Anti-DMCA Petition in Canadian Parliament

Matthew Skala writes "Last month we heard that the Canadian government is rejecting some of the worst features of the DMCA (more analysis here), but with Heritage Minister Liza Frulla parroting the media-cartel lobby with a promise to "give the tools to companies and authors to sue" and persuade children that downloading music for free is morally wrong even though it's presently legal in Canada, the battle is far from won. Yesterday, Member of Parliament Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster, NDP) introduced the first batch of signatures on Digital Copyright Canada's Petition for Users' Rights. This isn't just a Web click-through petition that politicians can freely ignore; more than a thousand real hardcopy signatures have already been collected from Canadian residents opposed to further expansion of copyright privileges, and the campaign is hoping for many more. Additional coverage on p2pnet.net."

Comments

Canada Icon?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it about time that Slashdot gets a 'Canada' Topic Icon? We have a USA one.

I mean, how many YRO stories involve Canada doing something we wish was happening here? Don't we get more 'Canada' stories than, say, 'Transmeta' stories or 'Geeks in Space' stories?

Re:It isn't stealing

[October_30th]

In Canada we even even have the blank media levy (tax) to pay the copyright holders for their work.

Yep. We have the same thing and IIRC the official line is that it doesn't entitle us to copy copyrighted material except for our own private use. It's not an excuse to burn copies of an audio CD to your friends outside the immediate family, for instance. That's copyright infringement.

Interestingly, our taxi companies also have to pay for the music if the drivers want to have a radio on while driving around with a customer. It's deemed as public performance. More recently, churches and kindergartens have also been asked to pay if they wish "to perform" (ie. sing) copyrighted hymns and songs for children. No, that's not a joke. They tried this already a few years ago but that caused a public uproar. This time they might be able to pull it off, though.