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Canadian DMCA Coming This Spring
An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian government is reportedly ready to introduce copyright reform legislation this spring, provided that no election is called. The new bill would move Canada far closer to the U.S. on copyright, with DMCA-style anti-circumvention legislation that prohibits circumvention of DRM systems and bans software and mod chips that can be used to circumvent such systems."
...call an election!
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
Two things: In the current political climate, such a bill would not get much traction as there is a minority government who desperately wants to become a majority next election. Bills such as the one described don't get you votes as it doesn't benefit the majority of voters.
Second, it's my understanding that the current state of copyright in Canada is that it is not the form in which a copyrighted work is held (ie DVD, CD, mp3, avi), but the manner in which it is used. So, you can have a zillion mp3s for personal use, but you cannot use them in a publication, or broadcast them without the express consent of the copyright holders.
In my mind, it would be very hard to change current law in such a way so as to preserve the status quo, such as libraries.
Plus, they already tax removable media to compensate the rights-holders of all major video and audio media(while screwing independants... which is another topic for another day), so you'd think that they would either have to remove that levy, or all people to continue doing what they are doing.
Please mod me only (+) Underrated or (-) Troll
""The Canadian government is reportedly ready to introduce copyright reform legislation this spring, provided that no election is called. The new bill would move Canada far closer to the U.S. on copyright [CC] [MD] [GC], with DMCA-style anti-circumvention legislation that prohibits circumvention of DRM systems and bans software and mod chips that can be used to circumvent such systems.""
On your marks! Get set! Complain!
It's not "coming" as the summary suggests, it's only a bill being put forward.
No wonder the rest of the world thinks we're a bunch of backwards hicks up here in our igloos. We don't even have the DMCA yet. This should do a lot to remedy our image. Finally some forward thinking going on up here!
CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
I bet it will work as amazingly as it has in the US!
This is just a kneejerk reaction to the rumor about Internet radio stations moving to Canada since the CRB decided to price them out of business.
If I were Canadian, I wouldn't worry so much about DMCA as I would the US pushing hard enough that the Canadian government rolls over on measures that protect their own music and film industries. Hollywood has been losing business to Canadian industry for years now.
The DMCA would just be one measure to strong arm the entire continent into a position of propping up the **AA at any cost to the consumer.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Just remember a valuable lesson from our dear departed Mr John Candy, all vulgar spraypaint must be in BOTH english and french.
Will we head for the Pole? Or do we keep going “up” into Russia? My mind boggles at all the Slashdot clichés that might come of this.
Why bother.
Better yet, do what I did and move the hell out. Do you have any idea what the weather is like in Costa Rica and Panama this time of year? :P
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Thank you Bev Oda! Like I needed another reason not to vote for the CPC...
I Like Pie...
Dear Mr. Locklin,
Thank you for your letter regarding Copyright Reform.
I supported C-60 I would do so again if a similar Bill is reintroduced in the House of Commons. Bill C-60 only made it to the First Reading stage and subsequently fell off the Orders for debate.
With any amendment that is put forth to a Government Bill, whether through the debate stage or committee stage, it must be balanced in such a way that it doesn't make the legislation appear to be too ambiguous. I as a Member of Parliament I would need to see the how Digital Rights Management (DRM) component of any new legislation would affect not only the industry but also the consumer and whether individual privacy rights would be affected?
There has yet to be any new Copyright legislation to come before the House of Commons in this session. I will note your concerns if it eventually does.
Sincerely,
Hon. Andrew Telegdi, P.C., M.P.
Kitchener-Waterloo
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
Well, judging by other countries it's likely they will retain the levy and still make it illegal to copy stuff.
Taking Sweden as an example, there they tax all storage media (not just "removable" media) with this levy. Actually it's not really a tax (taxing illegal activities is illegal itself), but a state protected fee which a private organization is allowed to collect and without insight into how, distribute parts of the sum to a secret list of copyright holders.
So I guess you have to look forward to being coerced by your government into paying levies (which should exempt you by covering any IP loss right?) and then be put behind bars. It's a hypocrisy, but hey at least it isn't the first in the law book.
In a society that believes in nothing, fear becomes the only agenda ~ Bill Durodié
... what happened to charging the music industry's Big Four for cartel activities, or the movie industry over the DVD regions dividing the market into convenient zones (also cartel-like), despite WTO goals of free markets?
Oh, that's right. They paid off the politicans. Is the lobster to your taste, Mr. Hatch?
