It has come to my attention that the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright
Issues that is being circulated by the Canadian Department of Industry contains
proposals that could at best be considered extreme.
In particular, I take issue with the proposed anti-circumvention provisions that seem to
be taken directly from the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act. These provisions
serve to remove many lawful rights from individuals for the benefit of a small
number of multi-national corporations, and are an insult to the freedom that all
citisens of Canada take for granted. The DMCA in the US is already under
constitutional challenge, and it is likely that any similiar laws here would
not be consistent with the free speech guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.
The provisions in question would disallow Canadians from exercising our hard won
"fair dealing" rights with regard to digital media as well as stifling academic and
technological research. These laws have already had negative effects on computer
research in the US, where foriegn programmers are now scared to travel to trade
shows and industry conferences as a result of the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov, a
Russian programmer, under these draconian provisions of the DMCA. In order for
the US to counter this atmosphere of distrust, thier tactic of choice appears to
be to bring other western countries "down to thier level" though organs such as
the Free Trade Area of the Americas and other international agreements.
I believe Canadians value thier rights of free speech be it written words or
computer source code. I also believe that the government of Canada wants our
country to be an open place for businesses in the world of information
technology. Repressive laws such as the provisions outlined above are directly
contrary to these goals and values. While it is important for intellectual property to be
adequately protected, this must be carefully balanced against the rights of the general
public. I urge you to remove the anti-circumvention clauses from the final
document, as copyright infringement is already adequately addressed under the
current framework, and the use of these provisions as an impediment to lawful
acts is simply unacceptable.
We thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely
Blair Steenerson
Winnipeg, MB, CA
A list of further contact addresses can be found here
Let the computer makers, hard disk makers, handheld makers know in no uncertain terms that you will not purchase equipment with draconian copy protection measures built in, that you will delay upgrading, or turn to overseas manufacturers, or simply not purchase at all.
They have a budget and a voice in Washington that is just as big as that of the entertainment nazis, er, industry. I doubt they want thier profitability to be subjagated to the wishes of rosen, valenti, et al. We could leverage thier support if we work together.
And STOP giving money to the RIAA/MPAA by purchasing products from thier members. They just use it against us pushing for garbage like this.
This review process is in addition to attempts to get DMCA style legislation passed here via the FTAA (see previous Slashdot article).
It is important that we in Canada voice our objections to any laws similiar to those in the US.
While you are writing your letters, it would be worthwhile to send copies to several other people in goverment who are involved in the copyright arena. I've put together a list of relevant contacts here.
Since/.'s new lameness filter is, well, lame, and won't let me just post this list of email addresses, I'll post a link instead.
Those of us in Canada should write concise, polite emails to these people, outlining your objections to the expansion of draconian copyright legislation to our country.
Make your voice heard, but do it in a civil way. Spam and mail bombs will not win people over to our side.
Well, lets see. Here we have California saying thier laws count no matter
what state the offender is from. A few days ago we had a/. story about a Canadian
domain dispute being tried in a Virginia courtroom. We have a Russian software programmer
being arrested in the USA for things he did in Russia. Anyone see a common
theme here?
I think the proposed Hague treaty could be just as bad for forcing stupid American
legislation on the world as for forcing legislation from backwater countries on
us.
But then, there is also a group of researchers being threatened against
publishing thier research, hyperlinks and free expresion of source code being
declared illegal, and foriegn scientists boycotting events in the US, and
major events moving thier venues as a result.
Perhaps the only way the US will be able to prosecute computer profesionals
in the near future is extrateritorially, since they will all be working
elsewhere.
So he's out, which is most excellent, but he is still confined to Socal. I'm sure his family is what he misses most and needs more than anything right now.
Is anyone planning or raising funds for bringing his family to the US?
The best (and only) way I've seen so far to help support uniting Dmitri with his family is to contribute directly to him through the PayPal account posted at Elcomsoft. I urge everyone here to do so.
So do they not expect GM will make more Suburbans and Tahoes to replace the ones that got burned?
Buiding them (smelting and casting the steel, formulating the plastics, powering the factories, etc) is overall worse for the enviroment than driving them is. Same goes for econoboxes too.
Added to the previous posters observation of the toxins released by burning them and I think these "eco-terrorists" are more of a threat to the enviroment than the average SUV driver.
I used to buy lots of CDs, and to be honest, it is not the prices that have caused me to stop buying them, but the tactics of the RIAA and company. Only a small percentage of the price of a CD goes to the artist. A much higher percentage goes to the RIAA's lawyers so they can use it to assault all manner of freedoms on the internet.
When they stop the stupid lawsuits, I'll go back to buying CDs. Somehow I think it is more likely they will start lobbying for a Canadian version of the DMCA, though:-(
Of course we know why they are doing this, it fits right in with the whole "secure PC" theme. No doubt it will not let you burn MP3s from unknown sources, or backup your games, or eventually probably anything else that may be someone elses intellectual property
What better way to condition people to only make CDs of "legitimate" content than by putting such a program right under thier noses, since we all know nobody would pay for such a thing....
