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EU Demands Canada Rework Its Copyright, Patent Law
An anonymous reader writes "The draft intellectual property text of the EU - Canada Trade Agreement has leaked, with news that the EU is demanding that Canada fundamentally alter copyright, patent, and trademark law. The laundry list of demands includes copyright term extension, WIPO ratification, DMCA-style legislation, resale rights, new enforcement provisions, and following patent, trademark, and design law treaties. The net result is that when combined with the ACTA requirements, Canadian copyright law may cease to be Canadian." Reader TheTurtlesMoves stresses the "first sale doctrine" aspect of the Canada - EU negotiations. Once an artist sells a creative work, should she get a cut of any future resales of that same work? The EU says yes at least for some types of works, and it wants Canada to see things its way. "Europe's Directive 2001/84/EC says that the right covers only 'works of graphic or plastic art such as pictures, collages, paintings, drawings, engravings, prints, lithographs, sculptures, tapestries, ceramics, glassware and photographs, provided they are made by the artist himself or are copies considered to be original works of art.'"
I was going to make a "Milk Comes in bags!" Joke, but it turns out that joke is now copyrighted!
Aren't we constantly told that the EU is so much better in regards to patents and copyrights and it's only the big bad US that is constantly trying to push all this stuff on people?
I'm European myself and I didn't even know we had DMCA style legislation here, and also not that the EU would demand something from Canada. Now this article combines both. How is this possible?
And Canada is in the European Union?
They have enough asinine copyright laws as it is. Seriously? An extra charge on blank optical and tape media because it "might" be used to pirate? Does this go for hard drives and bandwidth? I'm with the current US and Canada system. The artist don't benefit much, it's the royalty houses are the ones that really benefit. Don't they get enough from performance, broadcast, sales, etc..? Artist can go broke trying to collect their money.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
So long as it's the Europeans bending them over the kitchen table and not the Americans, the Canadians will be perfectly happy.
Since our current conservative party government thinks leadership is waiting to be told what to do by other countries, I guess Canada can expect EU-style copyright laws shortly.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
Just as a matter of principal, Canada should give them a nice hearty "F**k you, eh!"
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Please tell the EU to go fuck itself and/or adapt its copyright and patent law to the Canadian model.
And possibly to close Disneyland Paris, stop accepting money from **AA and start developing some common sense.
Crap, I think I overdid it with that last part. They are, after all, politicians. But if they're supposed to represent the European population, let me be the first to say this isn't what all of the population wants.
I'd rather you rationally disagree than irrationally agree.
As a Canadian, to all foreign powers who demand we change our laws to match yours, I say fuck you. Get your house in order before you tell us how to get ours in order.
I politely say, "that's nice". Please take a seat there by the Americans who have made the same demands. we'll see you after them. They've been waiting a few years, so you make want to bring a lunch and something to read. Really, the government is in a minority position (has been for a few years) and has plenty of real trouble to deal with... they also want to be elected with a majority some day so they are not apt to piss off the population too much.
I like you europeans, but no freaking way!
Hey, trade is good, but not when it comes with such sweeping legal changes.
I will let my MP know that agreeing to this treaty is basically letting foreigners decide on our laws.
No amount of trade is worth my rights.
I will stand up and I will say no.
What is the fundamental difference between physical art and digital art such that the digital art shouldn't be covered by the first sale doctrine? As far as I can tell, the only difference is the presence of a lobby...
The last time I checked Canada wasn't in Europe. Let's hope our politicians realize that.
BLAME CANADA!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Well, it will be interesting to see how this plays out...
Even though the English and French lost their footholds in Canada a long time ago, they still lovedto play games, viz. De Gaulle's "Vive le Quebec Libre" speech.
The spiritual successors to the former European empire-builders are the EU civil servants, determined to prove that they, and 'Europe' exist as an entity and are important.
Pretty-much blackmailing small states, such as the Baltics, into accepting terms of admission - that the larger states ignore - has worked well until now.
