It looks like Jim Prentice, Canada’s Industry Minister, won’t be introducing his copyright bill until the new year after all.

Anyone who has been following the story surrounding Prentice’s copyright bill this week knows that it’s been a confusing week. The bill was originally to be introduced on Tuesday, then it got indefinitely delayed. Then Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor spearheading the opposition to this bill, reported rumours on Parliament Hill of the legislation being introduced today. Then today the introduction of new government bills came and went without a new copyright bill. According to Geist, the Industry Minister’s press secretary has advised journalists that the bill will not be introduced today or tomorrow.

With the House of Commons going on a winter break at the end of the week, the legislation will not be introduced until atleast January.

I reiterate myself in saying that Prentice should use this time to do a proper consultation with all stakeholders. These stakeholders would include but are not limited to: Artists, songwriters, software innovators, and consumers.

So far, Prentice has only listened to the concerns of corporate lobby groups.

Many groups, such as The Canadian Music Creators Coalition and the Songwriters Association of Canada, are calling for alternative methods for dealing with piracy. They need to be listened to too.

Some consumer concerns would include backing up music they’ve purchased and transferring music they have purchased to their MP3 players.

Finally P2P (Peer to Peer) file sharing is not going away, suing music fans who choose to access their music via P2P is counter productive and does not allow the music industry to grow.

All these concerns must be properly addressed with consultations with all stakeholders before the bill is amended or redrafted and tabled.