Slashdot Mirror
Canadian Copyright Group Seeks To License the Net
An anonymous reader writes "A new Toronto Star article from Michael Geist not only describes why Canadian Ministers of Education are pushing a copyright proposal that will harm Internet access, but also reveals how a copyright group is seeking to create a new license for Internet content. Access Copyright, a copyright collective, wants to use a new international text standard to license everything from books to blogs. Geist outlines in his blog how
Canadians can fight back against these bonehead proposals."
the interwebs are just a series of tubes, right...?
There should be a test for politicians about the internet. It should involve:
knowing the difference between the internet and the web;
being able to explain why censoring the web is difficult if not impossible;
why ISPs aren't liable for the content they host;
and some other stuff.
Actually, there should be an easier test - if you want to be a politician you should be BANNED FROM EVERY BECOMING ONE by law.
Yeah.
I am a leaf on the wind
What do you expect, with that kind of confusing headline and summary you have to RTFA just to get WTF they're trying to say. I mean, "license everything"? What's that supposed to mean, they claim ownership of every random thing on the internet?
Turns out the article says the ministry of education wants to allow schools to use all material available on the internet and be exempt from copyright that way. Guess someone didn't think about warez there.
The copyright group in question wants to offer content providers the option to use some kind of license for their stuff. Strikes me as idiotic since you can attach any license you like to your content without their help...
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
"Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?"
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky: Try to license the internet!"
Copyright laws are nothing more than a tool of the ruling class to keep freedom and autonomy away from the people. The stifling blockade of draconian laws behind which which the free transmission of ideas is presently locked down is one of the more noxious devices by which the capitalist system perverts human society.
It is only the alienatied status of the modern worker that perpetuates the oppressive regime of copyright. The oppression of the ruling class that keeps workers in a constant state of anxiety, always burdened by financial worries, like Dickensian children chained to their machines, is what prevents creative workers from sharing their ideas freely, for the benefit of all.
For society to be free from the constricting bonds of copyright, it will be necessary to strike at the heart of the capitalist system itself. Only when the lies and distortions of the ruling class are confronted and rejected, only when workers are in control of the means of production, their efforts at last engaged, harmonious, and justly compensated, only then will we see a world where all people are free to share, copy, and most of all create those products of the marvellous human imagination that promote, in that golden phrase, "promote the progress of science and useful arts."
Until then, there's always usenet.
...a good example of the exception that proves the rule!
"Second, the implication of the exception is that using publicly available Internet materials is not permitted unless one has prior authorization or qualifies for the exception. This suggests that millions of Canadians outside the education system who use Internet-based materials are somehow violating the law."
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
This didn't become clear to me from the title or the scoop, but according to TFA, there are _two_ proposals; one by the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada that argues for an exception to copyright law that would allow schools to use online materials, and one by Access Copyright that aims to introduce a new licensing scheme for online content; basically, anyone can register works with AC, and AC can then license these to everybody.
TFA then goes on to say that ACs proposal is definitely bad, but, contrary to what the scoop suggests, TFA is mainly about the CMEC proposal. What it says is that educational use of online materials is already permitted under current copyright law, and introducing an "exception" that specifically allows it is going to have the negative consequence of making it seem that other uses are not allowed (e.g. fair use at home).
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
...Proving yet again, that this battle over "copyright" is nothing of the sort. It's a battle over control, and a losing battle at that.
Isn't that much of what politics is about?
I really think this is likely to disappear again without a trace once people explain to the supporters of this measure just what the effect will be. The article seems to do a very good job of that.
Being quick to take offense is not a virtue.
FTFA:
``Moreover, it is far better than a counter-proposal from Access Copyright that seeks to develop a new licensing system for the use of Internet-based content. According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, the copyright collective has asked the Ministry of Canadian Heritage for funding to become the Canadian collective for a new international standard that can be used to register any "textual work" from books to blogs. Armed with a collection of "registered" online text, Access Copyright will be positioned to create a new license for the use of Internet content.''
So, AC wants you to register your work with them, so that they can then license it to everybody? That's what the record labels do, right?
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
I think most Slashdotters live, breathe, browse and sleep in the same place - one cannot "retire" to your mother's basement if you never leave it. :3
I've never been more ashamed to be a Canadian right now.
Really? Two words for you: Celine Dion.
You bring up a very good point. The democratic process was "invented" before soul-less and perpetual entities like corporations existed. Whether you are aware or not, Syndicalism is something that could/should/would make things a little fairer if they could be worked into the current "democratic" process.
Perhaps something like a 2nd vote. One for your moral values and one for your social values (through your work). Of course this would give more power to the people. Something to do with balance yada yada...