problem.
Re:Constitution? (Score:5, Informative)
Canada has its own constitution [justice.gc.ca].
Re:Dear Canada: (Score:3, Informative)
Hockey and the internet are the only thing people in Canada really care about. Maybe poutine, if they're in the mood for it. I kid, though you seem to forget that "Canadians" shut down the country in 1981 over wage and price controls instituted by the-then liberals(Whoo Trudeau) in power. If you think that we're still too polite to "sit back and not complain" then you know far too little about our own history. Let's not forget either more recently that we've managed to buckle various government agencies on other things as well. Including the levy, various CRTC proposals which would have made the country an internet back-water. What you missed the part where the federal government itself got involved?
Hey let's not forget either that our SCC actually will listen to "citizens arguments" via letter. It's free, you just need to address it like your MP or MPP and drop it right in the mailbox. Canada post will deliver it free of charge.
Re:Dear Canada: (Score:5, Informative)
Skippus, the current government we have up here was elected by fraudulent means.
They're actively blocking the investigation into voter oppression with the line "They should have filed the complaint before they found out about the fraud!" [www.cbc.ca] The head investigator into the biggest case of voter oppression had his budget cut by seven million dollars and was forced into early retirement last week. [nationalpost.com] A recent court decision found that fraudulent votes for a CPC candidate were greater than the difference, forcing a by-election. [680news.com]
Several senior members of the government are under investigation for election fraud, including the head of the Ethics Committee. [nationalpost.com]
The party has plead guilty to breaking election law in the last three elections, and responded by appointing those that did the fraud into Senate positions. (Our senate is appointed for life!) [canada.com]
The 80% of us that did NOT vote for the current bag of asshats are waiting patiently for the investigations to conclude. Stewie's lucky it's not the US or he'd be leaving Parliament Hill in a custom-fitted pine suit.
I am mad enough to riot and drag people bodily from the Hill.
Re:I confess! And I'd like to turn myself in... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Dear Canada: (Score:2, Informative)
Harper has somehiow managed to roll a majority government with the majority of voters voting against him.
Actually, given Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system, combined with having multiple parties with significant voter support, most (all?) of Canada’s federal majority governments have been formed with less than a majority of the popular vote, sometimes as little as one third of the total vote.
I seem to recall that Harper’s current government is at or close to the record for a majority government with the lowest popular vote. When you take into account the number of people who didn’t bother to vote, Harper got less than one quarter of all potential votes.