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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."
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.
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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!
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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.
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Just remember a valuable lesson from our dear departed Mr John Candy, all vulgar spraypaint must be in BOTH english and french.
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
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.
.... 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.
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.
canada has a similar law, although it only applies to removable media such as blank cds. now, normally i like the levy, since it helps keep the copyright rottweilers at bay, but consider this...
i'm in this rock band. we are, as one local journalist stated, "startlingly unsuccessful". so, we record and release a compact disc. it's a run of 500 and we sell, maybe, ten (thanks mom!) and lose a tonne of money. this is not an unusual scenario.
but the kicker is this: we pay the levy on the blank cd's we use for our release. this means that some major-label canadian artist (ms. levign perhaps) is actually making money off of my band's record while my band is losing money.
amazing stuff.
2 1337 4 u!
The trouble with calling an election is that as much as people want the conservatives out of power, we're also comfortable with the minority government, because they simply can't actually follow up on their platform, or do anything rash, as the opposition will, in that event, call a vote of non-confidence, thus toppling the minority government, and send us back to the polls.
However, the opposition isn't ready to go back to the polls, as the liberal party is still in shambles, and Stephane Dion has yet to prove his competence as a leader. The Bloc Quebecois can't hope to pull of a repeat of 1994 and ed up as the official opposition, unless there is a clear majority; given the state of the liberals, it would have to be a conservative majority, and nobody (save the prairies, Canada's equivalent of the bible belt) wants to see that. The NDP is still between 4 and 8 years away from realistically making the elections look like a three-horse race, and the Greens/Communists/Marxist-Leninists, well, they barely even count as political parties.
Politics is a delicate situation in Canada. Its not as easy as voting no-confidence, not as long as there is still the threat of the conservatives goes in as a majority. We're still rather sore from Mulroney's stint as prime minister. And frankly, many are waiting for Harper to fuck up like Mulroney did, before toppling the government. (For those not familiar with Canadian politics, the conservative party imploded after Mulroney's time in power, falling from a clear majority to, if I recall correctly, not even managing a double-digit seat-count in the next elections).
Frankly the DMCA doesn't scare me even remotely as much as the thought of a conservative majority does, considering the later not only sold out our lumber industry, send troops to Afghanistan against the people's wishes, seeks to abolish our beloved gun registry, and seeks to semi-privatize our beloved public healthcare, but to add insult to injury has so much as stated that they'd even so much as consider repealing the charter of rights, to force through a ban on same-sex marriage, if they had to... Given the choice between dealing with the DMCA, or giving up my civil rights, I'll take the DMCA, thanks. And I kindly ask that anyone who places greater importance on copyright than on civil rights, to kindly get the fuck out of my country. Thanks.
Screw calling an election, fear of the DMCA doesn't justify the risk of 4 years of aconservative majority. Petition the Governor General to veto the bill if it goes through senate, instead. Its a little known fact of Canadian politics: Provincial PM -> Lieutenant Governor General -> Prime Minister -> Senate -> Prime Minister -> Governor General -> Prime Minister -> Queen Elizabeth II.
(Yeah, its a tad complicated: our senate is an appointed one, although it can reject bills the government can pass, the prime minister can simply flood the senate with new senators to force a majority vote (see Mulroney's stunt with passing the GST), but the governor General, being the representative of the Queen, can overrule the senate, but the Prime mister can challenge the GG's ruling, calling for his or her resignation, and finally in such as situation, the true head of state, the queen, can either side with the Prime Minister, or the governor general. Although there is precedent for the lieutenant governor general to overrule the provincial PM, and there is precedent for the Governor General to overrule the ruling Prime Minister, as far as I can tell, there has never bee a case in which the queen has been invoked directly, though our constitution does grant the ruling monarch, as constitutional head of state, the final word in all political affairs).
but the kicker is this: we pay the levy on the blank cd's we use for our release. this means that some major-label canadian artist (ms. levign perhaps) is actually making money off of my band's record while my band is losing money.
Well, all you have to do is join the American Federation of Musicians, then apply to the Canadian Private Copying Collective for a zero-rating on the levy.
That should save you $105 on your purchase of 500 blanks (yes, $0.21 on ea.!!), and after the $60 application fee for the zero-rating and the $112.00 annual AFM dues plus the $115 initiation fee, you'll have saved -$182 ...oh.
I was archiving field recordings on blank media, and paying a levy. At some point, I just broke down and started downloading mp3's so that I didn't feel so ripped off.
Damn those pesky terrorists
considering the later not only sold out our lumber industry,
The provinces and lumber industry agreed to the deal, they agreed it was a good compromise. (and besides, with the export tax, this means more money going to the governments and therefore less tax that us taxpayers need to pay. As well, there is possibly now less pressure to clear-cut our beautiful forests to satisfy American demand).
send troops to Afghanistan against the people's wishes
The Liberal's sent them there, and the majority of parliament agreed to extend it by 2 years.
seeks to abolish our beloved gun registry
The registry is a waste of money. I've yet to hear of a case where the registry saved a life, yet many cases continue to occur with registered guns despite the registry (Dawson shooting being a high profile example). Let's spend that 2 billion on policing and prevention instead.
and seeks to semi-privatize our beloved public healthcare
Now your just making stuff up. The conservatives have continuously expressed support for healthcare, including the recent wait-time guarantee initiative (although not perfect, its at least a step in the right direction).
but to add insult to injury has so much as stated that they'd even so much as consider repealing the charter of rights
What are you talking about here? They've talked about strengthening it by adding property rights to the charter.
to force through a ban on same-sex marriage
They had an open vote on it, it didn't pass, case closed. (and incidentally, it was supported by a small number of liberals and opposed by some conservatives).