Canada May Lose Copyright Fair-Use Rights

DotNM writes with an article from the CBC reporting that the Canadian government is considering removing fair-use rights from Canada's copyright law. From the article: "Exacerbating the situation is intense pressure from the United States, where Canada is considered a rogue when it comes to copyright and intellectual property. It still hasn't ratified a 1997 World Intellectual Property Organization copyright treaty... Two of the most controversial issues are [DRM] and the closely related technological protection measures."

Fight..

[QuantumG (50515)]

now is the time for Canadians to get out there and tell their elected representatives that they don't want US copyright. Do it now, before your politicians trade your dental plan for a keg of beer for their meetings.

Re:Fight..

[Doytch (950946)]

If you don't have your MP in your address book, then here's the lookup site:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/hou se/PostalCode.asp?Source=SM [parl.gc.ca]

I already sent my MP a letter, do your part if you're pissed.

Re:Fight..

[JebusIsLord (566856)]

First, go here to find your representative:

http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/Main MPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E [parl.gc.ca]

then, email them the following (just a suggestion):

Hi [representative],

This is my first time writing to you, as a new constituent. I am writing concerning an article I read today on CBC.ca. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/11/copy right-canada.html [www.cbc.ca]

I am fairly concerned about possible changes to Canadian fair-use laws. I consider myself a patron of the arts, and one of the music industry's best customers. As a modern, technology-savy citizen, I primarily listen to the music CDs I purchase on my portable iPod, or on my PC. Changes to fair use laws would make the act of "ripping" these songs to my computer, illegal. I consider myself an ethical consumer, and I don't see how in any way this activity harms the music industry. I suppose one could argue that, should this law come into effect, I could purchase my music online and therefore no "illegal" copying from CD would take place. However, these downloadable files (by way of the iTunes music store, for example) already defeat fair-use by restricting your ability to move them to new devices, new PCs etc.

In short, this law will punish good consumers, like me. Unethical consumers of music are already breaking the law by downloading pirated music, so this law will not affect them. If such legal changes are made, in order to continue listening to music in the manner I have been for years, I will probably opt to simply break the law - as I expect will the majority of iPod-owning Canadians. I will also seriously question whether or not such an industry should be supported financially by my hard-earned paycheques.

Thank you for listening,
[insert name here]

Re:Fight.. my letter

[saskboy (600063)]

I wrote one last year, but here's a new more topical version people can use and modify:
My letter:

Dear Mr. Breitkreuz,

I'm writing concerning this story in the media cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/11/copyright-canad a.html

If the Conservative government makes it a crime to put CD music onto iPod MP3 players, the government will be a laughingstock in the eyes of music consumers. Canadians in Yorkton-Melville regard the gun registry as an unenforceable, and intrusive law that makes criminals out of law abiding long gun owners. In the same way, removing Fair Use from Canadian copyright law will make criminals out of ordinary, law abiding Canadians, and does very little to help the people the law is supposed to protect.

As with previous emails on the topic of Copyright Act revisions, I offer you my expertise if you have questions regarding the technical nature of Digital Restrictions Management, and why there is an organization of professional Canadian musicians opposed to DRM, and the removal of Fair Use.

A short reply to acknowledge you received this letter, would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time,
[Saskboy]
Yorkton resident
[phone number]
www.abandonedstuff.com

CC. Hon. Bev Oda, Hon. Maxime Bernier

Re:Fight..

[saskboy (600063)]

I've written my MP about copyright at least 3 times last year, and didn't get one response. The Conservative MP for Yorkton-Melville obviously doesn't care about Canadian artists or stopping DRM.

Re:

[CokeBear (16811)]

There is an election coming soon. You know what to do.

(For those in Canada that don't, here are the basics: first, find out which of the 2 alternatives in your riding is more likely to win, the NDP or Liberal candidate*, call the office of that candidate *now* and make sure they know you are available to volunteer during the election to help out any way you can. That could include things like organizing events, planning, going door-to-door with the candidate, etc. While you are helping out, getting to know

Re:Fight..

