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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."
If something's legal, it doesn't mean it's also moral and conversely, doing the morally right thing might not be legal at the time.
The owls are not what they seem
From the article:
Mabye she could start up a hip, happening new ad campaign like the SPA's Don't Copy that Floppy.
Mabye it will be just as effective, too.
Mabye I'm a Chinese jet pilot.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
And plan to sign it, and have everyone I know sign it. I won't have my rights stepped on without a fight. Who knows, maybe parliment will even reject the WIPO changes.
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Excepting for the political thieves involved in the Sponsorship scandal, sometimes we get things right. Canada has great fair-use laws and politicians seem to know we the voters like it that way.
Enjoy.
The NDP isn't irrelevant. The current government has a minority of seats, so if all the opposition parties vote against a proposed piece of legislation, then it won't pass.
Shoot, that's half the country right there alrady opposed to it!
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Except we currently have a minority government, which means the Liberals have to tread very carefully to avoid losing the confidence of the house.
Also, given the latest sponsorship scandal (biggest scandal in Canadian politics in the last 10, maybe 20 years) the opposition parties will be looking for publically popular positions to use to 'gang up' on the ruling party.
This petition has some weight given its timing, and private member's bills have been known to successfully be passed...especially during minority governments.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
Erm - WTF are you talking about? This isn't an "NDP" initiative, and even if it were our government is currently a MINORITY government, which gives all MP's, especially those sitting in opposition, significantly more power.
While I do not doubt that the politicians WILL ignore it, I think they do so at their peril. And just because I have no hope that they will lend credence to the petition does not mean I will not get everyone I know to sign it and send it to Parliament Hill in my MP's hands.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor
All laws should be based on morals. its the moral thing to do. otherwise the cavity of immorality will rot away the molars of our morals.
Starsucks
I honestly don't think the MP in questions gives a damn about the rights of the listeneres. But at least he is doing something for whihc people would remember him, in a positive light.
British style Parliaments have their own problems, but I think Canada has quite successfully implemented that by using the PR system.
Nothing to see here
1000 signatures! Wow! We're at .003 percent of the population! Unfortunately, I believe the various pro-DMCA lobbies have a lot more weight in the form of dollars...a few million Canadian dollars still is a lot of money.
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?
In any case, no matter what Liz Frulla is saying to appease the lobby groups, if the legislation sticks to the proposed plan there should be no problem.
And what the article summary appears to have missed is that one of the things in the plan is to close the loophole that probably makes unauthorized downloading of copyrighted music legal in Canada.
This should go hand-in-hand with repealing the blank media levy, since it is supposed to be linked to the legalization of 'private copying', but no word on that yet.
Not that I'd expect it, though, the government has never met a tax dollar it didn't like.
"Everything starts with the children," she said. "They're the ones who say `recycle' and `don't smoke.' The Internet is their world."
Ah, yes, the children, and all the terrible things that might happen to them if this isn't passed.
I hope the American lobby tries to butt in to get Canada to make more severe copyright laws because speaking as a Canadian, nothing makes us more stubborn than when America tries to make us do something we haven't made up our minds on. End result, no additional copyright laws.
Read my short stories - You won't regret it.
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Peter Julian is the Member Parliament (MP) for that area. So anyone who gets 25 or more signitures for there area must take their copy of the petition to their MP, weather their in "power" or not!
My MP (Jaff Brya Victoria-Becon Hill, [Libral]) happens to be a member of the ruling party, and ther more MP's whose contsituants ask their MP's to Present the petition to Parliament the stronger it looks!
Here is the Cool part: If I am correct, only 25 signitures are needed for each MP, so the more Rideings (Canadian for an MP's electoral district) who collect signitures, the better!
Copied from MY OWN AC post cus I forgot to turn cookies on in Firefox!
Just printed off the petition, passed it around the department to sign and then gave it to the shipping department to mail out.
Total time: 25 minutes
Cost to me: 50cents (postage)
Feeling empowered istead of victimized: Priceless
theres some laws you cant buy, for everything else theres internet petitions
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
We could all learn a lot more about each other if we got rid of these attitudes and spent a little time getting to know one another's countries.
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.
The owls are not what they seem
So, they still have the language-nazi problem? For all of the US problems with the Spanish language, I have yet to see a proposal as extreme as having the government punishing individuals for writing in the "wrong" language. Not even Pat Buchanan.
"Speak the language ... French!"
