boingboing.net — CBC Radio's Search Engine just posted/aired its interview with Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice about his Canadian version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You have to listen to this -- in it, the Minister lies, dodges, weaves and ducks around plain, simple questions.
Jun 19, 2008 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountJun 20, 2008
It has? really? How so?
evilottoJun 20, 2008
here's the letter I sent my MP....Dear XXXX,First of all I would like to thank you in advance for your time and also for your service representing the XXXX riding. You have in the past and will continue to receive my familie support.I'm writing regarding Bill C-61 “An Act to amend the Copyright Act “. After hearing the comments from the Minister of Industry and reading through this bill myself online, I must say I'm quite shocked at how blatantly anti-consumer it is in nature. Some of my major points of concern are as follows:1.It is vaguely written and poorly defines copyrighted media. It makes numerous references to photographs, books, newspapers and videocassettes while failing to mention optical disc media (CD, DVD, etc) and digital media. This seems to be a glaring omission seeing as these are the media formats that are at the heart of this issue.2.While on the surface C-61 gives the appearance of providing Canadian consumers “fair use” protections this is not the case. By including the caveat that circumventing encryption or copy protection while making “fair use” personal copies is a violation of the law it is giving defacto control of the definition of “fair use” to content providers. For example if you were to decrypt a DVD which you legally own to transfer and view on a device such as an Ipod you would be in violation of the law, even though you are fully within the scope of reasonable personal use. 3.The $500 dollar fine for “personal use” infringement is being lauded by the proponents of this bill as being a protection from excessive penalties for the Canadian public. This claim seems to be nothing but positive spin being applied to an appallingly draconian penalty. The high fines under the current copyright act are geared toward commercial piracy and not toward individuals. To my knowledge the current penalties have never been applied to anyone for personal use copyright violations. Under C-61 someone simply making a mix tape of a dozen of their favourite songs to share with a friend would be subject a $500 penalty PER INFRINGEMENT. In this instance, that would be a $6000 dollar penalty in total. This seems to be a grossly disproportionate amount when compared to the negligible financial damage (if any) caused by the creation of this mix tape, to the copyright holders.4.This bill is being trumpeted as being “uniquely Canadian” by the Minister of Industry but it clearly is not. It is a mirror of foreign legislation such as the United States' “Digital Millennium Copyright act” and does not represent Canadian interests or Canadian values.It is my hope that this piece of poor, anti consumer and anti Canadian legislation be addressed accordingly. Sincerely,XXXX
neozeedJun 20, 2008
wow they don't teach sarcasam anymore in CANADA do they. What happened, the kids in the hall all went to America to make some $$ and I hear they have instituted multiple choice tests in CANADA as well to dumb CANADA down to AMERICA.Face it, Canada is being harmonized into the NAU, and somehow my home nation (CANADA) didn't even notice it happened.
com2Jun 20, 2008
Stallionism works for the RIAA!
bonestampJun 21, 2008
Yup, I hear ya. I'm also an expat, and I agree that Canada is slowly becoming the 51st state. This was most obvious in 2005 when the CIA opened an office in Ottawa to fight Chretien's bill to legalize pot. The CIA actually defeated it! The only thing about your post that I disagreed with was Canada's relative strength/freedom to that of the US. On that, I still think you're wrong. Knowing now that it was sarcastic, it seems like a fair comment.I'm not sure that we are at fault for not reading your sarcasm. Sarcasm works great in written material when you have 1 absurd statement that is genuinely funny, but when you have 3 absurd statements that are not really that funny then it often comes across literal.
stuffradioJun 21, 2008
What are the NDPs and Green Parties stance?
fish0507Jun 21, 2008
f**k just about every politician in Canada is how I am feeling... The NDP will never have enough seats to make a difference.
rdolishnyJun 22, 2008
I work in the business and have taken your stand ... going one further and forbidding bootleg movies and PS2 games that get swapped around the three kids schoolground. We buy our media the old fashioned way, but generally going online and seeking out DRM free or free media provides us with more content than we can consume. There is no excuse for rampant piracy, and a law like this helps set the record straight.I am a little concerned that with a law like this in place the recent slide in DRM content will reverse and it's back to big business to decide what we can and cannot consume.Anyway bravo on your stand. I support it.
plokeJul 2, 2008
sorry, no link—I don't really feel like searching around youtube for it. I know that I saw it on youtube and that it (the comment on the facebook group) made news. Michael Geist, who runs the group, also write editorials in major Canadian papers, which may have helped the group get publicity.