Slashdot Mirror
Canada Says No To DMCA
P Starrson writes "
The Canadian government has reportedly said no to the DMCA. It
released its plans
for copyright reform today with a limited anti-circumvention provision
that would not cover the likes of DeCSS. It even avoided the U.S.
"notice and takedown system" that has caused a big headache for U.S.
ISPs. A good summary is available from Canadian law professor Michael Geist. "
Does NAFTA allow us to say no?
We need to rebalance the US and Canadian populations. All the evangelicals, racists, and conservatives go to the US. And all the sane people go to canada. Then, when the Revolution comes, they'll be the first ones up against the wall, and we'll be happy Canadians.
However, the FAQ also notes that circumvention for the purposes of private copying will not be permitted, meaning people may find themselves paying for a CD and paying a levy on blank CD yet unable to make the copy of the underlying CD.
If I buy a CD, I have every right to make a backup copy of that. Its called fair use. If I have to circumvent security to exercise my rights as a citizen and consumer, then I am circumventing a system which is trying to PREVENT me from exercising my rights. So what takes precendence? Fair use or DRM, which will take a higher precedence in a Canadian Court of law?
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
Good step? Yes, very good step, but remember, it's still just a step in the right direction. Let's hope they take the next...and the next...Another good step would be to tell WIPO to go to hell. Too much conformity there. All it takes is a push from the voters, eh?
FTA:The rapid evolution of digital network technology, notably the Internet, has compelled a re-examination of the operation of the Act.
I hope it compells re-examination of copyright and all IP law...everywhere! It's perfectly ok for creators to benefit from their perfomance of their creative works...control is not ok.
ummmm, that's because technically we were British at that point.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
Despite the cheery headline, there are still some lamentable changes being proposed. Chiefly, protection for TPMs (Technological Protections Measures, or DRM) in the same vein as the DMCA are being sought, because, you know, they worked so well in chilling innovation and fostering anti-competitive practices in the USA. Reverse-engineering and circumvention of protection measures will be illegal, unless not for the purpose of facilitating infringement, but that's the kind of purpose that can only be determined after a lengthy trial...
And the "notice and takedown" provison is being avoided, but a "notice and notice" provision is being sought, which is slightly less problematic (it does not require immediate removal of the allegedly infringing material) but there are still provisions being sought that require an ISP to facilitate the process of finding and suing potential infringers.
The gov't clearly wants to restrict the definition of "publicly available" material on the internet, and expand the licensing agreement between educational institutions and content providers (read: more money flows from students to copyright holders). If you are a private individual and not a student, there is to date no mention of how you might legally copy information available on the internet.
And finally, there is no indication yet on the direction the gov't wants to go with our oft-cherised "private copying" right, which currently may or may not apply to downloading music onto your computer. (No, it is not clearly legal in Canada, despite what newspapers and other slashdot posters say. It's just very hard to identify and sue infringers.)
So, there is all that to consider.
It's a fucking retarded BEER COMMERCIAL that only a fucking toothless hick would find funny let alone be proud of. If a BEER COMMERCIAL is how you measure your patriotism and self worth then you've got problems my friend.
"Are you refering to the canadians burning the white house? Isnt that pretty hotly contested? Canadians love to claim they burned the whitehouse down but I think the brits actually did it?"
:)
We *were* Brits at that point so its a moot point. We were a colony of the British Empire until 1867 and 1947(?) in the case of the province of Newfoundland). We are still a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, and we have many examples of our British heritage. The Queen of England is still our Queen for instance (when I swore my oath upon joining the Canadian Forces in '86, it was to "The Queen and all her heirs and successors in perpetuity" for instance. In reality she has no effective political power at all, but we send her a beaver pelt every year).
So when Canadians say we burnt the Whitehouse, it was in fact British Troops, but they had come south from Canada. We were all British back then, so we can claim it as part of our heritage. Besides you guys got a snazzy white paint job out of the deal and it probablly looks better as a result. Now if you could only convince Big Business to put a better choice in the Oval Office...
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Actually, Hatch is both. He owns and collects royalties on a catalog of songs he's written. He just happens to be in a unique position to (theoretically) help himself out by enforcing copyright.
-Dan
I never said it (the law, or the way it was enacted) was right, but screaming about "the government" takes the focus away from the people that are actually pushing for the laws.
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
It wasn't a 'grow op'. It was twenty plants. Hell, a buddy of mine had fifteen plants, and his just got confiscated, and he got a month in jail and some community service because he didn't "sell" it, he just gave it to his buddies. In my town, my old roomate had a pot plant in his living room. His reason? "If I leave it outside, the cops take it." Twenty plants in northern Alberta is still pretty much a personal stash. This isn't a matter of a guy being afraid of going to jail and shooting cops, this is a matter of a guy who LIKED to shoot people, shooting cops.
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
A"notice and notice" regime in relation to the hosting and file sharing activities of an ISP's subscribers would be provided for. That is, when an ISP receives notice from a rights holder that one of its subscribers is allegedly hosting or sharing infringing material, the ISP would be required to forward the notice to the subscriber. Blocking access to such material would be required only when ordered by a court. Upon receipt of a notice, ISPs would also be required to keep a record of relevant information for a specified time. Rights holders would have the legal means to compel ISPs to comply with the regime. The Government would have the power to prescribe the form that must be used in giving notices and to set fees that may be required to be paid by rights holders to ISPs for processing such notices.