Why not let them speak what they want? There is no good reason at all that the "French language protection" needs to go beyond making sure French is used in government operations (inciuding government road signs). It really crosses the line to censor private individuals.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
So anyone who gets 25 or more signitures for there area must take their copy of the petition to their MP, weather their in "power" or not!
Actually, MPs can introduce petitions with signatures from anywhere in Canada as long as they have a bunch from their own riding. Peter Julian was chosen for the first batch because many of the signatures were in his area, and the petition organizers were able to convince him to support the cause. His being an NDP member isn't particularly relevant. This is an issue that cuts across party lines - you could just as well say that the Right should support the petition because expanded copyright laws are government-sponsored monopolies and harm the free market.
Please DO talk to your local MP about this, but it would be better to send your collected petition signatures to Digital Copyright Canada rather than sending them to your local MP, because the petition organizers are trying to collect them into well-organized batches, remove duplicates, and have them presented by the MPs who will bring us the greatest benefit. Submitting a petition to Parliament is a bit complicated if you want to do it in the proper way that compels them to pay official attention.
Downloading commercial music without payment is not.
Actually, if by "downloading" you mean making a personal copy of someone else's commercial music, then you're wrong.
The Canadian Copyright Act specifically allows personal copies of music to be made. The U.S.A. has never had an equivalent exclusion in its copyright laws.
Only failed confidence votes bring down the government (e.g. the budget). Free votes fail all the time, it just means that the piece of legislation dies.
Karma: Excellent (Mainly due to Bill & Ted's Karma Adventure)
Here's actual information related to its current legality in Canada... right here. It is currently legal to download personal copies. Whether that status will change, who knows...
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This is the cute vorpal bunny virus, copy to your sig or runaway, runaway in fear!
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... Emphasis mine
I'm very happy to see that somebody actually sees copyright for what it really is...A privilege...granted to you by the public, subject to revocation at every election. Let's not forget that, eh?
What?
"I'm Burke, I work for the company"
The quote might not be accurate but the power of corporations keep growing lately. Especially in the US where the laws keeping corporations in check are too weak.
A lot of conflicts where people died were partly because of corporations. Corporations get too powerful, violence has to happen to get the situation back to normal/livable. Happened in history lots of times. Mussolini said something like: "Fascism can be more accurately called corporatism"
It's happening right now as well, there was this piece in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" where the population in a South-American country/province rebelled against a corporation and it's corrupt helpers. They were forbidden to collect and use rainwater from their own roofs because the water company wanted to sell more water at starvation prices.
I hope we can fight off software patents in Europe, I hope Canada can fight off this law. Better to do it now peacefully than having to do it violently later. Might already be too late for the US. Incredible how the doofuses there vote their enemies into government.
The most important thing is to keep thinking logically and optimistically. Keep an image of what you want in your head and things will work out. For example, think: "it's not too late for the US, things WILL work out better if we can just convince people of the truth, the brainwashed can not be convinced should be labeled not sane" etc.
- -- Truth addict for life.
sorry i saw those same numbers as congress, i call bullshit, so show your cards.
Check journal for info on Anti-TextBook, an idea by me.
They can pass all the laws they want about copyrights for digital media. They will be largely inneffective as a deterrent.
Until someone breaking such a law shows up in court, this will all mean nothing anyway. I would prefer the petition succeeds, but sooner or later, the entire damn thing will come crashing down simply because the law that the petition is against is essentially unenforcible anyway.
Trying to pass laws preventing computers from copying information and using the internet from sharing that information is like trying to pass a law saying you can buy scissors, but cannot use scissors to cut things.
It makes no sense to pass a law preventing you from using an item that you are permitted to own in a manner it is designed to be used.
END COMMUNICATION
The parent is full of BS. It shouldn't be modded up.
>All of freedom is being free to choose. That's it.
In the words of Geddy Lee (a Canadian, so this post is certainly ON TOPIC):
Real, upstanding, proud citizens of the USA who carry themselves with humility, share their many gifts with their neighbours, and accept our many differences with grace are much loved here. I mean, we're family, right? I wouldn't discard my brother because he doesn't agree with me. In most places I've visited in the States, the people are great.
Yes, you're powerful. Yes, you could roll up here one night and take us out. But you aren't our judge, just as we aren't yours. When you speak about your neighbours in the future, do so with the respect most of us would still give you.
==
How America looks from up here