An election will be called within the next month or two, after that, it all depends on who gets into office, but I think it foolish to think that another other party in power would not be pressured by the various lobbies to do their bidding. And all political parties love the money that comes with lobbies.
for the past 6 years ive been hearing nothing but rumors about how certain elements (puppets) in the canadian government have been trying to "harmonize" canadian copyright with the US, and every time theyve tried they've met with ever stiffening resistance from very vocal and powerful anti-dmca groups, from a powerful coalition of canadian artists to the canadian papers and the public at large.
I expect to see such a bill die a public, horrible death. If it does not, however, i'll look forward to the business many developing nations will see as the modchip makers and circumvention tool developers jump ship.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
.... topic and why it's a bad idea here:
m m_copyrightreform.asp
http://www.caut.ca/en/bulletin/issues/2004_nov/co
Highly recommended reading for Canadians who wish to see why the House Of Commons should bury this idea today.
For those of you who don't know who Michael Geist is, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Geist for more info.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
An election will be called within the next month or two, after that, it all depends on who gets into office
...
A friend of mine who was the current Secretary of the 43rd District Democrats in Seattle has gone up there to help with the elections, so she at least thinks it's fairly certain.
But I'm not sure I agree with your statement on all political parties loving the money that comes with lobbies - IMHO this does not normally include either the NDP or the Green Party in Canada.
But what do I know, I used to be active in BC politics
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
And one argument that has earned a lot of traction here goes like this:
- DRMs (TPMs, in the jargon) may *in theory* be used to protect artists'/publishers' rights, but in practice they are far more often used to grant publishers new rights, far beyond what the law allows. For example: the copyright holder *has no right*, under law, to say when and how you're allowed to access the media that you've lawfully purchased. Yet this is the "right" that TPMs are most commonly used to "enforce".
- Therefore, TPMs are used by publishers unilaterally to rewrite their own rights. If it's illegal to circumvent anything calling itself a TPM, then all other "rights" granted to consumers are worthless.
- So the million-dollar question is this: "Who do you think should be responsible for defining publishers' rights in respect of copyright material? Publishers themselves, or democratically answerable politicians?"
Good luck.
No, Hollywood (and its stockholders) has been doing quite well (or not quite so badly, depending on your point of view and your tax status), thanks largely to lower filming costs in Canada. It's the people who used to work on films when they were done in the US that have lost out on the deal...
The lobbying efforts of these various content industries are going to continue regardless of which party is in power. Take the time to write your MP, and CC each of the major political parties as well:
http://www.conservative.ca/EN/1045/
http://www.liberal.ca/contact_e.aspx
http://www.ndp.ca/contact
http://www.green.ca/en/contact
Make it known that Canadians will not support any government pandering to the one-sided arguments of content publishers. DRM is doomed to failure and propping it up with legislation is just another step towards criminalizing fair-use.
Mountie: No, the capital of Canada is Ottawa.
Boomer: Yeah, right. Do we look that stupid? Ottawa!
><));>
For as long as I pay a levy on any recordable media, I will continue to download what I like. If they'd like to challenge me in court, I look forward to asking what exactly I paid that tax for whenever I buy a spool of CDs, DVDs, etc. Royalties for nothing? Government trying to profit from illegal activity?
And I will continue to apply hacks wherever needed to get around designed weaknesses/inabilities/stupidity. For example, I have a hard disk in my PS2 - I need a modchip to load games off this disk. I load all of my store-bought games onto this disk because if I keep using the PS2's DVD drive, it will almost certainly fail within a few years. I used to use a "digital video stabilizer" to strip Macrovision scrambling off of DVDs so I could watch them - the only way between my player and TV was through my VCR (it converted co-ax to composite) and the Macrovision messed with my VCR, so I removed it. I pity the fool who tries to charge me for something like this.
The US doesn't export tea. Maybe we should dump 24 DVD's into the harbour? I got your DMCA right here, Jack Bauer!!!
I presume you just watched V For Vendetta?
Godless heathen.
Download all the Anne Murray and Rita MacNeil you can! You may not be able to soon!
DAMNIT!!! >. bloody hell, see this is why I voted the green party. Well they better call an election before this goes up...because if they do then the bill will die and not come back. This is something that happens alot in canadian politics, they put a bill forward just before an election that they know wont fly so that the special intrest group got the attention they wanted but dont have to deal with actually doing it. That better be what there doing anyway...because if not (shakes fist)
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
seriously, if you like to experience your culture enough to care about it being free from corporate restrictions, why on earth would you move to a place with completely foreign languages and customs?
that throws out the baby with the bathwater a lot worse than sticking around and adopting civil disobedience.
how do you retain exposure to your culture when everyone spews spanish!
