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Give the Canadian Parliament credit for at least attempting to drag its copyright laws into the 21st century. But one gets the feeling that a digital hornets’ nest has been stirred up by new legislation introduced by Industry Minister Jim Prentice.

Canada’s government tried to find the right balance between personal freedom and protection of artists’ rights with its amendments to the Copyright Act. Yet judging from the coverage, critics will no doubt point to similarities to the U.S.‘s Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which digital rights advocates accuse of favoring Big Media, Inc. More personal use is authorized with the pending Canadian legislation; consumers can download legally-acquired music for use on iPods, and fines for illegally downloading that music for personal use have been drastically reduced. Anyone caught selling those illegally-acquired copies on the open market, however, is still subject to large monetary penalties, as is anyone trying to break digital rights management (DRM) locks on music or movies.

As with any effort to apply 20th century copyright concepts to the digital world, enforcement remains a big question mark. It’s almost as if the Canadian Parliament is throwing in the maple-leaf-emblazoned towel on this issue: for example, ISP’s don’t face any sanctions for illegally-copied materials going over their networks. Also, the new bill allows time-shifting of TV programs on digital video recorders, but bans keeping those programs forever in a personal library. Yet there’s no mention of how the government plans to check each and every DVR in the Great White North to make sure no one is illegally stashing away final-season episodes of “Royal Canadian Air Farce.“

Read [Reuters]

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