Slashdot Mirror
Canada To Introduce Copyright Law Next Week
P Starrson writes "A leading Canadian television network is reporting
that the Canadian government will introduce copyright legislation next
week that will bring DMCA-like provisions north of the border.
Amazingly, the Canadian recording industry, which previously praised
the reforms, now says they aren't good enough. Canadian law prof Michael Geist cuts through the
spin in the pair of blog postings titled Fact and Fiction
and CRIA's New Take
on Copyright Reform."
I'm thinking about applying for Sealand citizenship, myself...
^_^
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
There is no such concept as Fair Use in Canada. There's something called Fair Dealing, which is alot more restricted than Fair Use is in the US (primarily exemptions for Educational uses).
click on Find your Member of Parliament using your Postal Code
Input your postal code
Write letter (no postage necessary)
Although the new legislation will prevent circumventing digital locks, it still allows copying for personal use. Personally, I don't see this as a big deal. The digital lock thing I can completely understand - as long as they don't take away my rights to use what's mine everything seems to be good.
Save the whales... Collect the whole set.
Please write your MP to stop this bad new law.
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DMCA for Canada
Please write your MP on this matter. Use my letter below if you don't want to write your own.
Send your letter for free (no postage necessary when parliament is in session), to your MP at the following address:
[your MP's name] M.P.
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
Find their email address, but write by paper mail too. http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/ho
Dear Mr. Breitkreuz
To summarize the issues in this letter:
1. Internet Service Providers should not be required to keep extensive logs of private and legal online communications.
2. The government must not stop Canadian citizens from making personal-use copies of their legally purchased software, music, and movie media.
Background:
http://pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/progs/pda-cpb/reform
Here is the reasoning:
The purpose of the Copyright Act is to support creativity and innovation in the arts and culture. To design a new Act on the failed and draconian Digital Millenium Copyright Act of the United States of America, would be a disaster for Canadian culture, and innovation. Also our court system could become clogged with law abiding citizens who make personal use copies of their music, software, and movie collections for no personal financial gain. An implementation of the proposed changes to the Copyright Act would unleash another "Gun Registry boondoggle" onto the Canadian people - creating criminals out of law abiding citizens at the expense of Canadian taxpayers.
Internet Service Providers like Sasktel should not be made to keep extensive client usage logs for possible future prosecution by various copyright-based industries. I don't want to pay for that system to be put into effect, and I don't think most people do. The phone companies are not forced by the government to record the content of phone conversations, only police can do that with a proper warrant. ISP logs are going to be equivalent to phone-taps, and that's a violation of my privacy. It's doing the job of the police, and is for the sole benefit of an industry basing its profits on an outdated business model that is no longer realistic for the Canadian government to protect.
It is completely unfair to be paying a levy to artists organizations for purchasing blank CD media to make home-use private copies of legal CD music, and now to also be unable to legally copy the music I've paid for off of Digital Rights Managed CDs. If copying CD music is going to be illegal, why is the government collecting money from the product for an illegal activity? I'm satisfied that the current levy is helping to compensate artists from illegitimate copying, and no new law is required to prevent me and other people from making sensible backups of our legal music, software, and movie collections.
Your representation in the House of Commons on this matter is greatly appreciated by me, and other supporters of personal liberty and innovation in the arts. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
my name
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
RTFA. It's a *bill*, not a *law*. It's nowhere near passing, it's being introduced to parliament for debate.
Writing to your MP is a good thing at this point. But let me explain something about Canadian politics: just because a bill gets introduced to parliament does not mean that it actually passes into law. More than that, Parliament breaks up for the summer and any bills that are still on the dock at breakup usually end up getting forgotten for a while when Parliament returns to session and has to deal with important stuff again. On more than one occasion in the past, bills have been forgotten completely and never revisited after the summer break.
No, I'm not worried. I'm interested in the outcome because I run a website which has been the target of CRIA's advances before, but even if they're ever able to launch a lawsuit, there's absolutely no way they'd win the way the laws currently stand. Even under the US laws they wouldn't win....
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
The odds aren't good of any bill making it into law if this late in a parliamentary cycle. If the government survives the summer (looking more likely than it did) then we've been promised an election 30 days after the Gomery enquiry reports, an event expected in late fall.
