Digital Locks: a Controversial Change to Canada’s Copyright Law

Canada’s Copyright Act is 27 years old. In that time, there has been a technological revolution: the Internet, MP3 players, file sharing, smart phones and broadcasting websites like YouTube have arrived on the scene. This new digital landscape is creating challenges for copyright rules. To modernize these rules, the federal government is proposing a new law –the Copyright Modernization Act. The changes are being hotly debated. But they will probably become law by June 2012, when the current session of Parliament ends. This article discusses one of the main features of the proposed law: digital locks.