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Canadian Minister Promises to Fix Copyright Law
Mashiki writes "In Canada, we can download Mp3's and their assorted goodness without too much of a hassle, recently the CRIA and their friends lost the court case. Well, it would appear that the new Federal Heritage Minister Helene Scherre, has spoken and those words were: 'As minister of Canadian Heritage, I will, as quickly as possible, make changes to our copyright law.'"
Even for Canadians.
I wonder what she means by "Fix" when talking to the recording industry. I have a feeling that it would coincide perfectly with "break" to everyone else.
The real criminals don't break laws; They write them.
This is just one minister. Whether or not she can pass any bills is up for debate. The bottom line is that we pay levies now to download music, and the music industry shouldn't be able to make us pay levies and buy music. They can't screw us twice without someone noticing. Recently someone noticed too.
Hi there
There is no doubt that the singers and other supporting personnel do need to make money from their talents. For this to happen, people have to buy their music. But when people share music collections on P2P services, the artistes are, without doubt, robbed of their fruits of labour.
However, at the same time, it must be noted that more c90% of proceedings from CD sales go to the record labels. P2P sharing hits more the big record labels than the actual artistes.
A P2P system where the artistes get paid per song downloaded would be an ideal solution.
Canadian Idol winner Ryan Malcolm expressed skepticism, and suggested the Canadian music biz find a way to live with file-sharers.
"Whether people download or not, as long as they're listening to music," he said.
"I think it's a challenge for the industry, to try and find a new way to survive."
The vast majority of artistes vehemently support electronic means of music distribution over the CD method. They have been ripped off by record labels for too long. Sadly, the United States of America, has now become United Corporations of America, and all laws dealing with P2P file sharing has been enacted according to the dictates of the rich record labels and their lobby groups. The wishes of the artistes are hardly ever taken into consideration. It'll be a sad day indeed if the much more socially progressive nation of Canada follows in the footsteps of her corporacratic Southern Neighbour.
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Nothing to see here
Of course it won't.
So in what world is putting a file that you do _NOT_ own the copyright on, and have not actually obtained permission from the copyright holder to copy for purposes beyond fair use, in a publicly shared folder for others to obtain _not_ a violation of the copyright act?
In the same world where a library can place a photocopier in the same room as books without getting sued. In fact, the judge in this case made that analogy and cited as precedent a case several weeks ago where a law library had been sued.
Why exactly is this rated +4 Funny? In canada, we pay a levy (not a tax, theres a difference) on our blank media that goes towards those music industries whiners. If they plan on making Copyright law such that Downloading becomes illegal, then fuck me paying extra for the CDs that I use for lagitimate uses.
.
DMCA was passed by Clinton
Senator Disney Hollings is Democrat
so is Hollywood Congressman Rick Bermann
please, get out of your partisan bubble and see the light. its not just one side
Buy off a minister to change the laws for you.
Do you realize that AIDS is not curable? Do you realize that these anti-AIDS drugs you talk about prolong your life a 3 or 4 years, but you will still die regardless? Do you realize that prolonging the life of an african with aids means he will have more time to infect other people?
Of course you don't.
Just think, our very own Senator! Cash value 1/100 of senate...
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Of course there's a difference between a levy and a tax. A tax would go into the same government General Account that all taxes do, but the levy goes to CRIA.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Or hopefully some smart lawmaker will call it "The Lets All Let the Bloodsucking Record Industry Make Laws For Us Enactment" and it will be pidgeonholed.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Well....
I for one welcome our American Overlords.
I don't, the American Government needs to be "fixed" before I'd ever consent to that.
Why do you think the Russians, Germans, and French were the big complainers about Iraq?
But you didn't see China complaining about the invasion of Afghanistan, now did you.
Hmmmm? You ever see the numbers on weapons to Iraq? I just named the top 3 contributors, and America was not even in the top 5. Hell, even CANADA sold weapons to Saddam.
You are more or less correct, however, AMERICAN companies in CANADA sold weapons to Saddam. Thanks muchly, you can keep your MIC along with the DMCA.
STFU with your damned jealousy of the worlds biggest and best superpower. It smacks so badly of "my country is small and pitful, so I'll complain about the US".
The United States of America has some pretty serious problems, and the 15% of your population that controls the democratic process needs to be expanded, to deal with these problems. IMO.