I think this is about as fair a system as you can get. ISPs are protected as carriers of information. Rightsholders are able to proceed with civil actions, but the removal of information requires the finding of a court. And everyone is protected (to some extent) from overzealous rightsholders by the possibility of a "processing fee" to compensate ISPs for their trouble.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
If it can be argued that the person you got the DVD movie you've downloaded from was in Canada, there's nobody to sue in the chain of DMCA violations, only in the copying of copyrighted content violations. The Canadian user could DeCSS the content for you.
What I'm curious about now is whether this will lead to an identifier (maybe another DVD region?), for Canada, in the next format, but such that ripped content could be identified.
There are a lot of joke replies in this thread, but can we clarify something first? The news is not that positive! It's not AS BAD as the DMCA but there are still a lot of restrictions that Slashdotters would disagree with. E.g. Circumventing DRM to make private copies of sound recordings would become illegal. So for example, I can't use Hymn to strip the DRM off my iTMS songs and store them on a backup CD incase iTMS/Apple ever ceases to provide service.
Random is the New Order.
Have you ever gone to University, or been a member of the academic world?
Copyright applies to *far* more than just "infringing on some huge jackass corporation". It's about protecting the rights of people who create material, and their right to be recognized for the work they've done. And you know what? It's a good idea. You've got the problem of plagiarism in the academic world, but to use a modern example, the musicians deserve to be paid for their music.
I personally have no problem downloading MP3's, but that's not because I'm opposed to the idea of copyrights, it's because I'm opposed to the faceless corporations that don't pay the musicians in the first place.
As much as this _sounds_ good, they're still not giving me what I want:
First they say:
That is, the circumvention of a TPM applied to copyright material will only be illegal if it is carried out with the objective of infringing copyright.
Then they go on to say:
Circumvention for the purposes of making private copies of sound recordings will not be permitted, however.
I have a cottage, why can't I have a copy of the DVD's I own at my cottage and a copy at my house? Why should I pay twice for this privilege or lug around DVD's all the time?
Same with CD's when they get copy-protection. Does this mean I will not be able to make copys of my CD's?? The current life-span of a CD in my car is less than a year, am I expected to re-buy this simply because I'm not allowed to make personal copys?
It's bullshit.
Not all dogs drink Coke.
Half of all bankruptcies are due to medical issues.
Three quarters of those had health insurance.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=463499
By the way, please tell me how even, say, 100k stashed away in an "emergency situation" account will last a year of cancer treatment. It won't. Hospital stay alone is well over 1k/day.
Enjoy your delusional little life, and hopefully you don't get sick!
The only workable cure I see to reduce the effectiveness of manipulation is an informed populace. Frankly I don't see it happening. As has been demonstrated time and time again, if you have enough money and friends you can make who you want look good and who you don't want look bad irrespective of the actual facts. Oh there are limits, but I'm not convinced those limits are not in fact widening. Terry Goodkind wrote a series of books, that while not especially remarkable, did point out some rather universal truths. When people stop listening to reason and instead blindly follow their hearts they can be manipulated. For that matter Herman Goering of Nazi Germany said it about as well as any when he said, "Of course, the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country."
While his particular comment was more about war, it seems to work in general as well. What quite frankly amazes me is Canada doesn't seem to fall into the same trap. Maybe after I sell some property I'll move there one day.
HAHAHAHAHA! You can't even hold together Iraq, where all the foreigners look and sound different. How the fuck do you propose to occupy a country where the "enemy" looks and sounds like you?
"all the US would have to do is to hold irregular patches of territory within a few hundred miles of the border, and not the entire country."
LOL, that sounds so easy. When was the last time you were able to successfully "hold" anything? Vietnam? Afghanistan? Iraq? Think you'll do a better job on a 5000 mile border?
You pussies sure are good at bombing the shit out of civilians from the air though, and running away.
Come to my country. You can stay forever if you give enough money to the correct political party. Bribery really sucks, no matter what you call it.
They havent caught up to me yet. I agree with Thomas Jefferson when he said that the country needs a good revolution every 10 years or so.
Shake up the political system.
To bad he was right about teaching our kids as well. Seems out schools are declining and so is the ability of our people to make informed descisions during election time.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - BF
Quebec is the pox on Canada. They are probably the largest have-not province in the country. They take more than they give then always complain that they don't have enough power. The next time they talk about separating we should all vote em off the country. Take yer bat and ball and piss off. They'd be begging to be back in Canada in a week like a spoiled teeneager. Good Riddance.
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
Almost failed when I recited the last character as "Zed".
Because I came with an out-of-country license, I had to take a road test. Inspector almost freaked when I downshifted going down a long, steep hill, instead of riding the brake. He got really angry when I parked beyond a fire hydrant when asked to "turn left and park at the corner" -- he wanted me to make a three point turn around the corner next and figured that parking beyond the hydrant (instead of illegally in front of it) would make that difficult. What's an extra 20 feet in reverse? I passed, of course, but I think he thought me a smart ass.
You could've hired me.