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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."
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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.
Seeings as to exercise your right to make a copy for personal use, you usually have to defeat some half-hearted digital lock (though the actual level of protection is more akin to packing twine). Sure you've got fair use rights, but the recording industry can make you have to break other laws to exercise them.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
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
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.
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.