Canadian Tories argued for stronger copyright laws, but appropriate copyright when it suits them
The Canadian Conservative party is in trouble for appropriating copyrighted news-video for a web app that lets supporters make their own campaign ads. It's significant because this is the party that tried -- through the now-dead Canadian DMCA -- to bring in copyright laws that would raise the penalties for this sort of appropriation.
But you know what? As much as I dislike the Tories and as much as I appreciate the irony (as a friend used to say to the anti-lyrics-censorship, pro-copyright-censorship people in the record industry, "I know you love free speech, I just wish you'd share it with the rest of us!"), I think that they should be allowed to do this without copyright hassles.
Look: they're engaged in political speech, using news-footage to criticize politicians. Whether it's "out of context" or not (surely a subjective matter), this should be a slam-dunk. No copyright system should restrict quotation on news in the pursuit of political speech -- the purposes of copyrights -- encouraging creativity, encouraging investment -- are not undermined by political commercials.
This is why we fought against the Canadian DMCA after all: because we wanted Canadians to have the right to express themselves with a minimum of locks and fears. If you only support free expression for people who agree with you, you don't support it at all.
Some of the clips might look familiar. They have been taken from an Agenda interview with Stephane Dion, snapped off the context and put them to work. And that is where an ad like this can cause trouble. Now the Conservatives are going to have to deal with the embarrassment of being told to take the clips down (sort of like when Heart told Sarah Palin to stop playing Barracuda at her rallies).That Conservative site steps in it again, this time dragging the Agenda along (Thanks, Mike!)
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Of course they should be allowed to use the footage. Likewise, I should be allowed to rip a DVD to my mac if I want to.
All that should be done, at this point, is to archive anything and everything concerning this, so that the next time they try to ram a revised DMCA-like bill down our throats, we can pull this out and show that they would be just as criminal as the people they're trying to outlaw with their bill.
I just hope the tories don't get that majority government they're after in the coming election. I doubt any of the other parties are strong enough to form a majority; a minority tory or liberal government is just about the best we can currently hope for. Unless the NDP suddenly gains a lot of popularity and somehow convince the Bloc to join up and form some sort of coalition, but that's terribly unlikely.
Damn right it should be allowed, a shame if they get in, this sort of app would be illegal, and yet I bet even after the fact the people who make these laws will still unknowingly make apps like this. Which is the point, regular people DO this stuff all the time, and to make it illegal makes every average citizen a copyright criminal.
"Makes every average citizen a ...criminal".
Bingo! The US Prison-Industrial Complex spreads further...
If that footage is from the CBC then there should be no question of legality. CBC content is paid for and belongs to all Canadians.
It seems to me that you could have a solid argument that these are being done either as a form of criticism (although it's hardly scholarly) or as a form of journalism (although it's not totally professional). Either way, the Tories are probably allowed to do this already under current Fair Dealing laws. The libel suits, on the other hand...
Also, is anyone else sick of the way that the Tories have been pushing these stupid American-style attack ads lately? Is it too much to ask for civil discourse?
@#7
There are two reasons I cancelled my cable TV 8 months ago - inflammatory Apple ads and inflammatory Conservative Party ads. The negativity just upsets me and smacks of desperation.
Regardless of its originating country, conservatism has only one real agenda: seizing and maintaining power. Because of this, any act is acceptable to them in service of this agenda.
Hypocrisy means nothing to conservatives. First, because any moral or legal issue they've espoused has merely been a superficial means to their single goal. Second, because consistency, logic, and reason are insignificant compared to that single goal.
Ultimately, you can't reason with a conservative, you can't compromise with a conservative, and you can't even shame a conservative. You'd do just as well trying to talk a shark into not eating you. (And if you tell this to a conservative who's even halfway honest, he'll probably laugh and take it as a compliment.)
For an interesting exercise, re-read Bshock's comment (#9) and substitute "liberal" or "new democrat" wherever it reads "conservative".
Still makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Wait, the Canadian DMCA is dead? When did that happen?!? I don't need BoingBoing to gloat but considering all the build-up, did I miss a self-congratulatory "Yay, we did it!" post?