It would seem less certain to work with Canada, which does the vast majority of its trade with...the USA under NAFTA.
I reckon isohunt.com is safe for a while...
Canada should not allow itself to be bullied into adopting bad copyright law. While the European Union appears quite eager to be as bad (or worse) than the United States in terms of harmful copyright legislation, I sincerely hope Canada will put its citizens interests above those of copyright holders. I'm not against globalization, but countries must sometimes defend their sovereignty for the sake of their citizens.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
This type of news is disgusting to me as a Canadian.
Throughout the summer, Canada held an enormous copyright consultation in which large corporations expressed an interest in these types of changes, and artists, creators and citizens expressed an interest in the exact opposite direction to this.
Michael Geist usually carries all the latest news about this topic.
At the same time, I think we have nothing to worry about. In a country that shows a 30% voter turnout (at best), that makes 6.9 million voters. Historically, over 500000 canadians joined the protest against the last attempt to bring laws like this. Thats a 7% swing in the vote towards the party that will stand up against this type of law making. Thats enough to win an election in Canada.
With all this hype over copyright and trademark law, I expect it to be a hot topic in the next election, and with us running under a minority gov't, we could end up with an election at any time.
Thomas A. Knight
Author of The Time Weaver
If you are as pissed off about other countries trying to write our laws write your MP and the following Ministers.
Tony Clement
Minister of Industry
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ic1.nsf/eng/00093.html
minister.industry@ic.gc.ca
Bev Oda
Minister of International Cooperation
http://www.bevoda.ca/
Oda.B@parl.gc.ca
FUCK THE EU!
Tell them to GTFO your laws.
They can’d demand shit from you anyway. :)
Also, be aware, that the EU “government” is not the people that live in the countries that it thinks it has control over. It’s actually pretty much the opposite. They are enemies. A treasonous conspiracy (not in the weirdo meaning, but in the legal meaning), and illegal in pretty much every country, if it weren’t for changes in laws that nobody got asked for and nobody wanted.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Was planning to move there from Australia to avoid this soughta shit thats coming in.
That is not what international law is at all. International law is the stuff that happens in The Hague and it has been around a long time and is desperately needed. It governs such silly every day things as trade. If you trade between countries (between sets of laws) which one goes? Well, that is what international law is for.
And it is in Holland because Holland was ONCE a world-power (yes really) but lost that status but still had a need to maintain its trading empire. So while the british and other powers settled trade disputes with the law of the biggest gun(boat) Holland needed something more.
International law is an entirely different beast then this, what we are talking about here are treaties. It may look the same, but it is fundementally different.
In fact, the current system is so wrong because it seeks to bypass laws altogether. The media companies are waging a very complex war against basic law by trying to get a new set of laws introduced by means that were never intended. Trade treaties were supposed to be "We sell you X and you don't charge for it and we allow you sell us Y without charging tariffs on it". Not "you will subject your citizens to our laws".
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
They can just fuck right off, I like my country the way it is, thank you very much
Is it just me or is the EU starting to sound like the US?
It's not really "Anti American" (some of us still like individual Americans) -- it's "Anti export of American laws to the rest of the world".
It is entirely American companies who have been pushing to have the DMCA exported, who are responsible for including it in that secretive ACTA treaty they're not allowed to tell us the details of, and it's American intellectual property stakeholders who are trying to push this on everyone else.
The goal is seemingly to try to export laws to the rest of the world that makes all laws and technologies subservient to the wishes of content and media companies. Sadly, we can't even accuse America of colonialism in this case -- it's more like oligarchy.
As far as changing the right of first sale so that the artist gets a cut every time the piece is sold -- I say horseshit. That makes no sense.
Sadly, I fear that soon most nations will get swept up in this stupidity and before long we'll only be able to do what the media companies tell us we're allowed to. If they get this enshrined into every country's laws, before long, they'll be able to dictate how technology works so guarantee that nothing which they don't want us to have (and for which they can't continue to bill us) is allowed.