Every nation on this planet has done terrible things. Hell, even Canada uses ID CARDS like in South Africa to say who is and isn't an "aboriginal".
Yes, it is. But would you argue for no status for aboriginals who are presently not in the same social levels as the rest of the country? Do what the United States has done with the immigrant populace, or even the prison population. That's the american way isn't it, don't identify any cultural groups at all and just ignore the problems.
They are creating genocide there by means of disinterest.
As a first nations person, I can say that there isn't disinterest by the government nor many people. Perhaps there's disinterest from the commercial sector, but what do you expect? It's not like many bands are wealthy, you know.
An analogy might be a bookstore that photocopies a book without authorization, rebinds it, and puts it on the shelf with a price tag on it. Whether or not someone actually buys that book, the store has committed a copyright violation.
Nope. The fact that they're on sale at a store clearly shows an intent to profit... but they still won't have actually hit any civil damages until there's actually been a sale.
You can't charge somebody with murder unless the victim is dead. "Attempted murder" is defined as a different crime that gets committed when somebody demonstrates an intent on committing murder but doesn't quite make it due to ineptiude or intervention. You don't just get to throw "attempted" in front of any other crime to create a new crime. "Attempted copyright violation" is not a crime on the books anywhere, yet.
Yeah, and the irony is stealing is closer to what the Corporates are doing, because they are reducing the public's access to stuff - either by extending copyright periods (retroactively even) and reducing/removing "fair use".
When you copy something the owner still has full access to the original.
But when you extend a copyright on something that would have entered public domain, the public loses what would have been rightful access to it.
So who are the real thieves?
Pity too many people are too ignorant to see that - they have been intentionally brainwashed by the Corporates - with deceptive terms and phrases like Intellectual Property, Piracy, Copying=Theft.
I've written to my local newspaper regarding this, and they did print it (but naturally the industries concerned have a stronger lobby and voice than I do), maybe more people should write in and educate the rest.
You have the idea of the "Band Card" really F*^Ked up. It is not a method of discrimination. It is voluntary AND the only thing it does is provide benefits. With it an aboriginal can vote for their band leader and which gives them and their culture recognition, and exempts them from paying taxes. It is not genocide. There have been initiatives to relieve this "apartheid" in Canada and they have never been well accepted by the exact population that we are accusingly discriminating against. You should really look into this. There may be problems in Canada and yes even in the aboriginal community but the Band Card is not one of them. Hos is that for a /. rant?
Burn Bright or Fade Away
Let's put it all on the table if we're going to deal with this problem seriously and take a good, hard look at how musicians are compensated from both ends -- producers and consumers.
I have a feeling a lot of record companies would tone down the rhetoric or employ frantic hand waving if their business practices were exposed to some scrutiny. I do not understand why artists haven't brought up the issue of royalties before the Internet and I'd wager the total value of royalties "lost" to file sharing pales in comparison to the amount record companies extort.
Personally, I do not download music from Kazaa and the like, but I have used Puretracks. If services like Puretracks or iTunes existed years ago we might not be in the mess we are now.
It would take you several lifetimes to read all the laws of your country, state, county, and city. You are probably violating one of those laws right now. I agree that there are some things that should be obvious, like following the 15 (crash) 10, 10 commandments, but not knowing that, for instance, radar detectors are illegal when you cross the state line and it's not posted shouldn't result in you having to drive over your "radio" but that's what happens.
The system is set up to keep us ignorant. They want there to be more laws than we can ever keep track of, so they can haul us in whenever they choose. A very apt quote which I've been discussing recently if you check my history:
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Just an ammendment to clarify my views:
While I support p2p, I think there are consequences that people should be aware of. The record companies will lose money as a result of slashing prices to compete. This will lead to them representing fewer acts and those will be only the ones that are safe bets (the heavily produced Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, Enrique Iglesias, etc) and less of the risky (read: interesting) ones. Diversity in record stores will suffer as p2p flourishes. If you want an actual packaged CD of a band that is more intertesting than the aforementioned acts, you're eventually going to have to actually go out to their show and buy it from them yourself. I personally think that's a great thing. Supporting live music, giving more money to musicians and less to distributors is all good in my books. If you're a proponent of p2p filesharing as I am, don't later whine that there's nothing good in the stores.