[Rufty (37223)]

[Q] Why is American beer like sex in a canoe?
[A] They're both fucking close to water...

Re:Canada PIRACY rate is Mexico at 65 percent

[x2A (858210)]

Yeah, but the other 112% are incorrect, which makes it nearly 87% more incorrect than blue.

Re:Fight..

[peragrin (659227)]

wait since when did Canada have troops? I always figured you just sent a group of mounties out for those policing duties.

(I live an hour from the border, I know what you do and don't really have)

Re:Fight..

[tomhudson (43916)]

wait since when did Canada have troops? I always figured you just sent a group of mounties out for those policing duties.

(I live an hour from the border, I know what you do and don't really have)

They're in Afghanistan ... remember? As for everyone else talking about invading Canada elsewhere in this thread ...

Lets see - you can't use nukes, because we're too close, and you'd end up getting the fallout ... not to mention what it would do to supplies you import from us (oil, electricity, etc).

You can't invade, because we can turn off the electricity, and a third of your electrical grid would immediately collapse, and much of it would stay down ...

You can't use a trade embargo, because we supply you with more petroleum products than any other country in the world ... and the shortages would be immediate (pipelines - within hours), unlike tankers (lead times of months) ... think of a permanent "Hurricane Katrina" shortfall ...

Also, we get along pretty well with Mexico, so they'd probably join us, so think of TWO Hurricane Katrinas ...

Gee, why not just agree to continue to be good neighbours? Threatening us is more like putting a gun to your own head and saying "Stop or I'll shoot!"

Re:Fight..

[Dachannien (617929)]

You could also cut off the supply of your two greatest exports to the US: comedians and hockey players. We'd cave in about one season.

Canadian Troop Deployment

[camperdave (969942)]

The majority of our troops are in Afghanistan. The third one is rowing the submarine.

Re:

[cyber-vandal (148830)]

They wouldn't stop an invasion though would they, just make it shitty for the invaders once they were there. And they'd be terrorists then so they'd have to shoot themselves.

Re:Fight..

[yoder (178161)]

Yup, one man's terrorist is another's Freedom Fighter.

I just wrote this letter to my MP

[acidrain (35064)]

And I would like to ask all Canadian citizens reading this to do the same. ------------- It is easy to overlook the erosion of our rights when faced with more pressing social issues, but I would like to ask you for a minute of your time to consider the implications of a change that the Conservative government is planning to make to Canadian copyright law. I'm writing you as a professional software engineer who is concerned about the planned extension of Canadian copyright into what is called "Digital Rights Management." As a person who makes a living producing work which is protected under copyright, you may find it ironic that I am opposed to this legislation. One reason for this is that in reality DRM effectively creates a monopoly environment which locks out creative individuals who are not in the employ of large corporations, and empowers those corporations to engage in anti-competitive activities. It does this by forever binding the use of things rightfully purchased to the day to day wishes of these corporations. Including limiting their use to devices and software who's producers have a financial obligation to the controlling corporation. I see no reason why our government should pass laws to protect the interests of these large foreign interests, at the expense of the rights and freedoms of Canadian citizens. The very citizens whom you were elected to represent.

Re:

[Curtman (556920)]

Why do you think we voted out the Liberals?

Because we're stupid. We have forgotten that the party that we just elected brought us Brian Mulroney, and free trade (without binding arbitration).

Re:

[JebusIsLord (566856)]

Obviously you're an American. The comment "they're the 51st state" would only be made by an American. I don't know a single Canadian who thinks that way - we're all pretty proudly NOT Americans up here.

what?

[macadamia_harold (947445)]

Exacerbating the situation is intense pressure from the United States, where Canada is considered a rogue when it comes to copyright and intellectual property.

You mean, "levy-paid-to-RIAA-on-all-blank-media-regardless-o f-use" Canada? Are we talking about the same country?

Re:what?