Time to start voting from the rooftops.
.. as soon as all of Europe has switched to drinking Blue, eating backbacon, wearing BC Dinner Jackets, Kodiaks, and a toque (particularly the French), and playing Hockey (a real sport) rather than "football", maybe the Canadians would once again take up the issue of copyright law :-) Oh yeah, no more speaking French (outside of Quebec), they must pronounce the work "out" as "oooot", and they have to get some Timmy's opened. And Universal Healthcare... oh wait, it the USA that still needs that. And Timmy's...
-Dave Haynie
Why? I miss the old liberal government for one and only on reason, They told of the American Ambassador Public over trying to influence us they need to say the same thing here. I understand that this goes on in the world with Iran and climate change and other topics but I enjoy our copyright laws. I guess we (Canadians) need to examine our copyright laws and ask who do they serve? and who do they protect? and where would all the money go to? and last is this going to promote business or make it a legal bog!
Who in the frick will keep track of all these transactions?!
I'm imagining yet another collection society which will collect transaction fees for each resale. Of course the society will keep a portion for itself, to cover costs and salaries, right?
A mandatory system will need to be setup for the reselling of art pieces. So it will be a felony for any Canadian to sell or buy art outside the system.
Small time artists will not be paid out what is collected by the society, in the same way that small time song writers are not paid. They will be told that in order to collect they must become famous artists first. Defeating the entire purpose of the law in the first place: to protect small time artists.
And of course it will be only a matter of time before schools, hotels, and individuals will be sued by the collection society for displaying art without paying. The burden will be on the accused to prove that they are in fact paid up. Police powers will have to be given to the society so it can send agents into homes and businesses to ensure compliance. A telephone hotline will be setup so that employees can rat out their bosses for hanging art without an approved society license.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Forget about the small ragtag bands of Middle Eastern terrorists. They aren't a real threat to freedom and democracy.
Legislation like this, pushed by supranational organizations, is. It is a far, far bigger threat to everybody's freedom and the democracy of Western nations than any terrorist organization.
-It is entirely American companies who have been pushing to have the DMCA exported, who are responsible for including it in that secretive ACTA treaty they're not allowed to tell us the details of, and it's American intellectual property stakeholders who are trying to push this on everyone else.
Sony is an American company?
let them know!
Delegation of the European Union to Canada
150 Metcalfe Street, Suite 1900
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K2P 1P1
Tel: 613-238-6464
Fax: 613-238-5191
E-mail: Delegation-Canada@ec.europa.eu
Sorry for the asshattery.
Am I reading this right? If I make a ceramic tile design, I'll get a cut from all future ceramics made with that pattern, anywhere in the EU or Canada? I think I'm in the wrong industry.
I would like to tell the EU to fuck off. Our country, our rules.
Cynical Idealist
If they pass a law requiring resale royalties, I doubt anyone would obey it. People will continue to buy and sell like they always have, and public media campaigns will have zero effect on it. The used book industry would go out of business overnight, and libraries would lose a significant source of new material, as well as the ability to sell books that they need to clear out (once you add several dollars to the price of a book of common logarithms, who will buy it?).
In the worst case scenario, when you need to get rid of books, you'll have to call the firemen.
Lets see how far we can take this.
I demand, any PowerPoint slide I created that was later re-used, a cut of the quota profit sales received.
I demand, any spreadsheet I have made as a work for hire, a royalty anytime it is updated.
Does anyone here build houses? Make cars? Build anything that was sold to someone?
It IS better. We're comparing to the US, remember? Just like when the US is found beating up prisoners, the 'merkins all yell about how we should all clean up China's act or North Korea etc because the US is better than Saddam was.
Same deal here: the EU IS better. Because the US is worse.
Sony MUSIC. Note that Sony (the hardware manufacturing arm) doesn't use copyrights. This is about strengthening copyrights.