Stack overflow: pid 352258, proc httpd, addr 0x11f7ffff0, pc 0x12000195c Segmentation fault (core dumped)
I hate it immensely when governments LOOSE court cases, and then cry poor baby, and then change the laws, like fuck the law, i mean if they loose, they really can 'force' it so they can win. Part of the court ruling should be that the govt cant then go back and 'fix' the laws. Why have laws, lets have a dictatorship since basically the govt does what it wants to a large extent, until they get voted out but the boys already have their big business deals and friends in high places...
It happens everytime btw, not just about (C) crap, but even minor laws or small so called 'loop holes'.
Rise up!! Revolution be cometh 2012.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Copyright Goon: Your honor, we want the ISP to turn over the name of the user who has IP adress 14.34.23.29 because they are sharing "Our Song", which is our copyrighted material on the Internet.
Judge: Okay, how do you know that a computer 14.34.23.29 is committing copyright infingement against your copyrighted material.
Copyright Goon: They're offering our material up for sharing over the StealTheirMusic protocol for anybody to download.
Judge: Okay, can you prove that anybody actually downloaded that material?
Copyright Goon: Yes, because we downloaded "Our Song" from that server.
Judge: Uhm... that's not an unauthorized copy being made if you downloaded your own song. You started the download, you authorized the copy being made.
Copyright Goon: Uhm... okay. Can we search the guys computer to see if there's transfer logs that prove he transfered "Our Song" to somebody else?
Judge: No. You've gotta show that there's been an infigement first. You can't go blindly fishing like that.
Copyright Goon: Can you make the ISP let us get a trace on that IP's outbound traffic so we can look for a transfer?
Judge: No. That's still fishing.
Copyright Goon: But we're sure they're stealing "Our Song" out there. Our sales are down!
Judge: Come back when you've got some proof...
If we're talking about someone making just over minimum wage working in a music store, yeah, that's a real job. If we're talking about the sound technicians who do the grunt work in the production of the music, yeah, that's a real job.
If we're talking about the corpulent assholes who sit at the top of the company, who actually make no music, who add nothing to the value of the CD, and who take the vast majority of the artist's record sale income, and yet whine about p2p (and the apparent loss of funds to such that makes them unable to purchase that ruby-encrusted crack pipe), then no, that's not a real job.
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
You also pay a levy (not a tax) when you buy tires for you car to pay for its eventual recycling. That money just ends up added to the federal tax coffers and your tires get dumped in a landfill.
The sick thing is the liberals will still win.
New news forum for Canadians - CanadaSpeaks
Countries don't compete for the best citizens. Most countries worth living in have very strict immigration laws. IT's the other way around. COuntries have to put barriers to keep the unwashed masses out.
evil is as evil does
The recording industry should not make artists sign over their copyrights. If the music execs purport to protect the poor artists, then they should do business with these artists without requiring that they sign over anything.
The music execs should stop promoting all the garbage music that they promote. This is the real cause of declining music sales. If the music execs would promote quality music instead of this garbage, they would most likely see increased sales. But instead of doing business wisely and increasing profits through smart management and marketing, they prefer to litigate.
The music execs should stop overcharging for CDs. This is probably the second cause of declining music sales. People simply don't want to pay $20 for an album, and one that contains 1 or 2 good songs and 8 filler tracks to take up space. If the music execs would lower music prices instead of raising them and then wondering why sales decline, they would most likely see increased sales. But instead of doing business wisely and increasing profits through smart management and marketing, they prefer to litigate.
The music execs should pay the artists the larger portion of the pie when it comes to music revenue. If the sale of a fifteen dollar album currently earns the artists about two cents, then that is a very sad situation, and it means that the music execs are the ones screwing the artists over, not those downloading MP3 tracks. The music execs should pay roughly 95% of the profits to the artists, and keep the 5% as their fees. Not the other way around. But instead of doing business wisely and increasing profits through smart management and marketing, they prefer to litigate.
In other words, the pirates are the music execs. But they use P2P users as their scapegoat, blaming them for a reduction in music sales, when the evidence is highly questionable at best, and is probably nonexistant.
MUSIC EXECS: *Y*O*U* ARE THE PIRATES!
It won't go away for a very simple reason:
The levy had nothing to do with the legality of the piracy in the first place.
The chronology was: levy, court ruling, minister's comments.
