Yesterday a bill was introduced to the Canadian government that would criminize Canadians who illegal download music and would forceablly make isp give out our information to the equivilant of the RIAA in Canada which is the MPAA I believe:  Here is a more indepth look at the situation and details on what it means, how it affects us users.  Article by Eric March from http://www.touchpodium.com/2008/06/04/canadians-your-digital-rights-are-about-to-be-revoked-read-and-sign/

The Harper government has sunk to a new low. Now, since he has taken office, Harper and his goons have been fairly vanilla as world leaders go. But proposed new amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act, secretly crafted in back-room dealings and carefully shielded from the prying eyes of the Canadian people, and apparently inspired by (but going much further than) the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the USA (17 USC [PDF link]) , could cripple your digital rights, affecting the enjoyment of iPod and iPhone lovers across the country.

The bill, which is slated to be introduced to tomorrow, could introduce a slew of new amendments, each more ridiculous than the other:

1. A $500 per-infringement fine if you are found guilty of IP theft — which is more than the average per-item charge levied by the RIAA in the USA.
2. ISPs would be required by law to turn over the IP addresses of users suspected of infringement, flinging the doors wide open for the CRIA. Until now, most ISPs have consistently denied the CIRA access to their logs on privacy grounds. Remember, we already pay a levy on blank media to help offset the cost of infringement, and don’t expect it to be rescinded if this bill passes.
3. Copying of lawfully purchased CDs to digital media players would constitute infringement.
4. Copying recorded television shows to personal media players for the purpose of time-shifting would constitute infringement if they are flagged as copy-protected by broadcasters. (You may recall the brouhaha recently of a US broadcaster that broadcast a few television shows flagged as copy protected, and the Vista machines that prevented them from being recorded because they paid attention to the copy-protection flag when they weren’t supposed to. Same deal here, only the law would side with the broadcasters, not the consumers.)
5. Unlocking cell phones would be made illegal. Your jailbroken iPod Touch? Your unlocked and activated iPhone? NOT YOURS.
6. Hardware or software designed to circumvent copy protection, even for personal archival or unlocking purposes, would be illegal. No CD or DVD backups or backup software, no mod chips, no virtual drive software that includes copy protection emulation, nothing.

And likely more. Supposedly, the bill has been drafted due to pressure from US organizations (RIAA, MPAA, etc.) to bring our copyright laws more in line with those of the United States, yet none of this was allowed to be vetted by the Canadian people.

Now, the Tories have a minority government, so there is a half decent chance that this bill will never be ratified by parliament, but it is a chance I do not want to take, nor do any other Canadians, who are incensed at our government’s presumptuousness and blatant disregard for the opinions and ideas of the very people these amendments will effect.

So what can do you about it? Write! Write to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Write to Industry Minister Jim Prentice. Write to Heritage Minister Josée Verner. Voice your displeasure. Tell them that this is not the way to approach the protection of intellectual property. You needn’t write them all individually, though. Fortunately, a new coalition, the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights, has been formed to take the government to task for this travesty, and they have provided a helpful form letter you can read and sign and have it automatically sent to the aforementioned ministers. This isn’t a useless petition — these letters are sent straight to the inboxes of the individuals in question. Simply click on the link I have provided here, fill in your particulars at the bottom, and click Send.

Don’t let the government take away your freedoms. Let them know that your rights to use the devices and the media you have lawfully purchased or otherwise obtained the way you choose are inalienable. Tell them that they need to truly rethink their approach to copyright protection and craft a much more fair and balanced bill that doesn’t heavily favour Big Media at the expense of your personal liberties and freedoms. Even if the bill may not have a great chance of being passed, we need to send the message that we will not stand for such draconian, autocratic measures passed before parliament without so much as a by-your-leave from the Canadian people. Sign and send the letter. The digital future of Canada may depend on you.

UPDATE 8:29PM: Sympatico MSN Tech news have posted an article stating that this bit of legislation has been put off until next week while industry minister Jim Prentice tries to further tweak the balance of individual rights against those of the industry. Even given this week reprieve, not much is likely to change — at least, not much that the consumer would appreciate; even minor concessions by the government would still amount to meaningless gestures. This is a bill that needs pretty sweeping changes in order to really pay any deference to the concept of fairness. Furthermore, parliament will break for summer holidays around the middle of the month, and while ACTRA are pushing to rush this thing through, the chances are more likely that it will die on the table before anything is resolved before break.

As an aside, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has classified Canada on a par with the likes of China and Russia when it comes to copyright infringement. I’m just going to go ahead and classify WIPO as an organization that needs to bite me. WIPO’s “standards” are set so heavily against the individual that they aren’t even in the same hemisphere as fair. WIPO needs to retool its standards in order to give the individual back some of the rights they ought to have, and as far as I’m concerned, while IP certainly needs to be protected, we Canadians ought to be the ones to set the bar for fair and balanced legislation — and that’s not going to happen with the bill the way it is. Again, let the government know this loud and clear. Let’s show WIPO, the RIAA, the MPAA, ACTRA and the rest how we roll up here in the Great White.