There are several programs available to help users defeat Napster's filters. There are also more file sharing apps around than you can shake a stick at, so if you can't find it on Napster, just try a different one.
I've compiled a list of many alternatives to Napster, as well as many of the recent news stories featured on/.
Get them. Use them. Show the RIAA who really controls the internet
Canada designed and built small scale reactors many years ago (called the Slowpoke), with the intention of them being used domestically in remote northern communities, and for export to third world countries without the money for more complex infrastructure.
As mentioned elsewhere, the general anti-nuclear political atmosphere has eliminated any chance of them making it to market.
Ultimately, if it is
possible for a consumer to hear or see protected content, then it will be technically possible for the consumer to copy that content.
No doubt the entertainment industry would love to sell you music you can't hear, and movies you can't watch.
....drugs won't do you any good anyway. Seems scientists have found a way to keep you from getting high on marijauna. Similiar methods already exist to take all the fun out of other chemical substances.
Now all they need to do is legislate it into the water supply (think of it as a DMCA for your brain:-).
Well, I'll just assume that it is those non-Linux servers that slow down my surfing everytime I go to a site that uses Akamai. CNN is a prime example.
Constantly waiting for the "contacting host xxx.x.akamai.net" where xxx is half a dozen different servers for each page. I've written to several of these sites to complain.
This is supposed to be in the name of efficiency? Not from what I've seen. Akamai is guaranteed to make any site load way slower.
Slashdot Mirror
"Spoilage warning: plot discussed, not ending."
Everyone knows the ending.............
I pipe my syslogs out to an old line feed printer, so I can have a hard copy for future reference.
How nice it was to come home on my lunch break and find about 70 pages of:
Sep 18 08:31:53 CS460805-A snort: WEB-MISC http directory traversal: 24.x.x.x:3950 -> 24.x.x.x:80
Sep 18 08:31:53 CS460805-A snort: WEB-MISC http directory traversal: 24.x.x.x:3978 -> 24.x.x.x:80
Sep 18 08:31:53 CS460805-A snort: WEB-MISC http directory traversal: 24.x.x.x:4021 -> 24.x.x.x:80
Sep 18 08:31:53 CS460805-A snort: spp_http_decode: IIS Unicode attack detected: 24.x.x.x:4071 -> 24.x.x.x:80
Sep 18 08:31:53 CS460805-A last message repeated 2 times
From what looks to be about a hundred different addresses on the same class A as mine.
Who are all these people who just haven't learned what a patch is? And can I send them a bill for my paper? Normally I use about one page a day.
Growl.
This is my letter
To whom it may concern:
It has come to my attention that the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright
Issues that is being circulated by the Canadian Department of Industry contains
proposals that could at best be considered extreme.
In particular, I take issue with the proposed anti-circumvention provisions that seem to
be taken directly from the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act. These provisions
serve to remove many lawful rights from individuals for the benefit of a small
number of multi-national corporations, and are an insult to the freedom that all
citisens of Canada take for granted. The DMCA in the US is already under
constitutional challenge, and it is likely that any similiar laws here would
not be consistent with the free speech guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.
The provisions in question would disallow Canadians from exercising our hard won
"fair dealing" rights with regard to digital media as well as stifling academic and
technological research. These laws have already had negative effects on computer
research in the US, where foriegn programmers are now scared to travel to trade
shows and industry conferences as a result of the arrest of Dmitry Sklyarov, a
Russian programmer, under these draconian provisions of the DMCA. In order for
the US to counter this atmosphere of distrust, thier tactic of choice appears to
be to bring other western countries "down to thier level" though organs such as
the Free Trade Area of the Americas and other international agreements.
I believe Canadians value thier rights of free speech be it written words or
computer source code. I also believe that the government of Canada wants our
country to be an open place for businesses in the world of information
technology. Repressive laws such as the provisions outlined above are directly
contrary to these goals and values. While it is important for intellectual property to be
adequately protected, this must be carefully balanced against the rights of the general
public. I urge you to remove the anti-circumvention clauses from the final
document, as copyright infringement is already adequately addressed under the
current framework, and the use of these provisions as an impediment to lawful
acts is simply unacceptable.
We thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely
Blair Steenerson
Winnipeg, MB, CA
A list of further contact addresses can be found here
Let the computer makers, hard disk makers, handheld makers know in no uncertain terms that you will not purchase equipment with draconian copy protection measures built in, that you will delay upgrading, or turn to overseas manufacturers, or simply not purchase at all.
They have a budget and a voice in Washington that is just as big as that of the entertainment nazis, er, industry. I doubt they want thier profitability to be subjagated to the wishes of rosen, valenti, et al. We could leverage thier support if we work together.
And STOP giving money to the RIAA/MPAA by purchasing products from thier members. They just use it against us pushing for garbage like this.
This review process is in addition to attempts to get DMCA style legislation passed here via the FTAA (see previous Slashdot article).
It is important that we in Canada voice our objections to any laws similiar to those in the US.
While you are writing your letters, it would be worthwhile to send copies to several other people in goverment who are involved in the copyright arena. I've put together a list of relevant contacts here.
