Canadian Copyright Horror: Criminalizing Bypassing Digital Locks; Forcing Students to Destroy Notes [C-11]

Skip Oliva sent me the following note about a chilling, censorious new copyright provision being debated in the Canadian parliament:

I’ve been reviewing C-11, a bill before the Canadian parliament to “modernize” the country’s copyright laws. The Conservative government is trying to push the bill through with minimal debate. The attention-grabber is the bill makes it a crime, punishable by five years imprisonment, to bypass a digital lock on content.

But here’s the really bizarre provision. C-11 actually requires students who take online classes to destroy their notes after the course is over. Here’s the actual proposed language:

It is not an infringement of copyright for a student who has received a lesson by means of communication by telecommunication under paragraph (3)(a) to reproduce the lesson in order to be able to listen to or view it at a more convenient time. However, the student shall destroy the reproduction within 30 days after the day on which the students who are enrolled in the course to which the lesson relates have received their final course evaluations.

Since the Conservatives have a majority in the House and are not shy about shutting down opposition, I expect this will pass next year when the House resumes sitting.

These insane attempts to ratchet up copyright law–with provisions like these, the DMCA, SOPA, etc., show that the state consists of completely sociopathic maniacs out to establish a police state and destroy the Internet and freedom in the name of so-called intellectual “property”. There can no longer be any excuse for so-called “libertarians” offering tepid, unprincipled justifications for copyright law. The time has come for all libertarians to call for complete IP abolition. No more excuses.

[C4SIF]