URGENT: Canadian DMCA about to come down again -- blitz your MP, the PM, and Minister Prentice now to save us from US-style copyright rules!
The Tories promised that they wouldn't do any more treaty-law without public consultation, but Prentice stalwartly refuses to have any public consultation on his plans, despite outcry from industry (he's the Minister of Industry, remember?), artists' groups, library groups, educator groups, and public interest groups. He just keeps on ploughing ahead with his half-baked plan to follow the US off the same stupid copyright cliff it leapt off of in 1998 when it passed the DMCA, a law which has done nothing to reduce infringement, but which has screwed up libraries, competition, and education, and has led to lawsuits against tens of thousands of ordinary citizens.
So it looks like we're going to have to do it again: we're going to have to write to Prentice, rally at his office, phone him and let him know that we're still watching and still paying attention, and that we still demand that he listen to the public -- the way his party promised they would -- before he brings down this law.
If the exceptions are undermined by the Canadian DMCA provisions, why is Prentice throwing them in? The answer is pretty clear. Prentice hopes that the media coverage will focus on these new "modernizing" provisions that he will claim benefit consumers, rather than on the DMCA-style anti-circumvention provisions that will lock down consumer products, harm research and security, raise privacy concerns, and create a restrictive new legal environment.Link
With the bill seemingly only days away, now is the time to again tell Prentice and your local MP that Canadians will not be so easily deceived. Countries such as New Zealand and Israel have recently enacted legislation with far more balance than what Prentice has in mind. It only takes a few seconds to send an email to Prentice, the Prime Minister, and your local MP, letting them know that Canadians won't be deceived by a Canadian DMCA and that Canadian copyright reform should reflect fair copyright principles (and after you click send, print out the email and drop it in the mail without a stamp, addressed to House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A0A6).
the latest
latest episodes
Save yourselves! Don't end up like us!
Wasn't the US DMCA passed in 1998, instead of 1988?
That's what Wikipedia says, anyway.
How many times do I have to write to these clowns before they finally get the message?
Will politicians please STOP already!!!
most notably reforms such as the legalization of time shifting (ie. recording television shows with a VCR/PVR) and possibly device shifting (ie. transfer a song from a store bought CD to an iPod).
Great. So he's throwing the public a bone by telling us that these things we do anyway and no one ever gets prosecuted for will be legal. That gives the media something to tell a story about while ignoring the shitty parts of the legislation.
I've e-mailed Prentice, Harper and my local guy, Wajid Kahn.
Those of you who are Canadian, please do the same.
Perhaps Corey should do a reading of his brilliant young adult novel Little Brother in Canada?
OK - I've emailed MP Don Bell about this issue a number of times and I just got a reply from Sherri Clarmo saying they've printed it for his attention. Hopefully he'll reply before the two weeks are up!
Dear My MP,
As a concerned member of the public, I urge you to take a stand again against the deeply flawed copyright bill which Minister Prentice is introducing over the next little while. As an artist myself I am deeply disturbed by the events that are occurring in the United States and steadfastly opposed to any replication of the same mistakes in Canada. I urge you to stand up for the rights of Canadians and to vote against this bill.
Thank you,
Mindpowered
Feel free to copy and paste.
Heyas.
I created a variation of the above template and sent it to my MP, to Mr. Prentice, and to the Prime Minister. It goes as follows:
***
SUBJECT: Outcry Against Canadian DMCA
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
As a concerned member of the public, I urge you to take a stand again against the deeply flawed copyright bill which Minister Prentice is introducing over the next little while. As an artist myself, I am deeply disturbed by the events that are occurring in the United States and steadfastly opposed to any replication of the same mistakes in Canada. I urge you to stand up for the rights of Canadians and to vote against this bill.
For further education on this topic, I implore you to look at this article written by Michael Geist entitled, "My Fair Copyright for Canada Principles", in which he states: "...[W]e know that tens of thousands of Canadians oppose a Canadian DMCA, but what kind of reform would or should they support? ... Although the optimal approach would be to launch a public consultation on the issue, there is reason to doubt that the government will do so. In that case, I would point to eight key principles that should be addressed to maintain a balanced, fair approach to Canadian copyright law."
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2572/125/
Thank you for your time and assistance,
(name)
(city, province)
***
That template was used for my MP and the PM. For Mr. Prentice, I whittled it to:
***
SUBJECT: Outcry Against Canadian DMCA
Dear Mr. Prentice,
As a concerned member of the public, I urge you to reconsider the deeply flawed copyright bill which you are introducing over the next little while. As an artist myself, I am deeply disturbed by the events that are occurring in the United States and steadfastly opposed to any replication of the same mistakes in Canada. I urge you to stand up for the rights of Canadians.
