Industry committee  I have so many examples, unfortunately. Another example that I think resonates with a lot of people is the example of consumables with, for example, HP inkjet cartridges. You buy an HP inkjet printer. It's a good deal. Then what ends up happening is TPMs are used to basically prevent third party inkjet cartridges from being used easily.

Industry committee  I'll respond first, if that's okay. Yes, you might be ahead of your time. I would say a couple of things. As a general matter, copyright law has always struggled with new and emerging technologies. Part of the reason is that copyright law is inherently retrospective. It's backward-looking.

Industry committee  I would be happy to do that.

Industry committee  Is it okay if I just add one small point?

Industry committee  I think there's always room for improvement in terms of the language of these kinds of bills. I would say that the goal we should be aiming for is not to include less plain language; I think plain language is good. We want our public law to be accessible to all members of society, and plain language helps us get there.

Industry committee  Maybe I'll go first. Anthony is being polite. Yes, with regard to supply chain shortages, there are two aspects to that. One is to have the capacity to manufacture at home, so certainly to the extent that this bill would enable secondary markets to emerge for add-on products and add-on innovation, I think this bill is critical to guard against the risks of supply chain disruption, similar to the ways in which Bill C-244 mitigated some of those problems by providing a means by which we could extend the useful life of the things that we already have.

Industry committee  Yes, thank you. It's a very quick point. I think we can all recognize, both in this discussion and in the discussion on Bill C-244, that there is broad support across Canada, across industries and across partisan affiliations for these kinds of bills. While changes to the copyright law's TPM provisions are not going solve interoperability or right to repair on their own, and there will be other legal considerations at the provincial level that need to be taken into account, I see this as an opportunity for provinces to perhaps distinguish themselves in a way that is pro-innovation, pro-competition, pro-consumer.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. I completely disagree. Let me give you a simple example from my own life. I have three computers at home. I have an Apple computer, a PC and a machine that runs Linux. None of these computers talk to each other. They don't talk to each other because they can't.

Industry committee  With respect to the question regarding the testimony offered by the IP Institute of Canada, my general response would be that if the Copyright Act was clear on interoperability as it stands, then we wouldn't see so many obvious obstacles to interoperability here in Canada. If that position is correct, then I think what we would need to do is make it really clear to follow-on innovators and others that they are free to do that kind of innovation and add-on work.

Industry committee  I don't have anything to add. I'm in agreement with Anthony.

Industry committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and honourable members of the committee. My name is Alissa Centivany. I'm an assistant professor at the faculty of information and media studies at Western University, where I work on technology, policy, law and ethics, and I serve as co-director of Tesserae, The Centre for Digital Justice, Community and Democracy at Western University.

Industry committee  I don't have any experience with that in the Canadian context. It's certainly something that's come up in a global context, not just with the ventilator parts but with other basic, foundational medical equipment, like the tubing on a stethoscope. Just being able to replace those can be very difficult and was very difficult, prohibitively so, during the COVID epidemic, when supply chains were so disrupted.

Industry committee  That's exactly right. There are thorough standards and ethical guidelines that apply to the health care sector.

Industry committee  I'd like to just add one point to that, if that's okay. With respect to the ventilator valves, I mentioned earlier in my comments the instance in Italian hospitals where volunteers essentially 3D printed replacement valves for the ventilators. Because of the threat of lawsuits based on intellectual property law, the sharing of that information so that people in other jurisdictions could also 3D print replacement valves was blocked.

Industry committee  It's really important. This bill actually does a great job of being specific. It's very clear that the exemption applies to three sorts of behaviours, which are diagnosing, maintenance and repair, as you said. I would also say that it helps us distinguish between the kinds of activities that we want to promote here—repair—which extend the longevity and useful life of goods, keep them out of landfills and support local economies in terms of having third party repair technicians have ample work.