Mr. Chairman, my comments will deal mainly with the complexity of the legislation, and I'm available to answer your questions in that regard.
Our hope was that Bill C-32 would clarify the underlying principle of the act, and yet we are left with a far more complex piece of legislation that includes an increasing number of exceptions, as well as exceptions to exceptions, to the point where it becomes very difficult to make sense of anything under the circumstances. Everyone knows that a law that becomes obscure and increasingly convoluted may not be obeyed, in some cases, because people will not know exactly what the principle involved is.
Let me quickly give you a couple of examples. You can make a private copy of a work, but not if there is a lock. In some cases, you have to destroy the copy and, in other cases, the author will be compensated, but not always. This is something that the average person will have difficulty understanding. So, I think there is significant concern associated with that.
Let me quickly give you two further examples. What is the distinction in the legislation between educational purposes, and so on? We don't know. Also, what is meant by “non-commercial purposes” or “private purposes”, considering that there is already a reference to private study and private use?
So, it is all of that, and the courts will probably end up wondering what it all means, which implies that there will be litigation in order to clarify matters. The Supreme Court will be able to explain all of this 10 years from now. But I'm not sure that is a good thing for litigants.