Ottawa -

Have you been routinely copying music to your iPod or computer without having to pay a fee, then your daily ritual of listening to the newest sounds and bands for free, maybe about to come to a crashing halt if Canadian officials have their way?

A new bill introduced by Industry Minister Jim Prentice in Parliament on Thursday is about to make it harder and illegal to attempt to or actually circumvent digital locks that a company might apply to their products to protect their copyrights.

The new legislation continues to exempt Internet service providers from liability from copyright violations by their customers, only requiring them to pass on notices of violations rather than to actually remove the copyrighted material from the infringing site as required by American law.

The new rules would continue to allow Canadians to record television and radio programs, so they can play them later, a practice called time-shifting, but would make it illegal for Canadians to keep these recorded shows in their personal libraries of copied material.

A touchy subject drafting new legislation, balancing the rights of content creators with the every day reality of life in a digital world, while keeping in mind the difficulty that will ensue trying to implement and police any infringements.

Certainly, many individuals are of the opinion that they should be able to download whatever content they can get, and shouldn’t have to pay for it, but then they forget that there won’t be any music if it wasn’t for the talent of individuals able to create beautiful tones that reach the soul of the beast. The music will stop if musicians can’t make a living at their chosen profession, they’ll do something else to earn the money they need to live.

Groups opposed to such new legislation have appeared on the horizon, Fair Copyright for Canada was set up on Facebook ahead of the new bill to protest the government’s new copyright legislation, and at the moment they are 40,000 strong and growing. Expect to see additional groups opposed to this new legislation to make their opinion known.

The next time your on a site and your thinking about downloading content make sure you read all the fine print or you could be wishing you did, once content is locked down, your rights evaporate and your potential for legal entanglements hits the roof.

Canada’s coalition of Canadian entertainment industry organizations, which represents Canada’s 21.000 professional performers, 15,000 musicians and the rights of the Canadian music industry, applauded the introduction of the new legislation.

The new laws reduce individual liability to $500 from the previous maximum of $20,000 for making illegal copies of music or movies for your private consumption. The new legislation includes penalties or fines of up to $20,000 for circumventing or hacking a company’s digital lock to make unauthorized copies of a computer game. These higher monetary penalties also apply when you’re posting music using the Internet or peer-to-peer technology, posting copyright-protected material, like videos or pictures onto a web site such as Facebook, YouTube, or MySpace.

Companies that sell or import hacking tools designed to work around a company’s digital locks will be walking on thin water if they continue to provide people with the tools to circumvent a company’s protection. The new legislation makes it illegal to sell or provide Canadians with such products.

There are a few problems with implementation and successful monitoring of whether or not people are building up personal collections of copyrighted material from the internet, television or wherever, the legislation makes no mention of this and government officials have been unable to answer our questions concerning this area of the new legislation.

Groups opposed to the new legislation spent the day pointing out that the legislation is a half-baked measure that only included the thoughts and opinions of a portion of interested sides. They asked how the government was planning to enforce their new legislation when the existing laws don’t allow for legal authorities to enter someone’s private domicile to determine whether someone has been illegally downloading copyrighted material.

The government for their part has been quiet on these points so far and I don’t expect any answers to appear anytime soon.