Thank you for your time,
(name)
(city, province)
***
I hope this helps.
--Derek.
Lest we forget, here's a link to Cory's December post, "HOWTO Fight Canada's coming DMCA copyright law."
I'm still writing up my letter, but here's a list of recipients I'll be sending to, as I think this affects at least their portfolios
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Industry Minister Jim Prentice
Canadian Heritage Minister Josee Verner
(my MP)
Canadian Heritage Critics Denis Coderre, Maria Mourani, Bill Siksay
Industry Critics Scott Brison, Paule Brunelle, Peggy Nash
Consumer Affairs Critic Dan McTeague
New Economy Critic Sukh Dhaliwal
Think about it:
I am working full-time. I am also using every shred of spare time to work on getting people to sign up as bone marrow donors. I don't even have time to do my groceries properly.
BUT
I will make time to take one of these templates, send them off to multiple people, and inform my friends in email and on my blog. I will also mail my letter tomorrow morning.
If you've done it already: Great! If you haven't, what's stopping you? If I can do it, so can you. I'm no superwoman.
I wish they'd stop jumping the gun with these appeals based on the "word on the street" saying it's gonna be Real Bad(tm) and come out Real Soon Now(tm). When I wrote my MP when this all started I got a polite response that they can't really do anything because the bill doesn't even exist yet. I'm not writing him again until they actually propose something I can argue against.
Don't all call it "deeply flawed" now. You make it sound like you all read the same blogs.
One more - this is MY MP - I voted for the guy....jeesh - But if it wasn't him, it would have been someone else who wanted to 'make an impact'.
Dear Mr. Prentice
In a time when digital media is changing the world why does Canada have to adopt a faulty act to regulate the digital rights of multinational organizations?
You've tried to push this on the Canadian populace before, and we told you what we thought of it then, why are you trying again? The act has not been improved, only re-glossed. Canada is known as a liberal, forward-thinking nation. We think long and hard about difficult decisions, we allow innovation free reign before interpreting our citizen's duty of care. Now you steer us towards a path already proven to be a mistake. The American DMCA terrorizes ordinary citizens, do you want money-crazed behemoth's suing your citizens for making digital mix-tapes? Can you say you never made a mix-tape?
I'd think that a Canadian, a fellow-Calgarian, from my own riding, someone I voted for; would understand that the this will only hurt ordinary citizens.
Eenerz
How to save the US from US-style copyright rules? :-(
While I think that Canadian DMCA is super bad and I am writing my own letter right now, I am making sure to regard it as 'a potential future bill'.
OK, here we go. I think it hits a balance between "this is a potential future bill" and "You lose my vote if you screw this up".
---------------------------
I am writing with regard to the upcoming copyright reform bill that
may be introduced soon to parliament. I have a number of serious
concerns with this bill. Among them are the lack of consultation with
the concerned parties - industry, artists, educators, librarians, and
consumers - and a lack of strong indication that this bill will not
repeat the many failures of the disastrously failed DMCA in the United
States.
The DMCA has failed to prevent copyright infringement, and in many
cases has encouraged it. It has prevented the disabled from gaining
access to "protected" media, hampered librarians in fulfilling their
mandate, harmed consumers by undermining the security of their
computers and preventing them from making backups of their material,
put a chill on important research, and interfered with the proper
function of the competitive marketplace.
Michael Geist has prepared a short summary of principles which would
form an excellent basis for Canadian copyright reform ("My Fair
Copyright for Canada Principles"
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2572/125/). I urge you all to
read and consider his brief article, and to stand up for sensible
copyright measures that protect the interests of all Canadians. I
will be watching with interest the upcoming weeks in Parliament.
I wrote to Olivia Chow last night about it, and this is the response I got this morning:
Dear [Katanma],
Thank you for your letter about copyright legislation in Canada. Let me state at the outset that copyright is always a difficult balancing act between the fair use of the consumer and fair remuneration for artists. What has made the issue more difficult is the explosive growth of digital technologies in recent years.
Industry Minister Jim Prentice may very well introduce a bill to amend existing copyright legislation before the end of the current session of Parliament in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, there is reason to believe that his bill will be no better than previous attempts, which I, along with the other members of the NDP caucus, felt failed to address the needs of consumers. We had serious concerns about the lack of discussion on the potential impacts of providing the legal sanction of digital locks. These digital locks, also known as Digital Rights Management (DRMs) and Technological Rights Management (TPMs) could seriously impact consumer rights as well as the fair use of materials.