I was kind of hoping to see some sort of organized effort to push copyright and the associated issues of freedom for Canadians as an election issue. I mean, supposedly there's no one issue that grabs Canadian votes right now, and I'm not saying this would be it, but it might be more noticed because of that. Get the people who are for controls stronger than the US to come out for it openly, say what they want and why they want it, and let those who have more me-friendly platforms give their responses.
please stop calling them 'tories'. the first thing the current conservative party of canada [cpc] did upon gaining control of the 'tories' was to disband the progressive conservative party and establish a new party, the cpc.
what shall we call them instead - 'Cons' perhaps?
FF it walks like a Tory;
AND IF it talks like a Tory;
THEN it is a Tory.
(Translation for Americans: It's a pig with lipstick on.)
@11: Bill C-61 is not dead, but parliament has been disolved and an elections are coming. So it is basically on hold, and if the Harper-team don't get it back (with a majority government), it will likely be struck down.
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no, tory is a term that is traditionally reserved for the members of the progressive conservative party of canada. this party no longer exists. it was overtaken in a backroom deal and then disbanded by the reform/alliance party coalition. hence, no more 'tories'.
these people the [new] conservative party of canada are not progressive. hell, i wouldn't even call them conservative in the traditional canadian political sense. they are neo-cons and religious fundamentalists.
again, not tories. by referring to them as such you allow them to maintain the charade that they have anything at all in common with the founding party of our country and its principals. they don't.
@#11
I had the same reaction as you. But I think Cory's turn of phrase was perhaps a little misleading. Bill C-61 is "now dead" because Parliament has been dissolved in anticipation of a federal election, thus forestalling the parliamentary committee debates that were the next step towards the bill being enacted as law.
I assume once Parliament reconvenes after the election that the bill will get tabled again sooner or later, and that all we've been granted is a temporary reprieve. It's only dead in the sense that it's no longer on the current order of business. If we're unlucky enough to get a conservative majority this time round, it may even be worse for the Copyfight, because the bill would probably encounter even less resistance than it has this time around.
Would anyone out there who actually knows Canadian parliamentary procedure care to weigh in on whether I'm out to lunch or not?
Oh, #16 beat me to the punch. That'll teach me to write such long-winded comments. ;-)
#16: There's nothing to be "struck down" (no Law has come into being), it died on the "Order Paper" with the calling of the Election, and will have to be re-introduced into the next Parliament to start its hopefully slow and labored process of becoming Law all over again. If it gets re-introduced.
To "celebrate" this ( perhaps temporary) "victory" (given to us by Mr.Harper - for him, just a delay in the march to victory of his side) vote against the National Citizen's Coalition, oops I mean Reform, oops I mean Social Credit, oops I mean Conservative party. I personally like the way they did not retain the "Progressive" label.
Yes. I like honesty, even from rogues scoundrels and cheats.
No Kabur I think that you are closer to the mark in that the phrase "struck down" is not I think appropriate. The current Bill as drafted and submitted and amended to this point is dead.
The Bill would need to be re-introduced in the next parliament, which would I think be the first time it gets "tabled", and then go through hearings and amendments etc.
Of course Majority Governments and even Minority ones with broad agreement from the other parties, can get things through P.D.Q. if needful. But the Bill we were discussing is not just on hold it is gone until the next Government sees fit to re-introduce it or something similar.
So perhaps there's hope that some of Michael Geist's 61 proposed reforms to the bill might get worked into a new version?
We may not have CBC's "Search Engine" anymore, but let's all make sure our MPs know what we'd think if a carbon copy of C-61 were to be tabled by the next Parliament. It was the unsuccessfully avoided public attention that postponed the original tabling from December to June, and presumably also led to the inclusion of the (paltry) concessions to consumer rights in C-61.
Let's take it even further this time. Join Fair Copyright for Canada. Read C-61. Read Geist, Doctorow, Page et al. Draw your own conclusions and make your voice heard.
Democracy. I Want to Believe!
Thanks @16, @18 & @20 for the clarification. I had begun to think that all of us who have written our MPs and spread the word on Copyfight had shown an excess of restraint on a dead C-61.
With the recent cutting of arts & cultural funding (Telefilm's CNMF, Trade Routes, CIFVF, etc.) artsies across the country are setting aside their differences and rolling up their cardigan sleeves to join voices in opposition to Harper's government. Hopefully it'll matter this time.