With the Canadian version of the DMCA likely to be introduced within the next two weeks, there has a remarkable outpouring of interest from individual Canadians about what they can do to have their concerns heard.

"So. This week it seems to be about privacy. Not so much me, but the fabulous workings of my government's leadership, who by the way, I did not vote for. [...] Finally, this week is the likely the week that the Canadian version of the DMCA, Digital Millenium Copyright Act, is to be tabled..."

On Wednesday, Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced a bill that BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow described as making it "flatly illegal to break any kind of digital lock, or to violate terms in one of those absurd end-user license agreements that make you promise to agree to let the record industry kick your teeth in and drink all your beer, just for the dubious privilege of paying for a song at iTu

Ottawa copyright circles are buzzing with hints that the government is preparing its new revised copyright bill, and will be tabling it soon, perhaps as early as next week. And the buzz is that the new law will basically be a copy of the controversial U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The Canadian government’s affirmation for copyright reform in this month’s throne speech could have implications on technological innovation as well as the open source community, according to industry activists.

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## In this issue
* It's not the Gates, it's the bars
* Act on ACTA!
* Fight the Canadian DMCA!
* Rhapsody and Naxos go DRM free
* Refusing Digital Monitoring Policies
* 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G
* autonomo.us activist group to focus on freedom in network services
* identi.ca is autonomo.us
* GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
* Take action!

The Government of Canada has angered those who believe that a proposed copyright law threatens the country's open source business model.

Now Adobe, which controls Flash and Flash Video, is trying to change that with the introduction of DRM restrictions in version 9 of its Flash Player and version 3 of its Flash Media Server software. Instead of an ordinary web download, these programs can use a proprietary, secret Adobe protocol to talk to each other, encrypting the communication and locking out non-Adobe software players and video tools. We imagine that Adobe has no illusions that this will stop copyright infringement -- any more than dozens of other DRM systems have done so -- but the introduction of encryption does give Adobe and its customers a powerful new legal weapon against competitors and ordinary users through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Everyone in the US: phone your senators' offices at 202-224-3121 to oppose the US-Peru "Free Trade" Treaty. It requires software patents and something like the DMCA. (Not to mention other harmful effects on other areas of life.)