Concerns were also raised about placing electronic toll booths on the development of digital education opportunities. The NDP felt then, as we feel now, that legislators need to become aware of the evolving complexities of cyberspace, so that any new legislation will be relevant both to the present and the future. New legislation must also balance the rights of individual creators with those of industry and the public.
The NDP is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure that artists receive fair remuneration for their work. But we must not blindly accept restrictive copyright legislation that could be used to quash the development of new digital distribution models, sue people who share music files and impose tollbooths on the educational use of the Internet.
Please rest assured that the NDP critic for copyright, Charlie Angus, is studying all recommendations and am developing positions on the many facets of potential copyright legislation. There are no simple answers to this very complex issue, but we will be working to ensure the government brings forward copyright legislation that is both comprehensive and relevant.
Thank you again for sharing your concerns.
Sincerely,
Olivia Chow, MP
I LIKE Olivia Chow now.
Crap! Does that mean I have to vote NDP?
Hmm...
I have not yet heard from my (Liberal) MP. It really seems the NDP is picking up the ball and running with it. Good for them.
In addition to writing/emailing/calling our MPs:
- DIGG this post and draw more attention to it.
- Talk about it with your family, friends and co-workers - get them in on the act.
- Comment on this post in other blogs to draw more attention to it.
- Post video versions of your letters on YouTube - get creative - use the media at our disposal.
Make a noise!
Cheers.
Oh, Canada!
Come on guys, rally. You can do it. I'm with you in spirit. I wonder how the PM and Minister Prentice would respond to "Letters from Americans" saying that the DMCA is eeevil, we know it cause we've seen it.
I have sent unique emails to my MP, Minister Prentice and the PM and will be calling my MP's office tonight. Thank you Digg, Boing Boing and Michael Geist for keeping these issues in the public eye.
(I'm Derek from the above "anonymous" comment.)
I thought I'd let you all know that this morning, I received a reply from the Prime Minister's office (none from Mr. Prentice or from my own MP as of yet). It goes as follows:
***
Dear Mr. XXXXXX:
On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which falls within the portfolio of the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry. The Prime Minister always appreciates receiving correspondence on subjects of importance to Canadians.
Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail to Minister Prentice, so that he too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will give your views every consideration. For more information on the Government's initiatives, you may wish to visit the Prime Minister's Web site, at www.pm.gc.ca.
L.A. Lavell
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister's Office
Agent de correspondance
de la haute direction
pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre
***
Incidentally, I saw that I was referred to on Digg. I agree with the posters above here on Boingboing and with the replies and commenters on Digg that these should only be used as templates, and should be personalized for maximum effect. It just so happened that I, too, am an artist, so it worked out in my favour on this one endeavour.
Best of luck, everyone!
--Derek.
Thank you for the information, templates and getting the word out. I emailed Harper, Prentice, and my MP Ken Dryden. I will also be sending the link of this site to everyone on my contact lists. Keep strong and don't let these guys win.
just remember, the tories are a minority government. in order to get this legislation passed, they'll need the help of either the bloc (unlikely), the ndp (unlikely) or the liberals (likely). anyone who wants this stopped should be targetting the liberals in the house of commons. however, they're so pro big business they'll vote for it anyway.
This is what I wrote:
Once again it has come to my attention that the conservative government is attempting to pass the new American style Digital Millennium Copyright Act through Parliament. You may make some insignificant changes to the Act that do not address the primary issue, which is to protect consumer every step of they way from the American style copyright lawsuits. I understand the legitimate prosperity that copyright protection allows, but this prosperity must never be acquired at the expense of Canadian citizens and our rights. At the moment The Industry Minister is trying to pass this legislation as quickly and quietly as possible, we the people of Canada had no say in the making of the Act, so I urge you as you are the one who is brain child of this Act, please allow me and other to contribute in the making of the draft before it goes through parliament. Unfortunately I feel the conservative government has made this unjustified decision for Canadians. I once again urge you to reconsider this proposed Act until the people of Canada are allowed to ask questions and are allowed to contribute information in this very important Act which will provide a foundation for future laws and legislation.
Felt like writing a french letter for my fellow quebecers concerned by this. The rest can take this as a proof that some of us do care about more than hockey and poutine.