When the writ is dropped and the house dissolves for an election, all bills die on the order paper.
It's not particularly likely that a new bill--particularly a contentious new bill--will make it through thrid reading in the house and through the senate before that time.
Well the first problem is that I think your entire story is a big fat made up lie.
But granting that this --really-- happened.
You face a lot bigger problems than p2p. Walmart sells the same CD's that you do at a fraction of the cost and your big buddies give walmart a better price break than they do you. The price walmart charges for CD's is below the price you PAY wholesale for your CD's.
Then there is amazon and other similar services. I buy most of my dvd's and crap like that online now. The product is delivered to my door and it is STILL cheaper than buying it in your store.
But there's more. 12 years ago, there were maybe 40 tv stations, no real dvd's to watch, a lot less videogames, etc. I listened to music a couple hours a week more then than I do now.
But there's still more. The music they put out these days is generic crap. It all sounds the same- most of the artists can't sing their own material in concert- and it doesn't have anything to say. I listen to new songs a couple times on the radio and have no interest in purchasingthem.
But there's still more. The price of CD's is SO expensive compared to the physical cost to make them that it just pisses me off and I wouldn't buy a new CD even if I DID like the music. I'll record it off the radio, buy a used cd, buy it off "Allofmp3.com", etc.
CD sales and profits are UP. WAY UP. So while your poor mythical store is suffering someone is selling a hell of a lot of CD's somewhere.
Next time you might also add how you are supporting your old feeble grandmother and a young child. That's what politicians always do when they want to pass another onerous law.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
An unelected senate, with a Majority of liberals in it, and I get this from reading wikipedia:
In practice, however, the House of Commons is the dominant chamber of Parliament, with the Senate very rarely exercising its powers in a manner that opposes the will of the democratically elected chamber. The last major bill defeated in the Senate came in 1991, when a bill passed by the Commons restricting abortion was rejected in the Upper House by a tied vote.
So the Canadian senate is just a reason for us to pay a hundred or so people $100,000 a year to sit there and nod their heads yes.
In Belgium the same things are happening.
We have high taxes on blank media (1 euro for a blank DVD) to compensate copyright owners but at the same time the local RIAA (IFPI) equivalent is crying wolf. We even had idiotic local high profile musicians that insisted that blank media are sold for the same price as an audio cd to discourages copying.
Your right to make a home copy ? How when they are stuffing everything with DRM so that the consumer can't make use of that right.
And yes that also mean that when you buy a blank cdr for burning the last debian, recordcompany's do get a small percentage of the price you paid... .
digital-copyright.ca is a meeting place for people concerned about this. The Petition for User Rights was presented to parliament recently. The mailing list is active, with draft letters, media analysis, etc.
In case no one has mentioned it, take a look at the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. Information, action items and petitions on copyright reform.
That said, was that last section in boldface (copying your friend's tape) part of your current Copyright Law? Yes, it is. From the Copyright Act:
80. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the act of reproducing all or any substantial part of
(a) a musical work embodied in a sound recording,
(b) a performer's performance of a musical work embodied in a sound recording, or
(c) a sound recording in which a musical work, or a performer's performance of a musical work, is embodied
onto an audio recording medium for the private use of the person who makes the copy does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the musical work, the performer's performance or the sound recording.
The Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo, The Canadian Brass, The Crash Test Dummies, Moe Koffman, Natalie MacMaster, Sarah McLachlan, Nickelback, Prairie Oyster Band, Oscar Peterson, Rush, Paul Shaffer, Stoppin Tom Conners, The Band, The Sam Roberts Band, The Guess Who, Tragically Hip, Holly Cole, The Cowboy Junkies, Glenn Gould, kd lang, Daniel Lanois, Ashley MacIsaac, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, Our Lady Peace, Jon Kimura Parker, The Tea Party, Shania Twain, Neil Young, Hot Hot Heat, Be Good Tanyas, Jane Sibbery, Mary Margaret O'Hara, The Inbreds, Diana Krall, Broken Social Scene, Bran Van 3000, Michael Bublé, Paul Anka, Buck 65, Leonard Cohen, David Foster, Nelly Furtado, Great Big Sea, Choclair, Ben Heppner, The Headstones, Huevos Rancheros, Gordon Lightfoot, Maestro Fresh Wes, Matthew Good Band, Men Without Hats, Moxy Fruvous, The New Pornographers, The Nylons, Our Lady Peace, Platinum Blonde, Prozzak, Dayglo Abortions, Rankin Family, Robbie Robertson, Stan Rogers, Ron Sexsmith, Skinny Puppy, Sloan, Spirit of the West, Kinnie Starr, Superfriendz, Sum 41, Tegan and Sara, Roch Voisine, among many others.
