Canadian DMCA introduced
Better yet, participate in tomorrow's coordinated campaign to reach out to the elusive Industry Minister Jim Prentice, who is responsible for this legislation. This is especially important if you live in Calgary: we need people who care about this issue to attend the Minister's open house and ask him some of the 250+ questions that CBC listeners have for him, which he has so far refused to address. Link (Thanks, Deb!)
See also:
CANADIANS! Tomorrow is your best chance to fight the Canadian DMCA! Event in Calgary, national phone-in
Canada's DMCA won't get any consumer rights added to it for a decade
Facebook group for fighting Canada's DMCA growing fast
Ranting hand-puppet tackles Canada's DMCA
HOWTO Fight Canada's coming DMCA copyright law
Canada's coming DMCA will be the worst copyright yet
Canadian DMCA: how it might have happened
CBC radio show needs your input for question with Minister responsible for Canadian DMCA
Canadian Industry Minister refuses to defend Canadian DMCA in public
the latest
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While this is very important, it's kind of odd you haven't reported on the SAFE Act. But maybe I missed it.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.
That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi.
And like all things Bush, it is hardly as benign as it may seem. They really do want to drag us back to Victorian times and not the fun bits either.
The definition of which images qualify as illegal is expansive. It includes obvious child pornography, meaning photographs and videos of children being molested. But it also includes photographs of fully clothed minors in overly "lascivious" poses, and certain obscene visual depictions including a "drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting." (Yes, that covers the subset of anime called hentai).
Oh, and Harper and his party are NeoCon filth. They will rape and pillage Canada just as they have the US. I think it is very unlikely that asking nicely "Please Sir, may I have more gruel?" will get you any results.
In answer to Noen, if you don't send in the link to the story, perhaps they'll miss it. :) Never hurts to make sure the Boingboing people are kept informed ;)
I understand that this bill has the potential to impact us very negatively, but there have been no links nor mention of any sources for information on the soon-to-be proposed bill. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could substantiate these claims by stating that they've seen the bill in some form or (if possible) perhaps put it on a p2p network ?
The bill has not been made public yet Ivar. What we are getting is information from the source so far. That is all we have. Better to be informed without knowing the exact wording, than be ignorant and hit with the facts after the bill is tabled, correct? At least this way we have been forewarned. Believe me, when the information IS public, we will let you know where to see it. :)
Deirde McMurdy speaks about it here http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/investing/deirdremcmurdy/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5791243
Where she got her info, I can only guess but I'd guess it was a valid source.
Also, this story by Deirde McMurdy in the Ottawa Citizen http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=6fe36f14-67da-45f9-9dc2-11cf06f62c4a
Hope this helps. :)
daylmer, I do submit things from time to time. I just don't always know what interests BB. They aren't interested in everything that I am.
Daylmer - thanks for the links - much appreciated.
This bill touches many issues that are important to us, but without seeing what is really being proposed I don't understand the intensity of the current campaign. Many people who care about the general topic of copyright/drm/fair use/etc are already educated about the various issues, but there is nothing specific to fight against until the bill is tabled - so why the pre-bill drumbeat ?
If the bill sucks (which is expected) THEN we can get frothy at the mouth :)
I'm Deb Johnson that's been posting on Michael Geist's blog. I've gone through the archives of his blog and come up with these 4 blog posts of his that will help explain how we know what is contained within the forthcoming bill.
10 Questions to ask of Minister Prentice
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2435/125/
The Canadian DMCA - what can you do?
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2431/125/
Details begin to emerge on Forthcoming Copyright Bill
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2321/125/
Here comes the DMCA
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2295/125/
Hope this helps explain the worry, and panic, a bit better :)
Deb - Thanks for the links. I see that Russell McOrmond has made a blog entry entitled "Why am I opposed to the upcoming Copyright bill even before I have seen it?" at http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/4386
I don't have my hopes up, but given the known international treaties being addressed in this bill, sounding the alarm bells make sense.
email Jim Prentice:
Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca
Let him know your thoughts on the matter.
I think the biggest question I'd like to see him answer is; why do we need this? Isn't it already against the law to violate copyright? It seems to me that the only thing an anti-circumvention law can prevent you from doing that is not already illegal is those actions classified as fair use. I wonder if we could get Mr Prentice to say what, exactly, this law would cover that is not covered by existing copyright legislation?
FYI some of my friends in Calgary went along. Here's their report:
Well, it wasn't what I'd imagined, some kind of forum with Prentice up front of an audience, taking questions.
It was an Xmas party, I think mostly with his supporters.
However, it was clear many others were there to talk copyright, and people were more or less lined up to have a few minutes talk with him, and Prentice was taking them all on at arm's length, eyeball-to-eyeball. Everybody was polite.
So we went with that, too. Four of us showed up. We waited in the (very small) room where people were talking to him, listened in on some young creative-content people talking to him about the same stuff.
Then he turned to me, I introduced us, handed him the note with eight names on it, and summarized (even further) the its-bad-for-industry-itself arguments about radio and the VCR. He engaged with that, asked several questions, we had a real discussion. He wasn't spouting industry talking points. And he said we (and Prof. Geist) hadn't read the legislation yet. So I just phrased it as "there's a broad concern in the land that there's going to be legislation that only defends the rights of copyright holders and not the public ones". Etc.
One great bit at the end is that he asked how we distinguished between a $5 CD and $1500 CD of Photoshop. "I coulda kissed him". I said, we don't - and it was the software vendors with $1500 to lose that gave up on DRM twenty years ago, not worth the lost customers.
And we were done. The "threat" part was left on the paper and didn't cloud the Xmas party...but it's in his pocket. Message delivered! Hand delivered, to the Minister for Industry.
So we've done our bit - now we'll see what gets tabled, what gets passed. I can't let it be an empty threat, of course - I may have to be donating for a Liberal somewhere that has a best chance of beating a sitting Conservative.