Canada’s copyright legislation is taking a very different path from controversial U.S. legislation that drew widespread protests, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore said Wednesday.

In an interview with CBC News the week a special committee set up its schedule for examining the bill, Moore said the government has rejected the aggressive approach the American government tried to take with the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Observers have said they’re not opposed to much of bill C-11, the act to amend the copyright act, but they fear lobbying could convince the Canadian government to take a more aggressive approach.

"This is a very different path," Moore said, pointing out each country has different consumer and cultural pressures affecting its legislation. "We’ve rejected the American style approaches on massive parts of our legislation."

"SOPA was about an international pursuit of piracy with pretty aggressive means that our government is not considering in our copyright bill."

One example, he said, is that the Canadian legislation would bring in "notice and notice," where an internet provider would notify rights infringers on behalf of the content creator. The U.S. bill has "notice and takedown," where a creator complains and the service automatically removes the content.

Concern limited to digital locks

Steve Anderson, spokesman for Openmedia.ca, which advocates for open and affordable internet access, says the group is satisfied with much of the legislation, but is concerned about the digital locks provisions.

The legislation allows for content owners to copy from one device to another, but makes it illegal to break a digital lock if the content creator has used one.

"That just prevents people from accessing their own services and from accessing legal content," Anderson said.

"It’s a really easy change for them to make, which is basically just allowing Canadians to remove digital locks, to circumvent digital locks, when they’re accessing content legally. I think that’s a pretty common sense thing to allow."

NDP MP Charlie Angus, the party's critic on copyright and digital issues, says there are major problems with the bill, and he wants to hear from artists and consumer groups.

"The digital lock provisions are very problematic. They will interfere not just with the legal rights of Canadians but will interfere with the ability of education, of digital development," Angus said.

Moore said despite the criticism, nobody has offered an amendment for the digital locks provision. He said it’s up to the creative industries to decide how they want to handle the locks.

"I think the market forces on this are working. As you know in the music industry there are very few digital locks," he said, although the video gaming industry uses them more.

"These kinds of market forces are working and we want the government to allow those market forces to work. But we do believe that those who want to protect what it is that they’ve invested in should be able to protect it from those who want to hack and steal from them."

The legislation provides for reconsideration after five years. So, Moore said, if MPs aren’t happy with how the legislation works in practice, Parliament can take another look at it.

A special committee set up to examine the legislation is meeting Thursday to determine a preliminary list of witnesses to invite. MPs have agreed to examine the bill clause-by-clause by March 14 and end the study by March 29 to report back to the House of Commons.

With the week of Feb. 20 a break week for Parliament that means there are just 2½ weeks to study the legislation.

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• Digital Locks

  The Copyright Modernization Act, Bill C-11, will allow Canadians to copy content from one device to another, such as from a CD to a computer or an iPod. This provision, however, does not apply to content protected by a digital lock, which is any technological measure, such as encryption or digital signatures, that rights holders use to restrict access to or prevent the copying or playing of CDs, DVDs, e-books, digital files and other material. (Ryan Anson/AFP/Getty Images) <em>Slides use files from CBC</em>

• Non-Commercial Recording

  The act will allow Canadians to record television, radio and internet broadcasts and listen to or view them later on whatever device they choose but not for the purposes of building up a library or for commercial use. This provision does not extend to content that is offered "on-demand" (streamed video, for example) or protected by a digital lock.

• Backups

  The act will allow Canadians to make a backup copy of content to protect against loss or damage -- again unless that content is protected by a digital lock or offered as an on-demand service.

• Mash-Ups

  The act will allow Canadians to incorporate legally acquired copyrighted content into their own user-generated work, as long as it's not for commercial gain and does not negatively impact the markets for the original material or the artist's reputation. An example would be the posting of your own mash-up of a Lady Gaga song and, say, a Beyoncé number on YouTube. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Clear Channel)

• Education

  The act will allow Canadians to use copyrighted content for the purposes of education, satire or parody. This expands what is known as the fair dealing provisions of the existing law -- which until now covered only research, private study, criticism and news reporting. (Photo credit should read JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

• Book Burning?

  The act will allow Canadians to copy copyrighted material that is part of an online or distance learning course in order to listen to or view it at a later time. Under this provision, teachers can provide digital copies of copyrighted material to students as part of the course but only if they and the students destroy the course material within 30 days of the end of the course. Teachers are also expected to take reasonable measures to prevent the copying and distribution of the material other than for the purposes of the course. Critics have referred to this part of the Act as the "book burning" provisions. (Flickr: pcorreia)

• Librarians

  The act will allow librarians to digitize print material and send a copy electronically to users, who can view the material on a computer or print one copy. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

• Disabled People

  The act will allow consumers who are disabled to adapt copyrighted material to a format they can more easily use. (Pierre-Henry DESHAYES/AFP/Getty Images)

• Banned Tech

  The act will prohibit the manufacture, importation and sale of technologies, devices and services designed primarily for the purpose of breaking digital locks. This includes technology designed to allow you to play foreign-bought DVDs on your North American player, for example.

• Breaking Locks

  The act will prohibit the circumventing of digital locks, even for legal purposes -- such as the education or satire uses protected by other sections of the Act. This is one of the most controversial parts of the legislation. Many experts have criticized the government for not including an exemption that would allow for the bypassing of digital locks for legitimate purposes, such as the copying of parts of digitally locked textbooks to view on another device or for use in an assignment.

• Piracy

  The act will require internet service providers to notify their customers that they are violating the copyright law if a copyright holder informs the ISP of possible piracy. The ISP is required to retain "relevant information" about the user such as their identity, and that information could potentially be released to the copyright holder with a court order.

• ISP Liability

  The act will exempt ISPs and search engines from liability for the copyright violations of their users if they are acting strictly as intermediaries in the hosting, caching or communication of copyrighted content.

• Sharing Sites

  The act will prohibit a person to provide a service over the internet or another digital network that the person "knows or should have known is designed primarily to enable acts of copyright infringement." This clause is targeted at websites created for the purpose of distributing copyrighted content, such as the many popular peer-to-peer file-sharing sites used to swap video and audio, and is meant to "make liability for enabling of infringement clear."

• Commercial vs. Personal

  The act will differentiate between a commercial violation of copyright law and an individual violation. Individuals found violating the law could be liable for penalties between $100 and $5,000, which is below the current $20,000 maximum.