[temojen (678985)]

No, it's Levy paid to CRIA for blank CD's and audio tapes (not HDDs or DVDs), but you can't be sued for downloading music or videos.

Re:

[LunarCrisis (966179)]

No, it's Levy paid to CRIA for blank CD's and audio tapes (not HDDs or DVDs), but you can't be sued for downloading music or videos.

I am not a lawyer!

I'm sorry, but I've been pouring through the Canadian Copyright Act, and I cannot find anything which substantiates your claim. This is the only clause I can find which is relevant to this situation, but please tell me if I've missed something. (Edit: now that I am done writing this comment I am no longer as sure as when I started, so please read to the end)

From http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/info/act-e.html#80 [cb-cda.gc.ca]: (emphasis mine)

Copying for Private Use
80. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the act of reproducing all or any substantial part of
(a) a musical work embodied in a sound recording,
(b) a performer's performance of a musical work embodied in a sound recording, or
(c) a sound recording in which a musical work, or a performer's performance of a musical work, is embodied
onto an audio recording medium for the private use of the person who makes the copy does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the musical work, the performer's performance or the sound recording.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply if the act described in that subsection is done for the purpose of doing any of the following in relation to any of the things referred to in paragraphs (1)(a) to (c):
(a) selling or renting out, or by way of trade exposing or offering for sale or rental;
(b) distributing, whether or not for the purpose of trade;
(c) communicating to the public by telecommunication; or
(d) performing, or causing to be performed, in public.
1997, c. 24, s. 50.

Now, the first thing to notice here is that this only appli

Re:what?

[TheSpoom (715771)]

But one of them will be if fair use rights are removed.

Re:

[gravesb (967413)]

How is the US pressuring Canada to get rid of fair use, when the US still has it? Granted, the RIAA is trying to chip away at it, but its still there. The US pays the blank media tax as well, I wish we had a court that would say the tax exempts consumers from piracy charges like Canada's did. Maybe the US is trying to get something like the DMCA passed to protect DRM, but not fair use. The article goes on to talk about pirated music, which has nothing to do with fair use. Fair use is based on music you

Taxes

[by Anonymous Coward]

Will it get rid of the damn taxes on CD's?

Like anything

[RichPowers (998637)]

It's harder to get fair use rights back once you lose them. Better to fight now than fight later...

Re:

[Almost-Retired (637760)]

I agree wholeheartedly. Yes CA folks pay special tax on blanks, and unless there is some pretty creative bookkeeping going on up north of the border, I'd be willing to bet a beer or 6 that the annual check to the **AA mafia rather handily exceeds the royalties actually lost from any so-called piracy.

I look at you all as a beacon of common sense in the wilderness, a thorn in their side if you will. As I'm equally sure the **AA legals are telling their bosses that daily in an attempt to justify their bloate

Conservatives? Yeah, sure.

[dsanfte (443781)]

The Conservative Party in Canada is always on about cutting government intervention in the economy, and then goes and supports legislative corporate welfare like Bill C60. They're clearly just out to make their media friends some more bucks.

Sadly, the biggest lie circulating is that these changes will somehow better promote "Quebec culture". There's this unfounded belief out there that more and more "protections" and "rights for creators", at the expense of their customers, will result in more content. I just don't see it.

The US has some of the most restrictive copyright legislation out there, and the slide of music sales has only just now been stemmed by paid downloads. Where are the creators and all the extra content those laws were supposed to encourage? Yeah, on Youtube.com, giving their stuff away for free, rendering all these laws moot.

If the Canadian government really wants to promote Quebec culture, work with Google to put up a Canadian bilingual version of Youtube on Google.ca. This is a no-brainer, guys...

Re:Conservatives? Yeah, sure.

[JFMulder (59706)]

Sadly, the biggest lie circulating is that these changes will somehow better promote "Quebec culture".
Seriously? I mean, no offense, but if there's one culture that needs protection, it's the rest of the Canadian culture. The music and movie industry in Quebec is going great (not as great this year as last year tough). Quebecers actually go and see movies from Quebec. It's not the majority, but it's a non negligible portion. The rest of Canada don't watch a lot of movies from Quebec, but then, they hardly watch their own either.

