URGENT: Canadians need to take action on Canadian DMCA NOW
The fight over the Canadian DMCA is heating up as the Industry Minister Jim Prentice prepares to introduce one-sided, dangerous copyright legislation despite thousands of letters and protests against the bill. Nearly 40,000 people have joined the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group to fight the bill, but lobby groups and the U.S. government are responding with misleading opinion pieces and behind the scenes lobbying.Copyfighting law prof Michael Geist takes apart a Microsoft editorial that claims that the Canada has no copyright law even after it received the largest award for copyright infringement in Canadian history. Meanwhile, the Canadian Recording Industry Association has been caught lobbying the Canada's Ambassador to the United States in an effort to convince the U.S. government to increase the pressure for a Canadian DMCA. If that weren't bad enough, Prentice is about to overrule the Canadian Foreign Minister who wants to have a debate on the WIPO copyright treaties before the Canadian DMCA is introduced just like the Conservative government promised in the last election.
Ready to fight back for your digital rights before it's too late? Check out the list of Copyright MPs who are particularly vulnerable on copyright, join the Facebook group, attend a talk this week in Calgary with Prentice, and write to your Member of Parliament and Industry Minister Prentice.
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That frikkin' weasel....
I sent my letter, might make a call...
But I'm still pretty uninspired about DCMA on music.
Almost all the music I listen to is from artists that released it for free on the web, and I'll pay them for it by attending their live show when they come to town and either buying some merchandise, or the new album they are selling from beside the stage. I guess the DMCA has a greater impact on people that listen to top-40 commercial radio music - the indie music scene really doesn't care from what I've seen.
Well yeah, until the Canadian DMCA makes the legal risks associated with operating a sharing-friendly website for music so risky that they all shut down and you can't find the indie music you love anymore.
I hafta side with Cory on this one. Seriously, how many DMCA takedown notices were sent to unowned or free works just to get it offline or as part of some badly programmed legal spambot's rounds?
Wow this guy is on a political suicide mission.
From the article on Prentice overruling the Foreign Minister:
The new treaty policy came as a result of a Conservative promise during the 2006 election campaign. The policy says that House votes on treaties will not be binding, and that the government will maintain the legal authority to decide whether to ratify treaties.
So, am I to understand from that we can protest and petition our MPs as much as we want, but at the end of the day, even if the House votes on the issue and finds in favour of striking down the copyright bill (which would implement two WIPO treaties) the Conservatives can still pass it into law anyway?!
The indie scene seems to care a lot more than most from what I've seen... probably because we are the ones least likely to be able to afford to fight judgments handed down from the high DMCA overlord and most likely to get fcked over by it.
I just sent my 2 cents to Prentice(again).
This is getting tiresome.
Yes. However the government is in a bit of a wobbly position, and I'm not sure how much they want to risk actually contradicting the House - if it's a very close vote they could probably get away with it, but if the vote comes out firmly against the DMCA I think it would be a very bad move.
That said, I also think firing the head of nuclear safety for doing her job was a very bad move.
Can someone provide more information on the talk being given by Prentice this week in Calgary? The original post leads to Facebook which I can't access at work.
Thanks.
@ #6: Nope. The conservatives cannot pass a bill into law without the support of at least 50% of the house. Ratifying a treaty, though, is not passing a bill. Ratifying a treaty just says that we will agree to be held to the terms and conditions of that treaty.
The actual method of implementing laws to comply with the treaty would still have to pass through the normal channels.
So, there is value in fighting any unfair copyright legislation introduced. We can keep pushing back until someone gets it into their head to submit something which both complies with the conditions of the WIPO treaty, and does not restrict our rights to use copyrighted works.
DCMA may not directly affect indie music now, but just wait. I have talked with several independent artists who have had to circumvent copy protection that told them that they did not have the right to copy the recordings that they made of themselves playing live. (Using DAT and MiniDisc recorders, or more recently, Garageband.) I know it's easy to work around these almost trivial technical restrictions, but that's exactly the sort of thing that will be illegal if they manage to pass an anti-circumvention bill. The only people who benefit from those kind of protections are the parasites who run traditional media distribution channels. It's already too easy to shut down a web site that is sharing mp3s, even if none of them is infringing, just because of the perception that they might be.