Now as for the court ruling, it doesn't exactly mean as much as its made out to. Check out the posting from Mike Jenkinson on the subject at http://www.the-newsroom.com (his "anti-blog" doesn't have day-to-day links, so you'll have to scroll).
Regardless, the levy already was in place when there was a "legitimate/illegitimate" discrepancy in the popular version, so it doesn't make a difference. Making a cassette tape of baby's first words for grandma still suffers the same levy as making an MP3-CD of 900 songs.
Please realise that at least 95% of the Kazaa users have no idea of what they're doing, and do not realise that by default downloading automatically means making them available. Plausible deniability would work fine for most except computer science majors, because they can claim they thought they were just downloading material (legal in Canada and the Netherlands), and didn't know they were, under the default settings of Kazaa, doing something illegal.
Carefull Helene Scherrer! The fact that the recording industry is pulling in record (pun intended) profits this year asks the question; does sharing music really hurt the industry? People will never stop sharing their music with other people, music is simply much to social to hoard to oneself. I do believe in supporting the artists, but am becoming further disenchanted with the recording industry in their bully tactics. This has NOTHING to do with the artists, but EVERYTHING to do with the big recording industry. The recoding industry is so far out of sync with their target audience they are terrified. And they should be. I like the millions of other Canadians will continue to support artists and still enjoy the sharing of music. These two are not exclusive of each other. cheeers
Don't forget the middlemen. I think the only ones that have benefitted from the CPCC's levy have been the middlemen at the CPCC. Have they sent out those cheques to the artists yet? Or did they need to fly their entire staff back out to France to attend another conference on intellectual property?
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
What I still don't understand is why they're subsidizing this antiquated industry. Traditionally when new technology comes along that makes the old way of doing things inferior industry is forced to abandon that old way and adapt to "the new hotness." As capitalists, this is essentially our mantra.
For instance: The method of marketing the recording industry has been using for years is no longer viable. I'm talking about the way they hype and market sole tracks (singles) of an album while filling much of the rest with filler (remixes, reissues, live songs, half-assed songs, etc.)
Capitalist/Traditional Solution: Produce real albums (with direction, emotion, and *gasp* content) that are actually worth $18.00 or do away with the album idea all together and simply release singles in a lossless format (FLAC for instance). Prices for these singles would have to be reasonable. How can you expect someone to pay $1 for what will most likely amount to under 30 minutes of entertainment.
Current "Solution:" Allow the major record companies to sue anyone unwilling to waste their money on filler or buy tracks that are already encrypted in a lossy format for $1/song (which really is not much of an improvement in terms of price point).
Canada and the United States should be more concerned with maintaining an entertainment industry that isn't feared and loathed by the general populace. I think Washington and groups like the CRIA\RIAA have forgotten this is an entertainment industry and have become far too worried about the bottom line.
Another question is why the pop fed record industry is subject to this favorable treatment while industries which actually produce valuable services and technologies are outsourced (IT).
Copying the entire book is illegal. Many copy shops close by to Canadian universities get busted for this now and then.
Yes, but only because they are the ones doing the copying. People who rent out photocopiers do not get busted for this, just like people who rent out hire cars do not get busted for hit and run incidents unless they were actually participants themselves.
The judge was right (surprise, surprise, he's only a legal expert after all). His analogy makes perfect sense. Making available a tool that could be used for infringing copyright does not constitute copyright infringement. If you think otherwise then cite the precise legislation, or case law, that supports your position. Don't just say "yes but well a lot of people are using it that way" unless you can show how that is legally relevant.
This is just capitalism at work: a new technology has arisen that is much more efficient that the old one and so many now unproductive jobs disappear. This is a drama for the people involved but the ability to switch to new ways of production despite heavy resistance from vested interests is what makes a capitalist economy special and so succesful.
The real problem is not that jobs disappear, but that few new jobs are created because of the monopoly copyrights give. It makes it hard to start new productive economic activities.
Anyone who generalizes about slashdotters is a typical slashdotter.
Please, take the extra 30 secs, hit Print buy an envelope and send your comments to:
Hon. Helene Scherrer
Member of Parliment
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
(Contact Page)
No postage required. (If your letter prominately states that it is going to an MP, no postage is required)
For a revolution, you need leaders... and since there is already laws to forbid any movement that can cause problems to society, you can be pretty sure that those leaders will be arrested and put to jail the minute they think about doing something.