To: brunep@parl.gc.ca (Bloc industry critic Paule Brunelle)
Subject: Loi sur le droit d'auteur
Chère Mme. Brunelle,
Je vous écris car je suis concerné par une proposition de loi récente sur les droits d’auteur
proposée par M. Prentice. Je vous invite à lire l’article suivant au sujet de cette loi :
« The Copyright Myths »
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2886/
Une telle loi serait équivalente au Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), une loi qui sème la
controverse et viole les droits du consommateur aux États-Unis. Si cette loi est adoptée, des
millions de canadiens deviendront des « criminels » du jour au lendemain même s’ils
respectent la propriété intellectuelle comme il se doit. On ouvre ainsi la porte aux abus sur le
consommateur. Par exemple, l’utilisation de certaines technologies de gestion des droits
numériques (DRM – Digital Rights Management) rendrait criminelle toute personne qui
contourne la technologie tout en respectant les droits d’auteur.
Cette loi pourrait retirer au consommateur les droits qu’il acquiert en se procurant une œuvre,
et porterait atteinte à la vie privée par l’utilisation abusive de protection sur les œuvres qu’elle
pourrait engendrer.
Voici huit principes à considérer pour l’établissement d’une loi qui respectera les droits des
consommateurs canadiens :
« My Fair Copyright for Canada Principles»
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2572/125/
Je vous serais reconnaissant de vous opposer à cette loi inacceptable et de défendre les droits
des consommateurs.
Merci de votre attention.
***
Mindpowered, thank you very much for the template!
the record industry is trying to screw over the UK ppl as well but unlike the format shift provision in Canada they want us in the UK to pay every time we move media..... what is DRM and anti circumvention really about?
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080414-ipod-tax-uk-music-biz-will-allow-format-shifting-for-a-fee.html
FTA: "This is about the UK music industry responding effectively to the changing way music is consumed," said an unnamed executive at the time. "The submission states that we are willing to explore options to clarify what behaviour should be deemed acceptable for the consumer."
Sounds great!
And then came hints that this apple might come with a serious worm. Early this year, the BPI again said all the right things about format shifting, but we noted that the Association of Independent Music was making noises; apparently, the group wanted to get paid whenever music was transferred from a CD to a portable device.
Now we have the official, combined filing (PDF) from ten different music organizations in the UK (including AIM), and it's a doozy. Follow the ruthlessly simple logic with me:
* Step one: format shifting is valuable; just look at how many people do it. From the filing: "Unquestionably, there is a value produced by the ability to format shift for both consumers and commercial enterprises which directly arises from the transferability of music."
* Step two: creators don't see any of this value, and they should (because without them, there would be no value for anyone). "It is imperative that creators and performers should benefit directly from this value," says the filing. "Ultimately it is their creativity which underpins the entire value chain."
* Step three: start taxing iPods to recoup this value. "The only solution which achieves these goals is a flexible and market-led approach based upon a business-to-business relationship... an exception subject to license."
My letter to my MP
---------------------------------
Dear Lloyd St. Amand,
I am deeply concerned about what I've heard is an attempt to have US style DMCA laws put into place in our federal system. The music and movie industry have gone after absolutely everyone, even those who have downloaded less than 10 songs and have ruined their lives financially as a result. This is something that simply does not benefit our society in any way. I believe strongly that copyrights should be upheld but punishing a single mother of 3 because her son downloaded the latest album will send the wrong message. The government should do everything in its power to address the major contributors to copyright infringement; the bootleggers, the original producers of illegal content, but not those who are merely consuming what is already out there. I've voted for you in the past 2 elections, even though I feel the Green Party matches my views more so than the Liberal party, because I've felt you were the strongest candidate for this riding. I can tell you with very strong conviction that if you were to poll Brantford you would realize absolutely no one would want such legislation passed in Parliament. Besides the fear many of them would have that downloading a few songs could cost them their house (as it has in the states) there is also the obvious realization that the RCMP simply is incapable of going after all these people. The amount of resources required to try to take down piracy over the Internet would be astronomical and ultimately it would only benefit the music and movie corporations and wreak havoc on the people who more often than not still contribute heavily to their industries.
Internet piracy is a serious issue and one that should be addressed. Allowing corporations to sue not the people who create the content but simply those who take what is already there is, in my opinion, the wrong message. I hope you read the many articles on the Internet regarding this very heated debate, including: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1826/125/ . When one of the people leading the war on piracy admits the US needs a new approach, you must concur that we shouldn't follow suit.
I'll be paying attention to the outcome of this, should it happen now or in June. I hope you do what the Brant Riding would expect of you and vote no to this law.
Sincerely,
Robert S