The Canadian users may be allowed to legally transfer audio files to their MP3 players as a result of some proposed improvements to the Canadian copyright law. However, they can be facing and fines if they will try to circumvent Digital Restrictions Management.

Finding inspiration in US fair use clause, the new Canadian law may give some freedom to each consumer that has bought a CD. They may be able to load it onto a digital music player, according to different news reports.

The new bill will also make a clear distinction between commercial and noncommercial purposes. This would mean a user downloading or uploading unlicensed content to a torrent or P2P site will may encounter fines of $5,000. Some new measures will give more initiative to copyright holders who suspect a person of infringement. They will can require a verification process to check the accused infringer.

The consequences will be more severe for the infringer that has commercial purposes. For example an operator of site that facilitates copyright infringement or for a person breaking digital locks on copy-protected CDs or DVDs for commercial purposes will be exposed to 5 year prison sentence.

It looks like the new law will allow users to mash-up clips and music videos from YouTube for noncommercial purposes. This project is now at the draft stage after it was introduced in the Parliament. The previous updates for the Canadian copyright law were completed in 1997.

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