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Study Says DRM Violates Canadian Privacy Laws
inkslinger77 writes "DRM technology used in consumer media may be violating Canadian privacy laws, according to a new report. The study, done by University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, found that a number of services like iTunes, Visio, and Symantec's North SystemWorks require too much personal information in order to verify their users. 'Another issue cited by [study lead investigator David Fewer] concerned the disclosure of DRM-collected personal information from users of Intuit's QuickTax software."It wasn't the use of QuickTax itself that triggered the concern, but rather the use of Intuit's online filing service where we found buried in one of the disclosures the notice that, as an international corporation, Intuit would send information across the border," Fewer said.'"
Because we all know DRM isn't going anywhere. Sadly.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
DRM violates Canadian privacy laws...
But Canada is the source of all piracy...
But DRM violates Canadian privacy laws...
But Canada is the source of all piracy...
dweeeeeeeeeeee
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Who's going to pay to find out if this is true. Just because an academic study says it might be the case, proves nothing. A costly law suit will be needed to do that. Any volunteers?
Blame Canada, then?
...these are just implementation details, rather than matters of principle.
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
DRM is almost always a bad idea -- but I wouldn't mind it so much if it only prevented copied stuff from being played...as opposed to it collecting and phoning home my life story so big brother can sell it to ad companies.
The line between DRM/registration and spy/adware is being blurred. Soon legal extortion will be the norm.
This view of DRM as 'evil' is totally wrongheaded. DRM allows consumers more choice in the market place, making music and other valuable content available on great devices. DRM allows interoperability, without sacrificing the rights of content owners.
DRM can be used to protect your files. Set the read-only bit lately? that's DRM! It's simple, non intrusive, and protects you and me, how simple can it get?
Terrible summary. While it's a national pastime of Slashdot to bash DRM, and also feared privacy violations, the two aren't the same thing.
DRM can't "collect" your private data or report it. DRM just blocks access to information you already have.
Various sorts of malware might violate your privacy by collecting data you don't want them to, or requiring too much sensitive data for authentication. But that's not DRM.
You need to keep your evils separate to make sure you have the right counterspells for each. Blur everything together and you sound ignorant and hysterical, and will thus be ignored.
They're talking about notice requirements... this is not a principled paper, this is not anything that will change or harm DRM in any way. Worse comes to worse for the companies is just them putting a notice somewhere saying they're doing this. Look elsewhere if you want news.
-Daniel
Somewhat unrelated questions of curiosity: Since if you buy blank media in Canada, you apparently pay a tariff to make up for sharing, does that mean you could buy blank media from Canada from another country and distribute whatever you want on it, claiming that you paid the copyright fee by virtue of the Canadian tariff, especially if you were giving it away for free? In similar fashion, does Canadian privacy law extend to non-Canadian citizens buying DRMed items? If so, what's the thing that determines what is a purchase that is "Canadian"? Location of server in Canada? Use of Candadian domain or online store customized to Canada? Physical location of purchaser? Billing address of purchaser? ISP or IP address of user (and what about proxy or VPN services)? All of the above? Seems like on the Internet whatever country creates the most beneficial tax and rights protection to the consumer could rapidly find itself with a whole lot of virtual citizens if there's an easy way to extend its jurisdiction.
This is why so many ships are registered in Panama and Liberia. Also why so many people migrate from basket-case country X to first-world country Y.
Commerce and free people seek countries with the best conditions, and then migrate. Thus the requirement for the Berlin Wall to limit both.
The fact is that Intuit is ignoring Canadian's right to privacy of information. Therefore I call upon the will of the Canadian people to ignore Intuit's right to intellectual property.
.torrent of Quicktax next year.
Fight for your rights! Download the
You're all welcome to be "Web Permanent Residents" of Canada. All you have to do is pay taxes so we get healthcare and top notch Universities for next to nothing! In exchange you can Pirate all the American crap you want!
The tariff applies to media that is distributed to all resellers within Canada's borders. If someone in Canada buys media overseas or in the US, they do not have to pay the tariff, as neither the post office nor customs are authorized to collect it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Absolutely. Canadian law applies to everyone, anywhere in the world. We're generous that way.
Unfortunately, unlike certain other countries, we do have some logistical issues with enforcing our laws outside the Canadian border.
We can offer you some really nice red and white "Get out of jail free, eh" cards. You have a colour printer handy?
c.
Log in or piss off.
Foreign media companies are lobbying hard to have a "new" copyright law passed, but since the governments we have had for the last 3 years are minority governments, that law is not exactly a very high priority of politicians who are more inclined to do what people want...
And since the RCMP has admitted pulling piracy figures out of it's arse, the government is likely to be very sceptical about figured losses by any content industry, ever since it was foolish enough to railroad a law punishing camcording movies...
Yeah, that's an interesting bit.
