An alliance of Canadian technology security companies has sent an open to Bev Oda, minister of Canadian heritage, and Maxime Bernier, industry minister, calling on the Canadian government to reject calls for "extreme copyright laws".
The Digital Security Coalition says the letter is in response to ongoing lobbying efforts to convince the Canadian government to adopt copyright laws that would make it illegal to circumvent technological measures protecting content, such as software, without the consent of the content copyright owner.
"The work of security researchers lies at the heart of Canada's efforts to build trust and confidence in new technologies," says group spokesman Brian O'Higgins.
Malware is getting ever-more sophisticated and is using encryption and other security technologies to infect consumer and enterprise systems, he says, pointing out that, "extreme copyright laws like the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act have had a demonstrably negative impact upon academic researchers, and upon security research generally.
"Security researchers improve the security of new technologies by testing and circumventing those technologies," he says. Adding:
"Canada does not want to create an environment, like that in the United States, where security researchers shy away from important research for fear of incurring liability."
Here's the letter:
Digital Security Coalition www.digitalsecurity.ca June 22, 2006 VIA COURIER
The Honourable Maxime Bernier P.C., M.P. Minister of Industry 5th floor, West Tower C.D. Howe Building 235 Queen St. Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5
The Honourable Bev Oda P.C., M.P. Minister of Canadian Heritage 25 Eddy Street Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M5
Dear Ministers:
Re: Canada’s Copyright Revision
We write to you as the Digital Security Coalition, an alliance of Canada’s leading technology security companies, to introduce our concerns over the direction of Canadian copyright policy under the previous government in hopes that your government will approach copyright with greater attention to Canada’s commitment to fostering an innovation economy and with a sensitivity to the importance of the work of security researchers in Canada.
The Digital Security Coalition’s mandate is to advocate on behalf of its members and on behalf of all Canadians for sound public policies and laws affecting digital security technologies. The members of the Digital Security Coalition are leaders in Canada’s digital security field. We are innovative technology companies working at the cutting edge of cryptography and security.
We understand that your Departments are exploring means of legislating legal protections for technological protection measures (TPMs) and digital rights management (DRM) technologies. Some of the anti-circumvention law proposals we have seen call for a blanket prohibition on accessing material protected by a TPM, and criminalizing the distribution and use of circumvention “tools”. We urge you to reject these extremist views.
Anti-circumvention laws are not necessary. Advocates of these extreme laws simply have not established the case that these laws are necessary – or even useful – for facilitating the deployment of digital entertainment and knowledge tools to consumers.
The default condition for western democracies like Canada is freedom of the marketplace and freedom of competition. Intellectual property laws are a necessary intrusion into free markets to permit the functioning of markets in intangibles. The burden lies on any interest advocating the expansion of such laws to demonstrate – through rigourous analysis and with probative economic evidence – that such laws will promote Canadians’ economic well-being and Canada’s national interests.
Advocates of extreme anticircumvention laws have failed to meet that burden. Indeed, the evidence continues to show that anti-circumvention laws are unnecessary. Even without anti-circumvention laws, digital content is being deployed in Canada. Most often, such technologies are being deployed in the market to segment existing markets (for example, by the use of regional coding on DVDs) and for anti-competitive purposes (for example, to tie content to specific devices to support demand for the device). Anti-circumvention laws are not necessary to facilitate the development of digital content market, but would instead amount to a massive government intrusion into the market.
Should this government elect to enact anti-circumvention laws, it should do so in a manner that facilitates innovation, not hinders it. The American experience in this regard is instructive. In 1998, the Americans introduced harsh anti-circumvention laws through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). In our view, this draconian law has not offered the American economy a competitive advantage. However, the DMCA has demonstrably harmed the innovation and security research communities in the United States. Canada should not repeat this mistake. If, however, your government deems that anti-circumvention laws are necessary in Canada, it should reject laws that give distributors legal rights of “access” to TPM- and DRM-protected content in favour of laws that look to the purpose in circumventing or tampering with technological protections.
There are many, many legal reasons for accessing content. Foremost among these, in our view, is the need to access content for security research purposes. Reverse engineering and security research should never infringe copyright or “quasi-copyright” laws. Such dealings ground innovation, facilitate economic growth, and ultimately serve Canada’s economic and strategic interests. Similarly, Canada should reject prohibiting the use or distribution of circumvention “tools” and “devices”. These laws are like banning screwdrivers because they may be used to break and enter. Good laws target unlawful behaviour, not useful tools.
In our view, debates over copyright policy have focused myopically on the demands of the multinational content industry, and not enough on Canada’s needs for laws that foster innovation and security in a digital environment. Canadian innovators rely on the unacceptably narrow defence of fair dealing for the legality of reverse engineering and security research. Our American competitors face no such uncertainty with respect to the broader US defence of fair use, which clearly captures reverse engineering. It is time to address this competitive disadvantage by harmonizing fair dealing with fair use.
We call on this government to publicly consult on these issues with a view to conducting a comprehensive, objective and transparent assessment of public benefits and detriments.
We hope you will engage in that process, and involve both of our organizations.
Sincerely, Digital Security Coalition
DSC members include Third Brigade, Ltd, VE Networks, Inc, Bob Young, co-founder of, Red Hat, Inc, founder and ceo of Lulu, Inc, and owner, Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Team, AEPOS Technologies Corporation, Synomos Inc, Borderware Technologies Inc, Random Knowledge Inc, Credentica, Innusec In., Elytra Enterprises Inc, Certicom Cor., Cogneto Development, Inc, and Q1 Labs Inc.