Re:Conservatives? Yeah, sure.

[nightfire-unique (253895)]

As a Quebecer I can't describe how terrible it would feel to know our government used us as an excuse to damage copyright law in Canada. :(

Here's a letter I wrote in 1999 when this issue last came up:

Subject: CPCDI concern

Hello,

I am a Canadian citizen residing in Montreal, QC. I recently learned of your request for comments regarding the implementation of a Canadian version of the controversial American DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), through provisions of the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues (CPCDI). I would like to voice my concern.

To anyone who has studied the history of the United States - from the inception of an independent democracy to the frequent creation and repeal of unjust law - the DMCA appears to be a gross perversion of both copyright law (practically, and in spirit) and the American constitution.

It seeks to impose the criminal status on individuals who would otherwise be practicing constitutionally protected freedoms, while having a questionable effect, if any, on those who are already criminals - those who wilfully violate copyright law. It allows for the criminalization of the act of making fair use (media excerpts, backup copies, transfers of ownership, research for the purpose of publishing, use under unsupported or unapproved digital devices, and others) of copyrighted material, because these fair uses can be controlled through the use of encryption.

Where formerly these would have been civil issues (contract violation), they become criminal issues.

This, as we have seen recently in the United States, has already begun to have a chilling effect on scientific research (see the cases regarding Dmitry Sklyrov, Dr. Felten, and Jon Johansen - all of whom were enguaged in previously protected activities for the good of the public). Of course, the frightening commonality in each of these cases is that the requests for prosecution were perpetrated by large media centric, for-profit corporations.

At the end of the day, many criminal acts can be prevented through proactive prosection, criminalization of related activity, and errosion of fundamental privacy.

But as a citizen of Canada, I oppose these excessive measures. To me, living in a free country means being given the choice to use tools for good or bad purposes. It is the trust instilled by the Canadian government and the Canadian people which makes this country great.

I urge the Canadian government to maintain the fair, delicate balance between copyright holders and individuals, and to remove the overbroad, anti-consumer provisions of CPDCI.

Sincerely,

etc.

I'm working on the next one right now. It's a shame we have to keep doing this.

The WTO

[nurb432 (527695)]

is the most insidious thing going rght now. It has the potential to usurp most of our rights ( and not just IP type rights )

One world order, here we come ( via the backdoor )

Copyright laws, eh?

[tehSpork (1000190)]

"It's a big black market effect and so instead of 25 per cent [of the market], it's eight per cent here. People are simply abandoning the marketplace altogether, and they've made the decision they'll just download the music and worry about how the artist gets paid later."

If you're dealing with a major record label the artist barely gets paid anyway, I doubt they see the difference.

Sounds like Canada's copyright law might be going the way of Australia's [wikipedia.org], eh. Pretty soon we'll all have to move to Sweden to be safe. Oh wait, that didn't work out so well for TBP [thepiratebay.org] now did it...

Contact info

[phorm (591458)]

How about some contact info for those interesting in writing the powers that be about this issue?

Re:Contact info

[Mashiki (184564)]

http://www.gc.ca/ [www.gc.ca] is your friend.

BERNIER, Maxime
Parliamentary Address
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-Mail: [e-mail]

Constituency Address
11535 1st Avenue, Suite 430
Saint-Georges, Quebec
G5Y 7H5
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
1083 Vachon Boulevard North, Suite 201
Sainte-Marie, Quebec
G6E 1M8
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

And

ODA, Beverley J. (Bev) (Conservative)
Parliamentary Address
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-Mail: [e-mail]

Constituency Address
68 King Street East, Unit 2
Bowmanville, Ontario
L1C 3X2
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Toll Free: 1-866-436-1141

More Criminals

[nurb432 (527695)]

Once you make the entire public criminals, its easier to strip them of the rest of their rights and control them.