To: savoie.d@parl.gc.ca
CC: Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca
Subject: pending copyright legislation
Hi Denise,
I’m informed by the internets that Minister Prentice is preparing to re-introduce his copyright legislation bill. Although details are scarce, previews suggest that Minister Prentice has succumbed to the temptation of lobby money to write a law which would entrench the obsolete business models of the music industry and other content middlemen at the expense of the production and exchange of art, culture and education.
Resistance by Canadian people has been overwhelming, despite a lack of formal public input. All of the support for the bill appears to come from international corporations and their representatives, who have purchased access to the political process. As my representative, I know I can count on you to push back against the criminalization of art, culture and innovation.
thanks much,
Hugh
Hmmm... you make a very good point Cory.
I think you could very well be right about those @#$%heads interfering with the independents just in case they are sharing copyrighted music along with Creative Commons or 'free' tracks. Thinking about it from that perspective I can see the possibility of them becoming pro-actively protectionist about potential violations by services that facilitate the distribution of legally shareable files.
Gonna have to make some noise to scare the vermin off.
Should have appended this to the previous post...
Has anyone started to organize boycotts? If those that oppose the DMCA just stopped buying products or services from companies that support it; wouldn't it die a pretty quick death? Or are there more people that blithely consume, without consideration for the legal restrictions placed upon what they buy, than there are people aware and active against these irritating and unfair restrictions?
You have to understand that the current Canadian government is a total lame duck with no hope whatsoever of re-election. Like any such anywhere, they will fill their pockets and do as much harm as they possibly can before the next gang rolls in.
Protesting is better than nothing, but you can't threaten scoundrels with loss of reputation.
We currently have some temporary "Republicans" in power in Canada(a minority government). These fools will do whatever they can to pander to Bush, fortunately they were not around when Iraq was invaded or we'd be in that too. Think Texas and you will know their position on everything. When they get voted out we can undo the mess they make, forget trying to reason with them that's a waste of time.
The boycotts are happening but don't hold your breath, how many open minded rednecks do you know?
I see no point trying to pressure the Conservative minister trying to introduce this bill. Clearly, he is already in the pocket of the various interests who want to restrict all competition and fair use and will never listen to citizen groups. This government has followed exactly the same path with regard to several other issues including climate change and has shown themselves totally unsympathetic to public opinion.
But, there are two far more productive methods to stop this bill in it's tracks. This is a minority parliament and one of the three opposition parties will need to support it (or at least not oppose it) for the bill to pass the Commons. Making sure that all three are lined up against it will be far more effective than trying to convince the Tories to change. In fact, as an election is probably within a year, getting one party to stall the thing in committee might be enough to kill it.
The second avenue is the Senate which has a Liberal majority and must also approve every bill. Lobbying the Liberal leader in the Senate is also a much better path than any action directed to the Tories.
@ 15
Or are there more people that blithely consume, without consideration for the legal restrictions placed upon what they buy, than there are people aware and active against these irritating and unfair restrictions?
I imagine, yes, there are more "blithe consumers" than people who resort to piracy and some kind of "I'll buy a t-shirt" rationale because they simply cannot be prevented from using their new song in a remix album, inane vlog, and on all 17 of their mp3 players.
@ Outerjohn
I'm not advocating piracy. I work in the DVD authoring industry so I am well aware of how much of an impact reduced sales of material goods by the entertainment industry hits the bottom line; and consequently the incomes of the people in the production chain. I do however prefer to buy my music as directly as possible from the bands I like. Bands make a greater percentage off of merchandise (t-shirts true, but CDs and dvds as well)that is sold at a live venue. For example, I discovered Mary Prankster on MP3.com a decade ago, and downloaded the songs that she had put up for free download. I've since seen her play live twice - and bought not only a t-shirt (which I got autographed), but a complete collection of her cds - (which I also got autographed). I have the pristine cds on my shelf, and listen to my mp3 copies.
For people who say the are against same-sex relationships, Prime Minister and Jim Prentice are willing to bend over for President Bush and corporate interests in the blink of an eye.
We all knew after the last attempt that this issue wasn't dead. I'd suggest that the people who have been writing letters also send a copy to their local newspaper, television station, and radio station. If people begin getting letters to the editor about this, it will shift the content in the editorial page, but possibly the front pages as well.
Let's do this thing.