Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Jason Kee. I'm director of policy and legal affairs with the Entertainment Software Association of Canada. The ESAC is the industry association representing companies in Canada that develop, publish, and distribute video and computer games for v

Canadian Heritage committee  With respect to the CRTC, it's an area we watch very closely. But our members, being video game companies, are neither broadcasters nor telecommunications providers, so they're not directly regulated, which is a position we quite like being in. As an aside, I would point out tha

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a great question. There is an element in our paper that I didn't have a chance to address, which was with respect to digital literacy. We are actively promoting digital literacy and encourage the government to actively promote digital literacy. When we say “digital litera

Canadian Heritage committee  I think there are many different reasons for it, and the core one is the one you touched on. It's that these are the centres, the creative clusters, that have been creative clusters. They have a culture and a lifestyle that is extremely attractive to the creative classes, which a

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. Essentially, it's critical that ISPs have safe harbours, and when they are not promoting or actively inducing infringement that they have an opportunity to escape liability. They shouldn't be liable for merely acting as conduits. We are particularly sensitive to this

Canadian Heritage committee  Absolutely. First and foremost, they're used to protect our products against piracy, which is of course why they were initially designed. In fact because we've always been a digital industry, we've always dealt with the issue of piracy. It's just that the introduction of the Inte

Canadian Heritage committee  The TPMs are one of the cornerstones on which our industry is built. They've significantly contributed to the success of our industry, because they allow us to offer a wide array of differentiated products that benefit consumers. So if you want to get a trial version of a game, i

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  Absolutely. Our principal concern is not with the provision per se. As an industry, we're very permissive with respect to UGC. It's that it's constructed so broadly that you could drive a Mack truck through it, and it would enable all sorts of misappropriation that clearly was no

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  Obviously, eliminating the provision entirely would resolve the issue; we were attempting to operate within the policy framework outlined with this bill and understand the clear desire or intention to facilitate at least some kind of limited personal use creation working within t

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  Within the context of this bill, we're not proposing an increase to the level of statutory damages, mainly because, in our view, the commercial and non-commercial distinction that is being proposed in the bill creates a number of unintended consequences, largely on the basis of t

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  I think “transformative” would be one element of several elements you would need to incorporate in there. I certainly think the suggestion to incorporate elements like Berne is exactly the direction we're proposing. The specific concern I would have about the Berne language is

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  But I am essentially proposing those elements, because, first, I'm proposing that it doesn't affect the work prejudicially and I'm proposing that you incorporate fair-dealing style limitations, which is our interpretation of what Berne is. And I'm proposing this transformative el

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  The trick is that balance, and it's very challenging to achieve. From our point of view we have a principal, overriding concern, which is to ensure that those who are trafficking in circumvention devices, offering circumvention services, particularly charging money for it and in

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  This is actually good; it highlights the tension, because this is the exact concern that we have. The proposal to link circumvention and infringement means that the example that I provided means we would never be able to pursue that. What we're going to find is those who are offe

Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) committee  The issue, again, is I think you need to look at the entire range of exceptions that are available under the act. So the issue is not just a fair dealing; is there any kind of non-infringing use that they can claim to fall under? That's what they would be pushing for.