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Canadian Law Profs Counter CRIA Propaganda
An anonymous reader writes "The Globe and Mail reports that Canadian law professors have countered the Canadian recording industry's misinformation campaign in a new 600-page book that is being made freely available under a creative commons license. Led by Professor Michael Geist, the book provides full coverage of the possibility of Canada adopting DMCA-like copyright laws." From the article: "The 19 copyright law professors, in a peer-reviewed discussion edited by Ottawa lawyer and Internet columnist Michael Geist, note that revisions to copyright law in the past were largely the result of negotiations among copyright stakeholders; today, however, the broader public is also demanding a seat at the table. 'The public's interest in copyright something inconceivable even a few years ago is the result of the remarkable confluence of computing power, the Internet, and a plethora of new software programs, all of which has not only enabled millions to create their own songs, movies, photos, art, and software but has also allowed them to efficiently distribute their creations electronically without the need for traditional distribution systems,' the book says."
So it is more than never the time to go after your candidates and grill them on the subject. The more public, the better!
Do not count on the private TV networks to expose this to the public; aim the majority of your efforts towars the government owned (but not controlled) CBC.
Canada has it easy. Look at us in Australia, we accepted a free trade agreement with the US complete with the DMCA.
The easy part was getting the brain out, but the hard part was getting the brain out.
Coral Cache link here.
Michael Geist is my hero.
Illegitimi non Carborundum.
I'm also realistic enough to know that the majority are downloading music they've never paid for. Which brings up another question: If I bought a vinyl album 20 years ago, do I have the right to have those songs? I know the answer.
In Canada you have the right to copy those songs off the album into whatever form you like, for your own personal use. You probably also have that right in the US, but it's not explicitly in the law, and it hasn't been tested in court, as far as I know.
In Canada you also have the right to copy them from somewhere else (say your album is scratched, or whatever), again for your personal use. In the US you don't.
In fact, in Canada this applies to songs whether you bought the album or not. The CRIA is wrong when it talks about "illegal downloads". As long as you're downloading for your own use, it's not illegal.
Not yet, the book is divided up into per-section PDFs. It'll take a while to download them and zip them.
booklets, brochures, etc. handed to the public can be derived from this book. The point is that the book can now be used as a reference, a cornerstone needed to provide the facts (as opposed to opinions) about copyright.
Think of the book as "The Copyright Bible".
The conservatives (~100 seats) and liberals will probably go for it, the ndp will be against it (I believe they hold 19 seats, and would be needed if the liberals didn't have any other support), and god only knows what the bloc will do (52 seats, I believe...).
In short, it's probably going through.
Am I open minded towards open source, or closed minded towards closed source?
Umm... yes. With the Conservatives voting against ALL confidence bills and a minority government, the NDP is very relevant.
As for where they stand, I don't think they have an official policy (yet), but I've spoken personally with both Jack Layton and Jean Crowder and both probably would share opinions with many of the lawyers in the book.
As for the Green Party, they have no seats in Parliament.
Canada is very lucky to have Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party. I was reading an interview with him the other day and he was asked about the music industry's reaction to unauthorized copying. He talked about his experience teaching at university, and how the textbook publishers were predicting their own doom at the hands of widespread photocopier usage. The current textboox photocopying policy? A student may make a copy of up to 10% or one chapter of their text, whichever is shorter. The result? Students get to copy what they need and the textbook publishers are more profitable than ever (and continue to get away with RIAA-esque price gouging).
He reasoned that the music sharing situation would be similar and he still opposes the anti-consumer solutions being supported by the Liberals and Conservatives (such as this DMCA workalike currently being forced through).
The problem? Most of Canada's new sources lean far to the right. The Toronto Star is one of the few papers in the country that will even attempt to give the NDP a fair shot. The Sun (widely read) frequently prints stories from the Canada Free Press, a self-labelled "conservative alternative." The result is that the public almost never hears about things like this DMCA bill, and when the spotlight is on people like Jack Layton, the stories (like his amazing efforts to get wind generators built) are extremely jaded (Canada Free Press describes him as a bird-murdering maniac).
The last mainstream article I read regarding music sharing was in The Sun. It described Kazaa as an "illegal service." I wrote to the editor and explained that a) Kazaa itself is not illegal in Canada and b) downloading music from P2P networks is not illegal in Canada. I received a curt letter stating that perhaps I would probably prefer to share my opinion in their moderated forums. I replied with information backing up these facts but nothing ever came back (and there was certainly no retraction).
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
As far as I heard, he was in Canada doing business over the internet. Some of his customers were Americans...and he sent seeds through the mail. There's an argument to be made that he was doing business in Canada not the United States.
Basically, Paul Martin (the Prime Minister) is incredibly wealthy. You just don't have enough cash to bribe him. He's a slimy dickhead, but at least you know he can't be bought. I don't like the Liberals, but they're better than some of the alternatives. Basically, our parties can be summed up like this:
Liberals (left of center): White men, dark suits, red ties.
PC(right wing): White men, dark suits, blue ties.
NDP(left wing): White men, look uncomfortable in dark suits, various tie colours
BQ(seperatists): hommes blancs, costumes foncés, cravates de bleu avec fleur-de-lis
Green: Unknown. No members have been sighted on Parliament Hill. Probably white men, look uncomfortable in dark suits, green ties.
We've got a multi-party system and have people whose job is to criticize the government at every step. We call them Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Our leaders can't just say "If you question this, then you hate Canada" since that's what they do. Right now, we have a minority government, so the parties are forced to work together to pass any piece of legislation whatsoever.
One other thing we have is a loser-pay system in our courts. The CRIA can't sue just to bankrupt someone because if they lost, they'd have to pay all the court costs plus all the time it would take me. If I got sued by them, I'd just get my lawyer to take care of it and she'd end up getting paid by CRIA as mandated by the court. (Since I haven't done anything illegal, they'd lose.) I probably wouldn't have to miss much work.
As for the document, the purpose of the 600 page argument is to give judges a reference for their judgements. Without it, all they'd have to go on is what the CRIA tells them. Judges are humans too, and they are prone to mistakes and emotional appeals just like the rest of us.
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