Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash (illustrative)
On 7 November 2024, two bills amending Canada's Copyright Act received royal assent. Bill C-244 allows people to circumvent digital locks for the sole purpose of diagnosing, maintaining or repairing a product, and Bill C-294 allows the same for making devices and software interoperable.
Key facts
The new exception allows circumventing a technological protection measure for the sole purpose of maintaining or repairing a product, including diagnosing faults, when the locked software is part of that product.
It also covers people doing the work on someone else's behalf, such as independent repair shops.
Bill C-294 adds a similar exception for making devices and programs work together.
Both bills took more than two years to pass and were sponsored from opposite sides of the House: Liberal MP Wilson Miao (C-244) and Conservative MP Jeremy Patzer (C-294).
Why it matters
More and more products run on software that can lock out anyone but the manufacturer. Removing the legal barrier lets owners and independent repairers fix things instead of replacing them.
Worth noting
The amendment permits the act of circumvention but does not address making or selling the tools needed to do it, so in practice repairers may still depend on tools that are hard to obtain.