And who was the previous CEO of Sony?
A merkin.
fuck off
What's really needed is a Boston CD party. I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool anti-IP person; for me it's more about defeating corporatism. Their manipulation of IP law is just one facet of that problem.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Am I reading this right? If I make a ceramic tile design, I'll get a cut from all future ceramics made with that pattern, anywhere in the EU or Canada? I think I'm in the wrong industry.
Well, yes - that is called a "royalty" and its perfectly standard operating procedure in the US, EU and elsewhere. It works for software, too. The manufacturer is copying your design and needs your permission to do that.
The rule in TFA is aimed at "fine artists" who create a single, original work (or a small number of "original" prints from a woodcut or photograph) and sell it. If they sell it to a collector for €100 who then sells it on for €100000 then they'd like a slice of that action, please* - so they put a clause to that effect in the contract of sale. However, a US/CA-style "right of first sale" would invalidate that.
Otherwise, Europe could be overrun with homeless "artists" wondering around and terrorizing the general public by cutting cows in half, drawing pictures with their own bodily fluids or arranging bricks in neat piles. If you come back from your hike to find that Tracey Emin has written Dear John letters all over your tent and crapped in your sleeping bag because she can't afford her own then blame Canada !
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
As a Canadian Citizen, I'd just like to say to the EU...
"Go fuck yourself."
That is all.
$0.02 (CDN)
Maybe I don't know the world as well as everyone else (I'm American, can you tell?), but since when is Canada in the EU? Canada should tell them to leave and screw with their own continent.
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
EU is not a monolithic body, and concerning copyrights it's a violent battleground between the two sides. New repressions are raised as proposed laws by member countries then struck down by the EU parliament majority. Laws forbidding such repressions are raised and fought over as well. Commissions (which are generally pro-copyright and do most of the work) try to circumvent the parliament (which has the final vote and is generally pro-freedom), then the parliament members notice the shenanigans, bitchslap the commissions into place and try to set things straight. Sometimes the commissions manage to slip something under the radar of parliament, sometimes the parliament passes laws that make some commissions' efforts illegal.
I'm pretty sure this treaty was a draft prepared by one of the commissions, which when it hit the parliament, would either be struck down or modified so heavily not a word would go unchanged. OTOH the commissioners could try to pass it as "pretty much final version just pending a couple signatures, please adapt to this and when the treaty goes live your law will match the requirements of the treaty 100%". Of course when the treaty goes live it would be nothing like it was when this proposition was made but the harm has been done.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
The case is for fine artists whose early paintings might be sold to a gallery for a couple hundred dollars and is ultimately resold for $10 million after it becomes famous, and the artist is left without any of this.
This could be a good idea if normal contract law cannot handle this in an efficient manner (drawing up and enforcing a fair contract for those sort of rights to future profits for every sale of every work of art would be pretty obnoxious transaction, so the free market's prerequisite of "low transaction costs" does not apply) and that this law can make it more efficient (which is at least theoretically not impossible). If successful we avoid an economic inefficiency with regards to an underproduction of valuable artwork and everybody wins.
In theory, anyway.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
The people who should be the most upset about this are the artists. Who's going to buy their art if we have to chase the artist down and pay some kind of royalty when we want to sell the piece 10 years later?
Wait a minute. When did Canada become part of the European Union? Did Europe finally remove the whole World Geography section from their textbooks?
As a Canadian, I think the EU should fuck off and mind their own business. Simple as that. They have no business trying to
influence laws in my country.
Canada is a sovereign nation (and I hope will remain such)
They are not part of the EU.
What wrong with the "canadian way".
Lots of people on here telling the EU to fuck themselves. Lots of Europeans on here apologizing for their countries' stupidity. Ultimately, it doesn't look like ANYONE thinks this is a good idea, except for the governments and the industry lobbyists.
So of course, it'll go through. With Harper in power, it'll go through easily. He has been working very hard to sell out Canadian interests to foreign industry, and the more rational law he can destroy in favour of international silliness, the better.