Ummm... they DO pay every time they have a school dance. Read up on SOCAN.
Thank you anonymous one, I needed a good laugh. Obviously the media tax will continue, and indeed be increased from time to time. Obviously some copyright law will be passed further eroding the range of legal options open to Canadians. And obviously it will be roundly ignored by everyone in the country just like the gun registry and the satellite tv laws. You know its an offence up here to have a satellite dish unless you have Bell Expressvue or Rodger's Satelite? Think anybody ever gets charged with that?
So the Great White North slowly slides farther into the post-Christian Eurorelativist swamp, where every manner of theft and slease is accepted unless you piss off the cops.
Personally I plan to buy all my audio/video recording widgetry before whatever idiot law they pass comes into force and they stick it all full of spyware/DRM bullshit. Same idea as using obsolete operating systems. Windows 95 is crap, but at least it don't phone home to Bill.
Just to clarify a point for you. There was a resent court decision that now makes it legal to own a non-Canadian satelite system. In fact on a recent trip to Winnipeg I actually saw a sign on the roadside advertising DirecTV hookups.
We also have Greens, Libertarians, Socialists, Communists, as well as other parties like the Marijuana party. All of these parties were offical and registered in the last federal election.
Canada still has more choice overall, having 3 [Liberals, Conservatives, NDP] (or 4 in Québec [Bloc]) major political parties. All of these parties hold significant political clout in the current minority government.
What the grandparent was likely saying is that as the in some districts Democrats and Republicans differ only a campaign symbol and who is paying. Voting for any party in the USA other then these, while is good for democracy, is unlikely to get anybody elected. While from election to election districts may sway from Republican to Democrat and vice versa, what real change occurs?
Medevo
Dear Hon. MP:
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I am deeply concerned about the copyright legislation your government intends to introduce. It's all over the Internet. I find it interesting that the international community is also discussing the consequences of this Canadian bill. Please see this link, for a thorough discussion:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/09/1
As far as most voting individuals are concerned, the entire entertainment industry (especially the movie and music divisions) is, pure and simple, an institution of greed. They grossly overestimate their total contribution to society. They especially overestimate the value of their products. And, what's worse, they gravely underestimate, and consequently insult, the intelligence of their consumers.
As such, I have absolutely no intention of increasing neither their economic subsidy nor political support. And I am not at all interested in seeing this legislation go forward. It's bad enough that every time my company purchases a package of blank CDs or DVDs, your government assumes I intent to use them to pirate movies and music, and I am subsequently taxed for this blanket misconception. Just maybe we are using this media to archive the one and only asset which keeps my company in business -- that is to say, DATA. Our data. Which has, to the astonishment of the entertainment industry, nothing to do with them.
In closing, I ask you this: if this legislation passes, will your government repeal the blank CD/DVD tax? I am betting that you will not.
Please, I ask you to consider defeating this legislation. There are so many more important problems which deserve your immediate and full attention. The entertainment industry, regardless of the size and wealth of its many powerful lobbies, simply shouldn't rank in comparison.
Thank you very much for your attention,
--
Speaking as a Canadian, I'm fairly sure it'll pass. The Liberals are introducing it, and the Conservatives won't vote against it.
A vote against this bill is a vote against the big media companies...and while we have made significant strides in reforming our campaign funding laws up here, lobbyists still have a disproportionate amount of clout with the major political parties in Ottawa.
I just want to take over the world...Why does that automatically make me EVIL?
Again from wiki:
Senators are entitled to prefix "The Honourable" to their names for life. The annual salary of each senator, as of 2005, is $119,100; members may receive additional salaries in right of other offices they hold (for instance, the Speakership). Senators rank immediately above Members of Parliament in the order of precedence.