For immediate release: Ottawa, June 16, 2008

Open source group: copyright bill will hurt innovators
Canadian Software Innovation Alliance comes out against Bill C-61

The Canadian Software Innovation Alliance (CSIA), a coalition of Canadian open source businesses and supporters, worries that Bill C-61, 'An Act to Amend the Copyright Act,' introduced by the Conservative government on June 12, threatens the open source business model.

**This is the text of the initial CSIA mailing that was sent out in December, 2005.**

Canada's open-source professionals and open-source advocates are coming together to make sure Canada's copyright law continues to support creativity and encourage innovation. Content industry lobbyists are calling for new controls that threaten important activities such as the right to reverse engineer, the right to create interoperable software and the right to conduct security research. These rights are crucial to software innovators and need to be guaranteed.

Canadian Software Innovation Alliance Green Sheet

Know your rights as an open source developer!

The Copyright Act isn't only about stopping people from copying music, movies, and software. Copyright law is also about balance between the rights of creators and the rights of users, and the Copyright Act makes sure of that.

Note: A new website has been launched at softwareinnovation.ca. This is a historical page from 2005.

CSIA FAQ

If your question isn't mentioned below, drop us a line any time.

CSIA Members

The following open source companies and professionals are members of the Canadian software innovation alliance, and support copyright laws that supports the to create interoperable systems, reverse engineer, and conduct security research.

Membership is open to any company or organization that develops, maintains, or depends on open source software.

Open Source Companies

Red Hat
Bob Young

Roaring Penguin

Wireless Nomad Co-Op
Steve Wilton

FLORA Community Consulting,
Russell McOrmond

OpenConcept Consulting, Mike Gifford

Xelerance Corporation, Michael Richardson

Tucows Inc., Joey DeVilla

Sandelman.ca, Michael Richardson

Openflows Networks Ltd. Jesse Hirsh

Openject Consulting, Colan Schwartz

Naoi Technologies, Bill Traynor

Guided Vision, David Numan

PATH tech, G. Roderick Singleton

Open Selection, G. Roderick Singleton

Open Enterprise Solutions, http://www.openenterprise.ca, Johnny Stork

Open Computing, http://www.opencomputing.ca, Chris Jezovnik

Note: A new website has been launched at softwareinnovation.ca. This is a historical page from 2006.

A Voice for Open Source

Note: A new website has been launched at softwareinnovation.ca. This is a historical page from 2005.

Welcome to (the historical pages of) the Canadian Software Innovation Alliance!