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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.'"
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?
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?
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.
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.
http://www.cippic.ca/uploads/CIPPIC_Report_DRM_and_Privacy.pdf
...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.