How many times have you tried to update Microsoft Office in order to patch some massive security flaw only to be confronted with a dialog box asking you to insert you installation CD into the drive only to have to bail out of the update because you can't find the disk or it was damaged when you dropped it on the floor and rolled over it with your chair? (What? that's never happened to you?) The only thing that can save you in that circumstance is a backup copy of you software, or a massive, hour-long download from Gates Inc.

It is also now, legal for Canadians to backup their music CDs, and with good reason. Have you ever left a CD on the dashboard of your car on a hot day? Well don't, it won't work anymore.

It is not difficult to imagine that, in light of this new law, the entertainment industry will begin putting digital locks on all of their products making it forever illegal to make legitimate backup copies of our property.

We pay hundreds of dollars for our software, CDs and DVDs each year. Canadians should have and have had the right to protect their investment. For that right we pay exorbitant taxes on blank CDs and iPods designed to compensate the entertainment industry for lost revenues. Will these be rolled back? Don't count on it.

I understand what the government is trying to do, but this is not the way to do it.