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Documentary Released On Canadian Fight Against DMCA

Posted by Soulskill on from the during-hockey-season?-they-must-really-be-upset dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The ongoing fight against the Canadian DMCA is the focus of a new documentary film called Why Copyright? Produced by Michael Geist and available as a streamed version, OGG download version, or a torrent, the film features Red Hat founder Bob Young, sci-fi writer Karl Schroeder, the owner of Skylink Technologies (which fought the DMCA garage door opener case) and many other voices from across Canada."

11 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    bitches

    1. Re:fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And geeks wonder why they can't get a woman - they'd rather finish first than do it right.

  2. Will it matter? by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While our voices and people of reasoning will make a good case for not extending the powers of copyright, beyond what they are now, I have to ask will it be enough to make a difference. We just need to look at the UK where proper reasoning was overridden by political and financial gain. Once again its a question of whether it is the governance for the few or the governance for the many.

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    1. Re:Will it matter? by dimeglio · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Great job Michael keep it up!

      It will be interesting to see what will happen in Canada as the governing party is in a minority and likely to be overturned by the centrist coalition if they spit out absurd legislation. However, I think the deeper issue is Canada's commitment to the WIPO treaty. It might be time to review that commitment and ensure it takes into account the new reality of on-line media. Or we could just do like Taiwan and pull-out of the treaty.

      --
      Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
    2. Re:Will it matter? by warren.oates · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Canadian government has become so dysfunctional that no legislation of any kind will likely be passed for the next few years. Hopefully, a Liberal government under an intellectual prime-minister will be less likely to introduce a stupid unpopular and essentially self-defeating copyright law.

      --
      Doh.
    3. Re:Will it matter? by zero-point-infinity · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The point to the coalition is to defeat the government without causing a new election. If the governor general is even halfway reasonable, she'll allow the coalition to form the government rather than call another election.

      Or maybe Harper will finally get it that in a minority government you need to try to work with the other parties at least some of the time. Yeah...

  3. Get it while you can! by elashish14 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just wait till this gets hit with a DMCA takedown notice.

    --
    I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
  4. nice doc by Luke_22 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    we don't really need the gigants standing on our shoulders.
    we need to be standing on the shoulders of gigants

    I really liked the end. +5 Insightful to the vid ;)

    --
    "I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know." -- Mark Twain
  5. Preaching to the choir by westlake · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Massive download. Check. OGG. Check. Torrent. Check. Christmas release. Check. All the geek's bases are covered. His sense of timing perfected. But does he have a movie that anyone else will be watching?

  6. Re:Smaller torrent version anywhere? by nightfire-unique · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wasn't able to find a smaller version than the 2,92 gigs one (the .torrent on Mininova).

    Since I indirectly use Bell Canada's network, I'm throttled to a max of 30k/s even if this is a legal download. 2,92 gigs feels too much to me when that documentary could probably be nice enough to watch at about 700 megs... If anyone finds or publishes a smaller version, please let me/us know! :-)

    This is a perfect example of political speech being hampered by throttling.

    Net neutrality is mandatory for democracy.

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  7. The will of a few overpowers the will of the many by erroneus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is when you know that government is broken. This isn't about compromise or mob rule or sticking up for the rights of minority groups. This is about a select few trampling on the interests of the masses and the erosion of the long-standing deal between creators and their audience that says "we the people will respect your copyright for a fixed term and you will release your work to the public domain when that term has completed." In all our living years, how much of these respected copyrighted works have actually become part of the public domain? Some, but far from a lot. And that bit about "This land is your land" song having already been in the public domain being claimed otherwise only goes to show how broken the abused copyright system actually is.

    A deal related to copyright was made long before we were born and that deal has been held up on one end and altered at the other with NO benefit compensating the people for any changes made.