Canada – is your iPod legal?

The new Copyright Act in Canada will allow Canadians to copy legally acquired music to their iPods and computers but ban them from circumventing DRM on other media.

The act also exempts ISPs from liability for copyright violations by their subscribers, but does demand they send letters from rights-holders to file-sharers warning them against their actions.

Canadians will also be permitted to record TV and radio shows for later viewing – but forbids them keeping a personal library of such shows.

The bill also reduces Canadians’ individual liability to C$500 from a maximum of C$20,000 for making illegal copies of music or movies for private use. 

However, a huge C$20,000 fine can be made against users who hack their ay past DRM or other digital locks, and against those making music or other media available through file-sharing services.

Measures are also included which make it illegal to “provide, market or import tools used to circumvent digital locks,” causing Red Hat founder Bob Young to warn the act could stymie open source development, criminalizing acts undertaken on a regular basis, such as developing extensions, reverse engineering code and researching security measures.