We hear much the same kinds of things. I actually do think that the consultation, just to close on that, was open. It's true they had these round tables, but anybody who wanted to submit something could. I received so many e-mails from, especially, younger Canadians who indicated this was the first time they had participated in a government consultation. I thought it was encouraging not just to see the numbers but also to see that it was bringing younger people, who traditionally may have been seen as more apathetic when it comes to policy and the political process, and getting them involved. So I thought that was quite a good thing.
In terms of the specific issues, during that presentation, I actually tried to highlight three. One is the WIPO Internet treaties. I think there have been some people who've disagreed with the treaties themselves and the need to implement. I think, in a sense, that train has left the station. I think we are now at a point where everyone is in agreement that we need to move forward on those treaties. What becomes crucial, though, is that the devil is in the details with those treaties and they provide considerable flexibility. I think we need to ensure that they're implemented so that there is the appropriate protection in the digital environment, but, at the same time, we have to ensure that the flexibility that exists in that treaty is reflected in Canadian law as well. And I think that means linking people who pick the digital lock, who circumvent technologies, to instances of copyright infringement.
Someone who circumvents, let's say, to protect their personal privacy because they're concerned someone is looking at their listening habits, let's say, and using a digital lock to facilitate that, I think ought to have the ability to circumvent that lock. It's not copyright infringing, it's ensuring that their privacy is appropriately protected. On the other hand, someone who circumvents so that they can burn 1,000 DVDs and sell them on a street corner, the law ought to be able to come down hard against that and it clearly ought to apply. That's one.
The second issue has to do with the role of intermediaries, of ISPs. As I mentioned, in the prior bills the approach that we've seen is one of “notice and notice”, and I think it's proven effective. If think the “notice and takedown” approaches that we've seen in some other countries have proven highly problematic. And, even worse, the approaches that a couple of countries have begun to experiment with, where they would literally kick people off the Internet, the three strikes approach, I find to be completely disproportionate. They run counter to the very policies we're trying to implement from a digital strategy perspective.
Third is the issue of fair dealing. I think fair dealing becomes, in many ways, more relevant in a digital environment. There's litigation right now, in British Columbia, where there were creators who did a parody of a newspaper and were sued by that newspaper on copyright grounds. They turned around and said, hold on a second, it's an obvious parody. It's not a copy of that newspaper. And the court said, sorry, fair dealing doesn't cover parody. We're more than 20 years past, almost 30 years, with the VCR and it's still not legal for a consumer to record a television show.
I think those kinds of things make the act seem completely anachronistic. If we're going to update into the digital environment, we need to provide much-needed flexibility into that fair dealing provision.