EFF's Coders' Rights Project protects programmers and developers engaged in cutting-edge exploration of technology in our world. Security and encryption researchers help build a safer future for all of us using digital technologies, yet too many legitimate researchers face serious legal challenges that prevent or inhibit their work.

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

The Digital Milenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was adapted in most of the countries under the pressure of the majors and the distributors of music. Even if everybody could easily have an access to the Culture in all its variety, laws and technical restrictions make it impossible. Recently, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) proposed a licence fee for an unrestricted access to music. At the same time, a mission for the French government was detailing the best approach to prevent and dissuade Internet users from illegally downloading music. Isn't the SAC's proposal applicable to France/your country?

"...The GPL requires anyone who makes a program based on GPL'ed code has to release the source code for their program and license it under the GPL. The MPAA refused multiple requests to provide the sources for their spyware, so an Ubuntu developer sent a DMCA notice to the MPAA's ISP and demanded that the material be taken down as infringing."

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).