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Time to flip the Tories the bird again - another attempt to ram through a Canada DMCA
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| PivotTechno |
Please don't be too apathetic about this one. This is yet another example of what happens when MNCs try to dictate government policy.
PMO Issues The Order: Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks
Wednesday May 05, 2010
Months of public debate over the future of Canadian copyright law were quietly decided earlier this week, when sources say the Prime Minister's Office reached a verdict over the direction of the next copyright bill. The PMO was forced to make the call after Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement were unable to reach consensus on the broad framework of a new bill. As I reported last week, Moore has argued for a virtual repeat of Bill C-61, with strong digital locks provisions similar to those found in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act and a rejection of a flexible fair dealing approach. Consistent with earlier comments on the need for a forward-looking, flexible approach, Clement argued for changes from C-61.
With mounting pressure from the U.S. - there have repeated meetings with senior U.S. officials in recent weeks - the PMO sided squarely with Moore's vision of a U.S.-style copyright law. The detailed provisions will be negotiated over the coming weeks by the respective departments, but they now have their marching orders of completing a bill that will satisfy the U.S. that comes complete with tough anti-circumvention rules and no flexible fair dealing provision.
The bill is not expected until June, but it will have dramatic repercussions once introduced. First, the bill represents a stunning reversal from the government's seeming shift away from C-61 and its commitment to a bill based on the national copyright consultation. Instead, the consultation appears to have been little more than theatre, with the PMO and Moore choosing to dismiss public opinion. Second, after adopting distinctly pro-consumer positions on other issues, Moore has abandoned that approach with support for what may become the most anti-consumer copyright bill in Canadian history. Third, the bill will immediately impact the Canadian position at the ACTA and CETA negotiations, where the bill's provisions on anti-circumvention and ISP liability will effectively become the Canadian delegation position.
For those wondering what can be done, my only answer is to speak out now. Write a paper letter to your Member of Parliament and send copies to the Prime Minister, Moore, Clement and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. No stamp is required - be sure to include your home address and send it to the House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6. Once that is done, join the Facebook group and the Facebook page and be sure to ask others do the same. You may spoken out before, but your voice is needed yet again. |
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| VDub |
You know what this thread reminds me of???
"My people are dying you want to give me COUPONS?!?!" |
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| Abercrombie |
| Think the CD-R levies will go away? ya right. |
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| Time2Burn |
Copyright reform needs to occur. Content creators need to be protected in this ever evolving world of media. If you are afraid you're going to be fined for owning pirated music/software/movies start buying them. I don't agree with everything this bill covers but if it helps artist protect their work I am in favour.
As someone who works closley with visual artists I am more afraid of the orphan works bill passing in the US which potentially opens the door for anyone to use an unattributed work without permission or compensation. |
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| jester |
How about for movies/tv shows they just stream it online at the same time it hits theatres or hits the air on tv.
I still go to the cinema. I download tv shows that we don't get here or ones that I missed before, seeing I was watching something else. Guess I should get TiVO lol
Music I pretty much always pay for via itunes or online store.
Software is a whole other thing LOL |
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| PivotTechno |
| quote: | Originally posted by Time2Burn
I don't agree with everything this bill covers but if it helps artist protect their work I am in favour. |
Do you really think that this is being rushed in with the small, independent artist in mind at all? The last time they tried to push this through, various artist coalitions actually spoke out against the bill, with corporate lobbyists on the other side, rallying for it to pass.
This is simply the U.S. pushing its corporate-backed policy through Canadian channels, with no attempt whatsoever to consult with the public about it - 6 weeks...are you kidding me?
The only thing this is going to do is to open the doors for ridiculously restrictive and invasive policy from MNCs with Canadian operations (which are no longer suing U.S. families, just going straight to ISPs and asking them to spy on their customers on their behalf) while the visual artists you know will be left with a lovely handful of bureaucracy, fees and a backlogged court system.
Here's good differentiation:
- Copyright is about balancing interests and serving the public good, not about preserving business models that are no longer viable in the face of technological progress.
- Digital Rights Management (a.k.a. Technological Protection Measures) are primarily about anti-competitive practices and have essentially zero impact on digital piracy.
U dig?
It takes all of 5 minutes to write a letter to Parliament expressing your opposition, and you don't even have to pay for postage! |
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| Jayx1 |
forcing people to buy something instead of steal it....
those damn conservatives!! |
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| PivotTechno |
| Allowing corporations access to what, in most cases, should be private information. What will they think of next, huh? |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by PivotTechno
Allowing corporations access to what, in most cases, should be private information. |
Explain. |
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| PivotTechno |
Read the second article I linked to.
Either:
a) Your ISP is forced to divulge increasingly personal information in the name of copyright protection
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b) Your ISP, if it is a small, independent operator, is slapped with a crippling lawsuit when it refuses to divulge said information, eventually leaving an oligarchy of corporate-compliant providers. |
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| PivotTechno |
Words from SOCAN member musician Vanessa Rodrigues:
| quote: | | I am a musician/composer and I am against this legislation. This is NOT just about kids downloading pop music for free off limewire. This is about access to information and cultural content across many different fields (journalism, education, etc), and also about your personal rights as a consumer. It will be ILLEGAL to circumvent any digital lock for any purpose whatsoever, so forget about parody and satire, or using a news clipping to teach a social studies class. It will be illegal to make backup copies of your OWN content for your own use - so if your kid scratches your favorite CD, because you weren't allowed to back it up in the first place, you'll just have to buy it again IF whatever huge corporation who owns the master recording decides to make it available for purchase. It will be illegal to take apart your OWN CD player to fix a part in it if that device comes with any sort of digital lock, even if that aspect is not affected by your taking the screws out, and if in the end you have to admit defeat and send it to the dealer for repair, you could be on the hook for thousands of $$$ in copyright fines! If a media corporation who controls digital archives of particular articles goes belly up, or just decides not to release particular data, we will have NO way of accessing and disseminating that information. Control and manipulation of information is how dictatorships start. This is not about limewire, people, this is about democracy. Wake the fuck up. And yes, I am a composer who receives SOCAN royalties from my copyrighted works and have probably "lost" a lot of money by people downloading my music for free rather than buying it ... but not in a million years would I trade my freedom of expression and access to information for the measly few more bucks I might get if these laws go through. |
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| Jayx1 |
Im not a fan of the ISP tracking at all.. But, the circumventing the lock business... cry me a river!
What on earth did people do before cd burners and mp3s? you know, before 10 years ago?
Oh, wow.. they actually TOOK CARE OF THEIR MUSIC LIKE IT WAS A PRECIOUS COMMODITY BECAUSE IT WAS!! Little johnny scratches your record, the dog eats your cassette, or your cd falls on the gravel driveway, guess what? TOO BAD SO SAD! Go buy a new copy.
Sorry i dont buy it.
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