Canadian anti-DRM coalition makes timely debut

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Jul 4, 2006, 8:25:54 PM7/4/06

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Canadian anti-DRM coalition makes timely debut
Monday June 26, 2006 (05:00 PM GMT)
By: Bruce Byfield

A coalition of public interest groups and academic privacy experts has
released a public letter and background paper to the Canadian
government stating their concerns about digital rights management (DRM)
technologies and their legal status. The coalition has also started a
Web site, IntellectualPrivacy.ca, to coordinate its efforts.

We talked to representatives of two coalition members about the status
of DRM in Canada: David Fewer, staff counsel at the Canadian Internet
Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), Canada's leading legal
technology law clinic, and Evan Leibovitch and Russell McOrmond of
CLUE, an open source advocacy group.

The public letter was sent to Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage,
and Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry, the two cabinet members whose
departments traditionally have been associated with copyright issues in
Canada. In addition to CIPPIC and CLUE, signatories included public
interest organizations such as the BC Civil Liberties Association and
Online Rights Canada; groups that might be affected by DRM laws, such
as the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Library
Association; and leading experts such as Bruce Phillips, the former
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and Michael Geist, Canada Research
Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.