Bill C-61: An Act to amend the Copyright Act

Bill C-61: An Act to amend the Copyright Act (French: Projet de loi C-61 modifiant la Loi sur le droit d'auteur) was a bill introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008. The bill died on the Order Paper when the 39th Parliament was dissolved and an election was called on September 7, 2008. In its 2008 election platform, the Conservative Party promised to reintroduce a bill containing the content of C-61 if reelected.

The bill was the successor to Bill C-60, which had been proposed in the previous Parliament by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin. Specifically, the Conservative government stated that the bill was intended to meet Canada's WIPO treaty obligations. Bill C-61 attracted widespread criticism from critics who stated that it did not strike a fair balance between the rights of copyright holders and consumers. There was also confusion between C-61 and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement which also had significant copyright implications for Canada.

Minister of Industry Jim Prentice stated that the bill would "expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own". However, the bill would have made it illegal to circumvent DRM technologies effectively rendering the rights granted useless for DRM protected digital media.

This bill was superseded by Bill C-32 introduced on June 2, 2010.