Do not read unless you are a nerd

Jennifer Stoddart, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, wrote an awesome letter to Jim Prentice and Josée Verner (the ministers of Industry and Canadian Heritage, respectively) about DRM. I found out about this from boingboing--I'm happy that someone there has such a passion for Canadian copyright reform. An excerpt:

My office has prepared an information sheet on DRM technology, a copy of which is enclosed for your information.

If DRM technologies only controlled copying and use of content, our Office would have few concerns. However, DRM technologies can also collect detailed personal information from users, who often do no more than access the content on a computer. This information is transmitted back to the copyright owner or content provider, without the consent or knowledge of the user. Although the means exist to circumvent these technologies and thus prevent the collection of this information, previous proposals to amend the Copyright Act contained anti-circumvention provisions.

This makes my heart happy on a cold, coffeeless Monday morning.