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
I'm not sure, but not as many Americans as it takes to screw up an Iraq exit policy. (Zing!)
Godless heathen.
You like when your MP considers you guilty until you're proven innocent?
Why do I hear echoes of Neville Chamberlain in my head?
Really, I don't think that we're under a Nazi regime, I equate it to more of a fascist concept.
First, they tried to control the media, then they limited the speaking points of the individual ministers, then they limited the public demonstration of respect for our fallen soldiers (no lowering the flags for casualties in Afghanistan).
Unca George must be SO proud!
Except for the little thing about the trains running on time, the checklist is becoming much pretty complete.
I'll continue to download/rip movie rentals, and download the software to copy movies and music until they pry my computer from my dead hands
I wanted to say it in response to this story:2 5
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/08/22122
but I was too late.
"In Soviet Canuckistan, intellectual property owns you!"
Sorry.
A silver lining is that "fair dealing" (fair use Canada edition) will likely get an overhaul. It is currently very limited compared to what constitutes fair use in the united states.
Seriously, this has to be one of the greatest scams in human history next to religion.
Got a problem? Make up an unenforceable law to combat it! It makes you look like you're actually doing something worthwhile without exerting any real effort. And, if anyone calls you on it, all you have to do is claim they must just be "light on crime" as a convinient dodge.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Somehow I doubt knowing that a gun was registered will help after the fact in a murder-suicide. What are the cops going to do, exhume the killer and re-bury them in jail?
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
You live in Kitchener? Is Dave Sim a local fixture of wackiness, or is he enough of a hermit that even people who live there haven't heard of him?
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I suppose that next thing we know, Canada will be following in the footsteps of their Australian brethren and extending their copyright regime from Life+50 to Life+70. Someone should probably call up the Project Gutenberg Canada organizers and tell them never mind.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
And that continent so many USians confuse with their country might actually be the one Canadians call home.
I don't care why you're posting AC
So much for moving my internet radio station to Canada on May 15.
Now where am I going to move when they try to take my tinfoil hat?
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
taxing illegal activities is illegal itself
Not true; at least in the U.S., there are extant tax structures for things like marijuana, even though possessing it is illegal. They created a whole structure of tax stamps that you have to have on it, and I don't know if it was ever actually used before they just made all possession illegal. But the result is that if you get caught with a large quantity of marijuana, they could probably prosecute you for not having the correct tax stamps on it (since they're impossible to get, to my knowledge) in addition to the simple possession. They don't, because the penalties for possession are so draconian (did you know that drug possession in large quantities is a capital offense under Federal law?), but they could.
The IRS also requires that income from illegal activities be reported on your tax return; arresting people involved in organized crime for tax evasion (for not reporting their illegal income) is pretty standard.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
It's okay that you're a geek; I'm a geek, which is why I've heard of him. Dave Sim is a comics artist who was the leading light of the self-publishing movement of the 1980s and 90s; he wrote and drew (with some help on the backgrounds) Cerebus the Aardvark for its entire three hundred issue run. He's one of the most brilliant minds to ever work in comics; he's unsurpassed in the inventiveness and quality of his lettering, in his writing of accents (and people with colds), in his panel layout, in his wit and satire.
He's also slipped into more and more weirdness over the last ten years or so. He's started to believe that the visions he had in a schizophrenic break are religious inspiration, that the world is held in the thrall of a "feminist-homosexualist axis", and started his own religion which is some kind of syncretic mix of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. I haven't gotten to the end of Cerebus yet, but apparently it turned into Dave's pedantic internal monologue, which is a shame, since it was (and still is, at the point I'm reading it) extremely good. For some good essays about Sim's descent into--I use the word again only because it fits so well--weirdness, see Andrew Rilstone's essays on the subject. (Scroll down to "Aardvarks, and Other Comics".)
On the bright side, he's arranged for the copyright to Cerebus to fall into the public domain following his death and that of Gerhard, his background artist, which is the sort of thing I wish more artists and authors would do. (And hey, that was almost on-topic.) Sim himself has said that he'll probably be more popular after he's died, given his talent for alienating people.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Three horse race? You are mistaking the one-party system of the US with our multi-party democracy. The greens are polling at what, 33% of the population these days? They will take seats, and they will represent a subset of the people of Canada in parliament. They, along with the NDP(and *gasp* the conservatives) will together, come to a consensus about what direction our country will go. It is not merely who is in power what is important, as we saw in the ndp-liberal budget, even smaller parties can have their say.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.