Canadian MPs who are vulnerable on copyright — how we'll win the war on the Canadian DMCA

As Canadian copyfighters gear up to fight the reintroduction of Industry Minister Jim Prentice's new copyright bill — which imports the American-style Digital Millennium Copyright Act into Canadian law, despite the DMCA's widespread abuse and total failure to reduce piracy over the past ten years — Michael Geist has given us all a powerful weapon.

Geist has produced a list of Members of Parliament in "unsafe seats" (seats won on narrow margins) whose electoral ridings include a university or college, where one might expect to find a lot of opponents of a copyright law that makes research, development, and scholarship into legally risky activities.

As Geist points out, it's one thing for Prentice — who has a very safe seat indeed — to introduce legislation on behalf of American entertainment industry giants without even consulting Canadian stakeholders, but it's another thing entirely for Members like Rod Bruinooge, who owes his seat to 111 voters, and who represents the 30,000 students at the University of Manitoba.

When push comes to shove, Prentice is going to have a damned hard time getting his bill through if he doesn't talk to Canadians about what they want before he crams EMI, Universal, Sony and Warner's agenda down our throats.

Want to get involved? Join the tens of thousands of Canadians who've signed up for local Fair Copyright for Canadians groups and let your MP know what side you're on.

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See also: Canadian Privacy Commissioner rejects DRM: don't give spyware legal protection!