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DMCA-style laws coming to Canada, Switzerland

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http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071129-dmca-style-laws-come-to-canada-switzerland.html

November 29, 2007 | ars technica

DMCA-style laws coming to Canada, Switzerland

By Nate Anderson

When countries sign WIPO treaties, they're bound to then pass the laws 
back home that implement those treaties. The US wasted no time in 
adopting the requirements of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and 
the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT). The result was the 
DMCA.  It had some good bits (safe harbor for ISPs) and some bad bits 
(no DRM circumvention), but a decade on from its passage, it might be 
hoped that other countries would learn from the US example when they 
finally get around to implementing the WIPO treaties. New legislation in 
Switzerland and Canada largely dashes those hopes.

<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071127.WBcyberia20071127170629/WBStory/WBcyberia/> 
in the next few weeks that reads a whole lot like the DMCA on steroids. 
One Canadian copyright lawyer Both countries have taken a more, err, 
restrained approach to adopting the 1996 treaties, and are just getting 
around to it. Multiple Canadian commentators are expecting the 
government to introduce a copyright reform billcalls it 
<http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2007/11/canadas-copyright-law-is-stronger-and.html> 
a "made-to-order American style copyright bill." (Which is, in case you 
were wondering, A Bad Thing.)

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