Folks, get used to us all being criminals.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
F-You EU.
Love Canada
The argument here is not copyright, but Canadian Sovereignty. In the long run, Economics will dictate how things actually turn out.
If Canada does NOT change their copyright laws, will more Canadian artists sell their works in the EU where they get residuals? My guess is that more Europeans will buy art in Canada where the cost is less (at least for the first purchase). Or maybe they will resell their Art in Canada because the cost is less. Or maybe they will just buy it in China, where no one cares?
IMO, the EU has no right to dictate to Canada how to write its laws, and the treaty should only cover methods of enforcing the laws for artists covered by their respective governments.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
Canadians, refuse and resist! And force your representatives to do so.
An ordinary dude from Europe who likes Wikilivres...
It is entirely American companies who have been pushing to have the DMCA exported, who are responsible for including it in that secretive ACTA treaty they're not allowed to tell us the details of, and it's American intellectual property stakeholders who are trying to push this on everyone else.
Truth be told, they aren't really "American" companies. Oh, they're conveniently headquartered in U.S. because it's good for the bottom line, but they owe no loyalty to U.S., nor to any other nation, and they exploit and screw over people of U.S. just as mercilessly.
Just say no Canada!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
'nuf said (*ducks*).
$ make available
I know I'm United Statesian and all, but if I recall correctly, Canada isn't even in Europe.
In all comments I've read so far on this article, the complaints steam from the fact that the commenters don't know the difference between "copyright laws" and "creators rights laws". Usually they are as stupid as claiming [bad anlogy warning] that you have the right to shoot someone in the street from the window of your house, because you own your house and the gun.
Anglosaxian copyright laws is about "ownership rigths".
European "creators rights" (a literal translation of what it is called in European languages) is made to protect creators of art from their creations being used for a different purpose than originally intended. It do however give some protection from being screwed over financially for the artist.
The "creators rights" in Europe has been hollowed out by international treaties with the Anglosaxian world. Almost nothing is left, instead it has been replaced by extended copyright laws, the same kind as in US, those that that Slashdotters like to complain about.
European creators rights for instance protect an artist whos painting has been sold or given as a piece to put on the wall in a private home and is later used as a book cover and remade into millions of copies without the artists approval. With the European "creators rigths" laws an artist need not to let every buyer sign a contract that he/she will only use the piece of art for its original purpose, the artist is protected by his "creators rights". The owner of the painting must explicitly buy a license to put it on a book cover (or a license that explicitly nullifies the creators rights) and the artist has the right to refuse.
Another example. Swedish press has written a lot about how Pippi Longstocking and other characters and books created by Astrid Lindgren is used by Neo-Nazi groups in Sweden as propaganda tools. The Neo-Nazis buy books, toys and other licensed products, so they are protected by ownership laws to do wathever they please with them. Sixty years ago the grandchildren of Astrid Lindgren could have taken these groups to court and claimed that they used Astrid Lindgrens creations in a manner that was not originally intended (there was an exception for artistic use, like pastiches or caricatures). But as the "creators rights" have weakened, this is not possible anymore. Notice that this has nothing to do with the rights to royalties from books and products, sixty years ago that right only lasted for 50 years after the creation of the pieace of art and was only held by the artist(s) and his/her/their direct heirs.
Will somebody please tell the socialist/fascist EC that it is time to shut the F**K up. This group of neo-fascists think that they have some God given right to dictate to anyone (country) how to run their business. Led by Opera, the worlds most useless web browser, they continually stick their nose into everyone else's business. Canada is a sovereign state. They certainly don't need a group of boot licking crack pots telling them how to conduct their affairs.
Pigskin-Referee
Linux: Yesterday's technology, tomorrow
I live in Europe and there is no DMCA-like legislation in my country nor many neighboring countries. Please note that the UK is considered by many to be an outcast of the EU, more in line with the US then us.