The Canadian DMCA Video Competition
Copyright cock-up
On the surface of it, Jim Prentice's Bill C-61 spells out a number of
consumer-friendly provisions like time-shifting, format-shifting and
exceptions for personal use. But each one has an asterisk attached:
users will be forbidden from breaking technological locks – sometimes
called Digital Rights Management, or DRM – to access content.
This has the funny effect of making it kind of irrelevant how strong a
digital lock is. The fact that the lock on an iTunes song is fairly
easy to circumvent wouldn't matter, because now that lock would have
the force of law behind it. Nor would it matter whether your intended
use of the material is fair game, even under Canada's woefully
ill-defined “fair dealing” provisions.
Copyright reform: The 1,000-pound gorilla at the Telecom Summit
There is a real fear among Canadians that this predicted spread of
digital content to every device will come to an abrupt halt with the
digital lock provision in the proposed legislation. Indeed, it's an
issue many of Canadians want answers to – the copyright protest group
on Facebook has seen more than 20,000 new members join since the reform
bill was introduced on Thursday, bringing total membership to 61,000.
Yet, no one at the summit is talking about it.
The issue of copyright reform may be raised during Tuesday's
"regulatory blockbuster" panel session. Perhaps then the gorilla will
come out of its cage.
Copywrong Protection
Imagine if the federal government passed a law that would make nearly
half of all Canadians criminals. Imagine if your Internet Service
Provider was obliged to report any customers who up/download more than
20MB per day. Imagine if Canada’s laws were written to protect US
corporations rather than Canadian citizens.
Canada's new copyright bill: More spin than 'win-win'
The worst thing about the bill is that it makes its own balancing
provisions irrelevant. The bill essentially says that technology trumps
whatever rights consumers or competitors might have otherwise had. So
the law no longer matters. People only have whatever rights content
owners choose for them.
For instance, if the CD you're now
allowed to shift to your iPod is technologically locked down, then,
well, sorry -- you're completely out of luck. Try to circumvent the
access and copy controls, and the well-publicized provision to limit
damages to $500 for noncommercial infringements no longer applies.
You're on the hook for up to $20,000 per infringement, which is
actually $60,000 per song by the time you account for the composer,
performer and record label. Multiply that by a dozen or so songs and
you get a sense of the damage awards really possible if this bill
becomes law.
This draconian american style dmca needs to be stopped!
The Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry, and the Honourable
Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and
Official Languages, and Minister for La Francophonie, will deliver
brief statements and answer media inquiries shortly after the tabling
of a bill to amend the Copyright Act. Members of the media will
also be able to attend a technical briefing and lock-up prior to the
tabling of the bill to amend the Copyright Act.
Find ways you can help stop this here from previous posts.
Stop the american lobbyist movement to change our laws!!!