The "free enterprise" party who govern the province I live in contracted the maintenance of our health care records out to a US firm, completely oblivious of the fact that - thanks to the PATRIOT ACT - the company could be compelled to turn our information over to the eff-bee-eye or the en-essay or one of those other alphabet agencies they've got down there, and it's illegal for them to tell us (their customer) when this takes place.
I know this will sound like "well duh" to those in the US, but my Canadian brain has a hard time wrapping itself around the concept.
I don't care why you're posting AC
Therefore I call upon the will of the Canadian people to ignore Intuit's right to intellectual property.
Ugh, I'd gladly set up a torrent if it wasn't (drumroll) tax software... real pirates don't pay tax anyway!
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Also why so many people migrate from basket-case country X to first-world country Y.
I dunno, I migrated from first world country Y to basket-case country X. You can keep your first world. I'd rather keep my money.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Right. In Philip K. Dick's Ubik, the main character is denied access to the apartment he owns until he pays the door:
For one thing, there is free tax filling software. It is not as polished. Once you have done a few, you can get by with this. I used it last year. Prior to that I used one that cost http://www.mytaxexpress.com/
Screw Inuit!
You are being spied on by your speedometer
As your attorney I advise you to immediately destroy it.
http://www.cippic.ca/uploads/CIPPIC_Report_DRM_and_Privacy.pdf
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Just because DRM isn't going anywhere doesn't mean the law should yield to it. DRM schemes are largely broken on many levels (technologically, legally, etc). That's not saying that DRM is unfixable (though I think the idea itself id flawed), but the correct thing to do is fix the technology, not the law.
Privacy laws, in Canada at least, apply to a much broader scope than digital media, and as such they shouldn't be tailored to it. Furthermore, privacy laws are most likely tied to constitutional rights (charter of rights and freedoms). Collection and distribution of personal information itself is not illegal, however doing so without disclosure or consent of the person involved is probably more than illegal--it would probably be ruled unconstitutional by our judiciary. Therefore, if the laws were relaxed to accommodate DRM they'd most likely be suspended by the courts if challenged.
...but they're both quadrilaterals.
In the name of DRM, we have CDs equipped with rootkits, we have personally-identifiable information being sent over international borders, we have music players phoning home to say what they're playing or storing...of COURSE DRM technology can collect private data. If the implementors of Digital Rights Management want to MICRO-manage those rights they obviously have to know exactly who's rights they're managing. That obviously means having to demand a certain level of disclosure from end users.
To say DRM and privacy are not at least related is naive. DRM might only be tracking your usage of digital media so it can allow or deny access, but it's still tracking you, and that leaves the technology open to abuse by people who wish to turn DRM into something more than it was intended to be.
This would seem to outlaw the collection of information in the course of purchasing products using credit cards.
I am going to have to review this to see if it is legally permissible to sell things to Canadian residents. I think it is entirely possible that all purchase records need to be purged to eliminate the data held to allow product updates and such.
Holding on to information to permit updates to products may be illegal under this law. This would make it impossible to add fixes to Microsoft products, or to process subscriptions for products like Norton Antivirus.
If people do not want information held by companies, absolutely their wishes should be respected. However, when such wishes are codified into laws companies should take the most draconian view possible of how these laws could be enforced. Under no circumstances should any requests "please keep my information" be granted. Any form of commerce that requires information should be kept should be blocked for countries with laws like this.
Certainly, any US company should not process credit card transactions from Canadian residents because this might allow sensative financial information to fall into the hands of other US companies, the US government or identity thieves exploiting the insecure nature of the US credit card processing companies.
For Canadians I would offer advice: cash only.
For all US businesses which deal with consumers in Canada it would seem impossible to now assure such consumers that their information cannot be disclosed through either security breaches and/or government action. Therefore, any information supplied to a US company violates the Canadian privacy laws. It would not surpise me that Canadians could be charged with violating this law if they supply anyone's information (including their own) to a US company.
You shouldn't confuse DRM with traditional spyware. Point of DRM is to control access and usability. It's the spyware that gathers and sends private information without notice.
AMEN!!
it's at times like this when i wish i lived in canada. P2P may be legal... DRM against the law!
Help Me! I'm trapped in the tubes! Oh noes! Here comes a internet!
There is no such thing as a "right to intellectual property". People can be granted the PRIVILEGE of intellectual proeprty protection with the goal of encouraging creativity/innovation, but it is not a right.
The fact is that Intuit is ignoring Canadian's right to privacy of information. Therefore I call upon the will of the Canadian people to ignore Intuit's right to intellectual property.
I go one better. I haven't used them for 7 years and unload it every time I buy a new PC or Windows re-install. I even do this before my data moves on.
FOSS is where it is at. Less Spyware and no DRM (unless it is decoding/striping it out).