Anyway, as long as people can watch TV, they don't care about being slaves.
How a levy is different from a tax?
I suggest all Canadians who visit slashdot do the same. Fill her inbox, we know we can, and have her actually think about her actions. Here is the letter I just sent to her via:
. cf m
t ml ?tid=123&tid=141&tid=188&tid=9
http://www.pch.gc.ca/pc-ch/min/contacts/index_e
----------
Regarding Downloadable Music:
Ms Scherrer:
I find your bending to the will of the CRIA absolutely unforgivable. You obviously don't know or care to understand the basic precept of sharing music or what the CRIA/RIAA stand for. So let me give you some insight.
These bullies (RIAA./CRIA) are using the courts to bend the will of technology because they themselves are too scared or ignorant to understand it. I applaud the ruling of Justice Konrad von Finckenstein because he understands the value of personal privacy versus the financial coffers of CRIA/RIAA.
Do I think sharing music is theft? No. Why because when people hear a song they like they go find the CD in the store/on-line and buy it. It's akin to radio except it's m usic on demand. Do I think it has some ethical issues? Sure but then again so do
es the CD levy I am forced to pay every time I buy blank CD's to perform backups on my server. Did I get a say in that ruling? No I didn't. It was crammed down my throat like all the other taxes and levies the Canadian government forces on
it's populace. Personally if I feel the levy removes all ethical barriers from music sharing because the Canadian populace was smeared as thieves and forced to pay a levy tantamount to a fine.
Do I buy music anymore? No because of the antics and the illegal behaviour of such organizations as CRIA/RIAA. Do I support Canadian artists? 80% of my CD's are purely Canadian artists. I enjoy the music Canadian artists make but I am forced to stop buying it because of the antics of the CRIA/RIAA and the fact that not a single Canadian artist has spoken out against the levy. I find that appalling and disgraceful just like your commitment to assist criminals like CRIA/RIAA.
Before you commit to sending file sharers to court to defend themselves, look at the organization that you are supporting. They have been found guilty of price fixing multiple times. They sue 12 year old girls. They sue 80 year old women who don't even own a computer. They force people on welfare to pay $2500 USD in fines because they were fingered as sharing some music. The RIAA/CRIA target individuals because they will buckle due to cost of defence and the disruption a suit causes in ones life. This is barratry pure and simple.
I suggest before you make any more public comments on this topic you do some homework and find out exactly what the CRIA/RIAA stand for. I have provided you a link to a on-line news page which allows the readers to make comments. I suggest
you read with an open mind and really understand what the CRIA/RIAA stand for.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/04/03/2317226.sh
9
Do I expect a response? No, other than a form letter thanking me. I wouldn't expect you to be any different than all the other politicians that only care about people who can financially help you get reelected versus the people whom you are supposed to represent.
I seriously hope they do not get elected, or get a minority gov't at the most. Martin is promising everything to everyone and like all politicians he will only honor what helps him and his party. This is the same group of people that brought in the media levy that lines the pockets of big selling acts and does nothing for the people it says it's supposed to help.
Or you could not be totally combative, and maybe then she'll actually listen to your point of view.
I'm currently writing a letter in which I first reassure her of my support of Canadian artists and my desire to see their copyrights respected, then describe my concerns with her statement.
I talk about the potential of p2p as a new medium of communication and distribution and the vested interest of the content industries in having such channels outlawed. I remind her of how these multinational media conglomerates have wielded their considerable power via campaign contributions in the US, and of the bad legislation that has resulted. I contrast that with the much more cautious and considerate approach that has so far been taken in Canada, and urge her continue in that course.
I remind her that copyright law is a balance, and that it his her duty to protect the interests of the public in that balance. I implore her to become informed about both sides of the issue, suggesting she read Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture" and pointing her to the free download.
Finally, I thank her for her time, and express that this is a very important issue for me, one that will weigh heavily in whom I chose to support in future elections.
" Because democraty is out and feudalism is in. "
It's actually a battle between socialism and libertarianism. Libertarians want to end socialistic practices such as taxing CD-Rs and giving the money to the music industry. However, they also want stronger legislation against copying cds. Socialists prefer things the way they are in Canada.
Sending emails are just as good, agree. Conservatives are somehow going to be any different, disagree.