We do not need another DMCA
Since /.'s new lameness filter is, well, lame, and won't let me just post this list of email addresses, I'll post a link instead.
Those of us in Canada should write concise, polite emails to these people, outlining your objections to the expansion of draconian copyright legislation to our country.
Make your voice heard, but do it in a civil way. Spam and mail bombs will not win people over to our side.
Well, lets see. Here we have California saying thier laws count no matter what state the offender is from. A few days ago we had a /. story about a Canadian
domain dispute being tried in a Virginia courtroom. We have a Russian software programmer
being arrested in the USA for things he did in Russia. Anyone see a common
theme here?
I think the proposed Hague treaty could be just as bad for forcing stupid American legislation on the world as for forcing legislation from backwater countries on us.
But then, there is also a group of researchers being threatened against publishing thier research, hyperlinks and free expresion of source code being declared illegal, and foriegn scientists boycotting events in the US, and major events moving thier venues as a result.
Perhaps the only way the US will be able to prosecute computer profesionals in the near future is extrateritorially, since they will all be working elsewhere.
Doomed to failure
(you have now exceeded your allotted time for reading this comment)
So he's out, which is most excellent, but he is still confined to Socal. I'm sure his family is what he misses most and needs more than anything right now.
Is anyone planning or raising funds for bringing his family to the US?
The best (and only) way I've seen so far to help support uniting Dmitri with his family is to contribute directly to him through the PayPal account posted at Elcomsoft. I urge everyone here to do so.
Those RCMP are pretty effective too.
Good think Aline wields a pretty mean statue
Well, (And this is a blatant opinion) in Canada, the internet is quite rampantly dirt cheap.
I get 30 hours a month dialup for my laptop from Sympatico here in Winnipeg for $9.95 About $5 US :-/
And my cable modem for my home network costs me $39 a month. DSL is even cheaper.
Can't complain about the network infrastructure here, Canada Post notwithstanding...
.....the authors of Knapster
I'm sure they would like to be on the winning end of at least one court battle
So do they not expect GM will make more Suburbans and Tahoes to replace the ones that got burned?
Buiding them (smelting and casting the steel, formulating the plastics, powering the factories, etc) is overall worse for the enviroment than driving them is. Same goes for econoboxes too.
Added to the previous posters observation of the toxins released by burning them and I think these "eco-terrorists" are more of a threat to the enviroment than the average SUV driver.
In fact, there are still lots of file sharing applications that have not been sued by the RIAA (yet)
Try this list of alternatives
I used to buy lots of CDs, and to be honest, it is not the prices that have caused me to stop buying them, but the tactics of the RIAA and company. Only a small percentage of the price of a CD goes to the artist. A much higher percentage goes to the RIAA's lawyers so they can use it to assault all manner of freedoms on the internet.
When they stop the stupid lawsuits, I'll go back to buying CDs. Somehow I think it is more likely they will start lobbying for a Canadian version of the DMCA, though :-(
Why not just "find / > beforeinstall.txt" and "find / > afterinstall.txt" and use "diff" to compare them afterwards?
You can use diff to check files in /etc or wherever if you have backups as well.....
"I'm beginning to think maybe it's time to start thinking of emigrating to some other country that needs IT people."
Better go soon while they still allow you to leave
:-)Of course we know why they are doing this, it fits right in with the whole "secure PC" theme. No doubt it will not let you burn MP3s from unknown sources, or backup your games, or eventually probably anything else that may be someone elses intellectual property
What better way to condition people to only make CDs of "legitimate" content than by putting such a program right under thier noses, since we all know nobody would pay for such a thing....
There are several programs available to help users defeat Napster's filters. There are also more file sharing apps around than you can shake a stick at, so if you can't find it on Napster, just try a different one.
I've compiled a list of many alternatives to Napster, as well as many of the recent news stories featured on /.
Get them. Use them. Show the RIAA who really controls the internet
Senseless auto-killing brainwashing ought only be reserved for those over 18.
We all know people over 18 know better than that.
Canada designed and built small scale reactors many years ago (called the Slowpoke), with the intention of them being used domestically in remote northern communities, and for export to third world countries without the money for more complex infrastructure.
As mentioned elsewhere, the general anti-nuclear political atmosphere has eliminated any chance of them making it to market.
Ultimately, if it is possible for a consumer to hear or see protected content, then it will be technically possible for the consumer to copy that content.
No doubt the entertainment industry would love to sell you music you can't hear, and movies you can't watch.
....drugs won't do you any good anyway. Seems scientists have found a way to keep you from getting high on marijauna. Similiar methods already exist to take all the fun out of other chemical substances. Now all they need to do is legislate it into the water supply (think of it as a DMCA for your brain :-).
Well, I'll just assume that it is those non-Linux servers that slow down my surfing everytime I go to a site that uses Akamai. CNN is a prime example. Constantly waiting for the "contacting host xxx.x.akamai.net" where xxx is half a dozen different servers for each page. I've written to several of these sites to complain. This is supposed to be in the name of efficiency? Not from what I've seen. Akamai is guaranteed to make any site load way slower.
They will take my Pentium II when they pry it from my.....oh....well, you know.