I'm interested in the effect of the proposed section 41 on education--and research in particular. These are the technological protection measures that make it illegal to infringe any kind of lock.
What our colleagues in the Conservative Party say is that we'll take it to the market and let the market decide. Yet it seems that we've clearly outlined legislative rights that Canadians have a right to access, such as, for example, the right of fair dealing, the right of satire, the right of parody, and a number of other rights, but those rights are trumped by the digital locks.
Now, we see that in the U.S., in July 2010, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on the U.S.'s own rights, which had been very restrictive rights in terms of anti-circumvention, and said that the right to access a work did not trigger the anti-circumvention measures under the DMCA. So we would see Canada in even a much more restrictive light than the United States.
From the people I've spoken with in the United States in the education community, there's a real concern about the litigious effects of the digital lock provisions that had existed on the ability to have the research and the innovation that are happening at the university level. Can you talk about your concerns about the TPMs and what it would mean, as it is written, for educational innovation?