An Act to amend the Copyright Act (39th Canadian Parliament, 2nd Session)
An Act to amend the Copyright Act (French: Loi modifiant la Loi sur le droit d’auteur, Bill C-61) was a bill tabled in 2008 during the second session of the 39th Canadian Parliament by Minister of Industry Jim Prentice. The bill died on the Order Paper when the 39th Parliament was dissolved prematurely and an election was called on September 7, 2008. The Conservative Party of Canada promised in its 2008 election platform to re-introduce a bill containing the content of C-61 if re-elected.
Bill C-61 | |
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House of Commons of Canada | |
Long title
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Citation | Bill C-61 |
Enacted by | House of Commons of Canada |
Legislative history | |
Bill title | Bill C-61 |
Introduced by | Jim Prentice and Josée Verner |
First reading | June 12, 2008 |
Status: Expired |
The bill was the successor to the previously proposed Bill C-60. Specifically, the Conservative government claimed that the bill was intended to meet Canada's WIPO treaty obligations. Bill C-61 attracted widespread criticism from critics who claimed that it did not strike a fair balance between the rights of copyright holders and consumers. There was also confusion between C-61 and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement which also had significant copyright implications for Canada.
Jim Prentice claimed that it would "expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own". However, the bill would have made it illegal to circumvent DRM technologies effectively rendering the rights granted useless for DRM protected digital media.
This bill was superseded by Bill C-32 introduced on June 2, 2010.