The Canadian Software Innovation Alliance (CSIA) is working to protect innovation and competition in the Canadian software industry. Open source software should continue developing into a free, open and powerful standard useful to programmers, users, businesses, and public institutions. People making copyright policy need our help to understand open-source technology and to find practical ways to make copyright work for open systems and secure computing.

The Canadian Software Innovation Alliance (CSIA) was launched as a direct response to the DMCA-like copyright legislation that was scheduled to be introduced to Parliament just before the 2007 Christmas break by Canada's Industry Minister, Jim Prentice. The CSIA has released a white paper, "Software Innovation, Copyright and the Dangers of Anti-Circumvention Legislation" which "offers an account of the economic significance of Canada’s open source sector, reviews the importance of balanced copyright to open source innovators, and outlines the danger anti-circumvention laws poses to open source innovators."

The new legislation was anticipated to be an even more restrictive and punitive version of the US DMCA laws. The biggest problem with the legislation was that it would have been introduced without input from the various stakeholders within Canada, and appeared to simply be an appeasement of big-money, big-business US special interest groups. There was no consultation with Canadian educators, artists, business groups or the public, and it was anticipated that the legislation would eliminate many rights which we currently enjoy under the existing copyright laws.

At the last minute, the introduction of the legislation was delayed until 2008 because of public outcry. I'm pleased to have been a part of this with the letters I sent to Jim Prentice, Don Bell (my MP), and Dan Jarvis (my BC MLA).

If you are involved in the software industry, please visit the CSIA website and consider becoming a member.

To learn more about copyright issues and internet law in Canada, including suggestions on what you can do if you are concerned about this, please visit Dr. Michael Geist's website.