Thank you very much for the question.
I think there are a couple of things. Just to start off with, we're not just talking about circumventing digital locks for fair dealing. We're talking about the broad range of rights, which includes, if you purchase a work, having the right to then use it. So if you buy a CD, it's about being able format-shift it, which is provided for in this bill, whether or not a digital lock exists on it. We're talking about a range of rights that is broader than simply fair dealing.
To go with the beginning of your question, it's true that the act prescribes methods by which the Governor in Council can prescribe regulations to allow further uses. But I think we start off at a problematic point when we say that perfectly legal and legitimate uses will become...I guess not criminalized, but we'll subject somebody to civil remedies, to civil liability, for circumventing the digital lock on their e-textbook, for example, to quote a passage from it, or on a movie, in order to take a piece out to put in a class presentation, and so on and so forth.
I think in terms of access to tools to circumvent digital locks, we live in a digital world, and there are hundreds of countries in it--a couple of hundred countries in it--and I don't think we're going to exist in a world where if somebody with access to the Internet wants to find one of these tools, a law in Canadian law is going to prevent them from doing so. I think the scenario we're getting into here, where you're saying that by adding this liability, by saying that any person who circumvents a digital lock, regardless of their purpose, is liable for damages, that it's somehow going to stop them if their use is legitimate.... For one, I don't think it's the case.
For two, it doesn't get at the heart of this. What we're talking about--and I think what the government was seeking--is to stop large-scale commercial infringement, to stop the Pirate Bay types of sites that are responsible for large-scale infringement. We've just seen a lawsuit filed under Canadian copyright law against isoHunt, a Canadian BitTorrent site. I think we have the tools in the current law to go after these large-scale infringers, and adding protection for digital locks isn't actually going to do much. It will not do much to prevent--