A private member’s bill aimed at allowing manufacturers to bypass digital locks on computer programs and hardware (such as new combines costing more than $1 million) under certain circumstances was unanimously approved by the House last spring. It has since stalled in the Canadian Senate. .
Bill C-294, introduced by Saskatchewan MP Jeremy Patzer, would allow shortline manufacturers, including companies that make combine headers such as Honey Bee and McDon It allows digital components of digital components to be legally opened and connected. John Deere, Case IH, New Holland, AGCO, etc.
Carlo Dade of the Canada West Foundation discusses C-294 in the following interview: After receiving cross-party support from MPs, the bill stalled in the Senate.
“We’ve been victimized by other issues, like the crowded agenda in the Senate. So we actually didn’t have as much support in the Senate, especially from Prairie state senators, as we did in the House. But we… There’s still hope. There’s time to work on this. There’s time to educate. And there’s time for farmers and producers to reach out and say, “What’s going on?” ”
This bill would amend copyright law to provide, in certain circumstances, “digital locks” (technological safeguards that enable computer programs or devices on which they are incorporated to interoperate with other computer programs, devices, or devices). It allows you to avoid. component. In other words, shortline manufacturers will be able to produce equipment that works with other companies’ combines and tractors, for example, by giving them access to their own software. (Details below)
Anthony Rosborough, an assistant professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, explains why a bill like this is needed: “Copyright protects software. Therefore, access to software can be prevented by copyright by what is known as a digital lock.”
Copyright law was revised more than a decade ago to include digital lock protections to prevent music and movie piracy. “But as everything in our world becomes inherently computerized, including agricultural machinery, the rules around copyright, or access to software, are starting to permeate more and more of everything in the world.” Rosborough says.
We’ve seen how this affects farmers and others in the Right to Repair movement, and this is also true when it comes to making two devices work together. This is the core of interoperability and what bills like this are trying to fix. Copyright law.
“Currently, Bill C-294 does not apply, so if a shortline company wants to enforce interoperability between two devices, they essentially have to break the digital lock or find a way around it, and the situation In some cases, it may be illegal,” he says. “So this bill at least legalizes the occurrence of that type of activity.”
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