SOCS 300 – Whatever happened to the Global Village?

I sure was surprised when I found out about Canada’s Bill C-61.

Back in Singapore, where I grew up, cell phones were interchangable. People could just swap out the SIM card, regardless of the service subscribed, and replace them with another SIM card. This was a common technique when buying a new phone, ensuring a convenient transition. All we had to do was just get a new cellphone and pop it in. When I went back home to visit my parents over the summer, I brought my Canadian phone over, hoping to do the same: just purchase a local SIM card and I will be good to go. I was sadly mistaken. Phones in Canada and most of the world are locked to only work within their specific countries. I could endure expensive roaming charges or I could purchase a local cell phone (so much for the reduction of waste). I did the latter. Upon digging deeper, I found that only 2 countries (in the entire world, mind you) had their phones unlocked off the rack: Singapore and Bulgaria.

To circumvent this problem, many resort to unlocking their phones. This not only revokes the warranty of that product but also, according to Bill C-61, is illegal. Since its legislative application in Canada in 2008, it has met with huge criticism. Many argue that this Bill is drawn up to protect the big industry players, ignoring the bigger crowd: public interest. The Appropriation Art Coalition reportedly condemned the Bill saying, “copyright is meant to nurture the rights of creators, not suppress and criminalize artistic practice. In compliance with this Bill, students will no longer be able to utilise other’s works for research or study. It is made acquiring learning resources that much more difficult if it has to go through tons of paper work before approval. News gathering would also slow down.

This is also a big dilemma for immigrants/students/tourists who bring their electronic devices from their home countries. For instance, the application of a regional code on DVDs ensure that many who bought legitimate DVDs abroad, can no longer view them with a local DVD player. Coming from a country with a very high percentage of immigrants, it is especially detrimental.

Many software developers are also stumped by the Bill, as it prohibits them from modifying available Open Source codes. This duly prevents innovative research and developing new network outlets.

Michael Geist, the founder of the Facebook group, Fair Copyright for Canada also criticised the Bill, citing environmental issues. He even drafted a revision of the Bill, in hopes that serious considerations for amendments could be made. More could be read on his blog: http://www.michaelgeist.ca

Perhaps instead of just implementing a total prohibition of network sharing of copyright material, I think that the government should find out what the actual problem with modification of copyright materials is. It is not necessarily a bad thing.