Canadian Supreme Court Entrenches Tech Neutrality In Copyright Law

An anonymous reader writes "Last week, a Canadian Supreme Court decision attracted attention for reduced copyright fees for music and video. Michael Geist has a detailed analysis that concludes there are two bigger, long term effects. First, Canada has effectively now adopted fair use. Second, the Supreme Court has made technological neutrality a foundational principle of Canadian copyright. The technological neutrality principle could have an enormous long-term impact on Canadian copyright, posing a threat to some copyright collective tariff proposals and to the newly enacted digital lock rules."

Comments

Re:Fill me in, eh

[Anonymous Coward]

You only need 7 out of 10 provinces representing at least 50% of the population agreeing to a change. How hard could that be! /sarcasm

Canada wold likely break up before someone could get a constitutional amendment could be passed. So short of buying off every eligible voter in the country the entertainment industry is SOL.

It's about time

[Tough Love]

My Nexus 7 arrived today. It comes preloaded with a copy of "Transformers: Far side of the moon" for my viewing pleasure. Five minutes into viewing it there was a popup advising the battery is low. So I go get the USB cable and plug it in. Now the movie won't play, it says "Couldn't load licence key (error 16)". Bah. So all the smart boys and all the smart girls over at Google can't make DRM work properly. Can anybody make DRM work properly? Does DRM have any right to life whatsoever?

Canada is heading towards making DRM illegal. Good for Canada, and a perfect example why.