Thank you, Mr. Connell.
I would just like to echo the comments of my colleague and say that we are here to support the committee with its work.
We will be sharing the presentation this morning. I am on page 3 now, but before I begin, I would also like to mention that we have an additional presentation, which has been given to the clerk, regarding the current Copyright Act. So, if members would like to know how the act is structured now, before any amendments, we are ready to take any questions dealing with that.
I know, however, there are a lot of committee members who are very familiar with copyright in general, but should you want a briefing on copyright as it stood before the proposals, we're more than willing to do that.
To continue, on page 3 of the presentation, one of the key objectives of the bill is to, obviously, modernize the act. As others have mentioned, the last major reform of the act dates back to 1997, and there has been widespread change to the technology since then.
There is a genuine attempt to try to address the interests of Canadians, and Canadians, in this, have a variety of perspectives. Many Canadians are artists and creators. Others are consumers or users of content. So there are a variety of perspectives from Canadians.
We've also attempted to ensure the law is forward-looking and flexible, because it does have a broader impact. Yes, copyright is important to creation and culture, but as we move forward towards a knowledge economy, the economy of tomorrow, it's also important as a framework legislation, whether it's in the area of manufacturing or natural resources, more traditional areas of economic growth. Even those sectors rely on copyright in one way or another.
As well, we've attempted, to the extent possible, to make the legislation technologically neutral so that the law is more adaptable to future developments. Needless to say, the law is itself driven by change in technologies. So it is a response, as many of the previous changes to copyright legislation have been in the past, to technological change.
On page 4 you can see that much of the content of the new bill is driven by the two Internet treaties of the late 1990s. One dealt with copyrighted works, and the other one dealt with neighbouring rights, which are very similar to copyrighted works but are dealt with in a separate treaty.
The whole approach to international copyright has two purposes. One is to give nationals from foreign jurisdictions national treatment in Canada. But it's also a movement, over a number of years, to create certain norms as to what each country that is a signatory of the treaties should protect over time. So as part of that normative process, the bill introduces a number of rights.
In particular, it will institute new rights, including the distribution right, to control the unauthorized distribution of copyright material. Amendments relating to this change are found in clauses 4, 9 and 11.
It adds the making available right, which grants the exclusive right to offer copyrighted material over the Internet—clause 9. Moral rights are added, along with a clear reproduction right for performers, through clause 10.
Furthermore, it adds new protections, notably in clause 47, which are quite considerable: provisions that prohibit the circumvention of digital locks, with public interest and competition exceptions and a specific carve-out for cell phones.
It also prohibits the removal of rights management information, such as digital watermarks—clause 47.
It increases the term of protection for performers and producers—clause 17—and harmonizes the rights of photographers with other creators, with an exception for private use of commissioned photographs—clauses 6, 7 and 38.
