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You're right. I'm definitely not a lawyer. :)

And I wasn't really using the word 'precedent' in its legal sense, more as an informal way to reflect on what has happened with the RIAA and CRIA in the past. The RIAA has pushed for Canada to reform its copyright law, which sparked a consultation at http://copyright.econsultation.ca/ in July, with the consensus between most of the posters that this was what happened. But instead of the RIAA pushing on the CRIA to pass new legislation, with some Americans aware of what's happening in Canada with the CRIA right now, it may very well be that this will spark some lawsuits in the US over similar things, because there are compilation CDs in the US too.

To the grandparent (or great-grandparent... anyway, to the lawyer's post): I knew there was some treaty between the US and Canada that would make some things applicable to both countries if a company was in both; I figured that if it wasn't NAFTA, it would have been something else. Thanks for making me learn something! :)

You paid to listen to their music, you can listen to it on whatever device you want.

In an ideal world, yes. You pay for something, you use it. But not these guys. They want you to pay for every format shift. In the case of televised programs, they want to you pay for every time shift. But what if you need to time or format shift it to properly use it? Tough luck, bucko, then you just bought a very nice coaster, good luck returning opened merchandise to the store. They've already pushed the idea that you're only borrowing their music, that putting down money for a disk doesn't grant you the right to use it in any legal way you please.

Their ultimate goal appears to be pay PER USE. Did your daughter put the latest bubblegum pop princess single on repeat ALL this afternoon? Fifty cents a play autocharged to your credit card. Good thing you pay $50 a month for the discount plan, or that would have been a buck fifty a play! We can also sell you the ultra-discount plan that's only $100 a month and ten cents a play! This week only, get TEN FREE PLAYS of any Flava Flav song already in your collection with a three year contract!

Banning or restricting time shifting and format shifting is of no use to the busker on the street, but allows a company to profit by re-selling the same product to the same customer in different wrappers should technology or even a person's work schedule change. Many of the 'little people' (or people who claim to represent the 'little people' or the 'starving artists') who insist that Canada needs copyright reform so they can better feed their families strangely don't explain why their neighbor, whose family won't see paychecks in the fifty years after he dies, should have to enjoy the things he has bought and paid for only on their terms, even if it means he never gets to enjoy them at all.

To my fellow Canadians: The more of this shit we put up with, the more that they'll shovel on us.

http://copyright.econsultation.ca/ - Let them know what you think of the copyright reforms - like this one - being discussed right now.
http://www.pirateparty.ca/sign-up - Let's see if we can get an actual political party off the ground, one that actually fights for the rights of the people!

(Do I sound like an activist? I was completely politically apathetic, voted twice in my entire life, until they started pulling this garbage. We can't put up with this anymore.)

"And before any of you jump in to point out that the DMCA is just a U.S. thing, you had better keep in mind that the DMCA is just the U.S. implementation of the WIPO COpyright Treaty [wikipedia.org], so these types of court cases are probably in the pipeline for your country soon too!"

Your prediction is 100% correct.

At the last attempt at copyright reform in Canada (Bill C-60 last year), the government proposed specifically giving consumers the right to make backups of DVDs or transfer video or audio to other media devices (format conversion), while simultaneously bringing in WIPO-compliant DMCA-like provisions that would have made circumvention of CSS copy protection on those DVDs illegal, and made development or sale of any tools to do so illegal. When reporters and others brought up the pointlessness of bringing in "new rights" that were impossible to legally exercise, the minister of the day had a tough time offering a rational explanation.

Fortunately, the combination of that level of stupidity, the resulting public outrage, and the minority government situation led to the bill dying a quiet death. And, now that the minister in question has been replaced, there are ongoing public consultations to help prepare a new bill (last time there no real consultation). It seems to have finally sunk in that they made fools of themselves and that the the public isn't going to let the government get away with only listening to the media lobby. Maybe they'll propose something sane this time.

Canada is lucky that the U.S. took the lead on this stuff. I really appreciate the crap that people in the U.S. have to go through. It means Canada and other countries benefit from being able to cite many U.S. examples of the problems the DMCA created (my favorite are the lawsuits over 3rd-party printer cartridges and garage door openers). These laws have terrible implications for both consumer rights and for maintaining competition in industry. What the U.S. needs to do is amend the law so that you don't have the stupidity of having fair use rights, but not being able to (legally) exercise them the moment someone applies some copy protection. The DMCA puts *way* too much power in the hands of copyright holders. The court case in the article makes that clear -- perhaps the ruling is legally correct, but if so, it shows that the law needs to change.

It's infuriating to those of us in other countries as well. Here in Canada, the government is looking at re-introducing yet another "Canadian DMCA." Fortunately, this time they are doing a public consultation, but few people are speaking up:

http://copyright.econsultation.ca/

It does seems like it from the few working experiences that we have around the world [1,2]. I hope this is realized that we do need to guarentee a public network, maybe along the private one but nonetheless a good public network!

We need ISP agnostic fiber to the homes, now!

For those in Canada (note the "eh" in the title :P), give your voice below, the CRTC is asking for advise (for what it's worth...):

http://isppractices.econsultation.ca/ (english)

http://pratiquesfsi.econsultation.ca/ (franÃais)

[1]. http://cis471.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-is-connectivty-in-stockholm-so-much.html

[2]. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/shocker-aussies-to-build-own-open-access-fiber-backbone.ars

It does seems like it from the few working experiences that we have around the world [1,2]. I hope this is realized that we do need to guarentee a public network, maybe along the private one but nonetheless a good public network!

We need ISP agnostic fiber to the homes, now!

For those in Canada (note the "eh" in the title :P), give your voice below, the CRTC is asking for advise (for what it's worth...):

http://isppractices.econsultation.ca/ (english)

http://pratiquesfsi.econsultation.ca/ (franÃais)

[1]. http://cis471.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-is-connectivty-in-stockholm-so-much.html

[2]. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/shocker-aussies-to-build-own-open-access-fiber-backbone.ars