Bill C-294 addresses issues for shortline manufacturing

A Private Members Bill C-294 - An Act to amend the Copyright Act - focusing on interoperability has passed second reading in the House of Commons.

The Bill put forward by the Conservative MP for Cypress Hills-Grasslands, Jeremy Patzer was supported by all parties.

Patzer says some of the major agricultural manufacturers (like John Deere) are using technological protection measures (TPM) to lock out shortline equipment manufacturers like Honey Bee, Macdon, and Degelman.

"Locking them off of the platform using these TPMs, and it's under the guise of the Copyright Act that they're doing this. What we're doing is creating an exemption, so that these manufacturers have the certainty to be able to go around that TPM, get the information that they need to make their product work on the platform of another company and be able to do so legally."

He notes without the certainty that the amendment provides it's really up in the air as to whether what they need to do going forward would be legal or not.