Bev Oda

[maytagman (971263)]

Bev Oda's (Canadian Heritage minister) campaign was funded by major record companies such as Universal Records. Basically the record companies are buying these new draconian laws. 'http://bevoda.ca' has recently pulled down the contact info after an obvious flood of hateful email. This has been extensively covered on http://boingboing.net/ [boingboing.net] and as usual days, weeks and months ahead of slashdot.
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/11/how_hollywood s_mp_in.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/11/08/canadian_copy right_c.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/08/can_heritage_ ministe.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/04/hollywoods_ca nadian_.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/24/canadian_stud ents_as.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/15/editorial_in_ toronto.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/29/canadian_copy fight_t.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/03/canadian_mp_i mports_.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/21/canadas_dmca_ dissect.html [boingboing.net]
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/18/canadians_how to_stop.html [boingboing.net]

Re:

[Cadallin (863437)]

What, you mean corporations in the rest of world are figuring out what those in the USA have known for decades? Buying elections is CHEAP. If I was a Multinational Corporation with revenues in the Billions, I could buy an American Congress for as little as a couple hundred million dollars, which realistically is nothing. I'd guess that other, smaller and/or poorer democracies would be even cheaper. I'm not sure what it would cost to buy the Mexican government, but it can't be more than $50 million.

T

No problem

[hammock (247755)]

I don't oppose this at all, however, first they have to refund the millions they have stolen by way of the blank media tax. As soon as I see some real money back that those motherfuckers stole from me when I bought backup media for my servers, we can talk about copyright reform.

I am waiting to hear back from you.

First

[JustOK (667959)]

They made us get rid of the Avro Arrow, and now this???

loose once and we'

[ckedge (192996)]

JHC. We have to fight this all over again every fucking 1-4 years. Each time we win we only win for 1-4 years, and then we have to fight all over again.

If they win once, just once, they've won. Period.

How the fuck is this considered democracy? How are we supposed to prevent a perpetual slow glide down into tyrrany if they can keep passing more new laws forever and ever?

Have you ever heard of a law being revoked or reversed?

Re:

[Petrushka (815171)]

... which leads to law-makers trying to create a surveillance society like they've got in the UK, which in turn gets out of hand, and eventually someone with power realises it's no longer working and does away with it; sure. But that process can take decades or even centuries. Life's too short.

Fair dealing

[Ghost-in-the-shell (103736)]

Canada does not use Fair-Use in its copyright laws, it uses Fair dealing and the constructs are totally different. The actual debate in Canada is should we move to adopting Fair Use or continue to use the restricted but spelled out uses of Fair Dealing.

 

Same old story

[troll -1 (956834)]

Close observers of the file say all signs point to a new regime that will improve safeguards for major music, film and media companies and artists for unpaid use of their material, but neglect to make exemptions for personal use of copyrighted content.

Bullshit! You can reform copyright laws all you want, people are still gonna record their favorite shows and share stuff on P2P. Sharing copyrighted content, for example, is at an all time high, in spite of its illegality and all those *IAA lawsuits.

Remember the US Betamax [wikipedia.org] case? Yeah, if these guys had their way VCRs would be illegal. The problem is that their business runs on a static model. They seem incapable of seeing the world differently.

You can moralize all you want about the rights and wrongs of technology but it doesn't alter the fact that it's here to stay and all the laws and lawsuits in the world won't stop people from copying (and distributing). It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetically sad.

Fight Online

[CarlJagt (877688)]

Fight Online -- send a letter asking for a balanced copyright reform: Visit http://www.onlinerights.ca/get_active/copyright_re form_action/ [onlinerights.ca]

Your letter will read:

I am a constituent who cares about Canada's cultural policy, and I am writing in regard to legislative proposals for "copyright reform." During the last Parliament, Bill C-60 provided some very sensible approaches to this complicated topic, but it also left room for improvement. As you consider the issue of copyright reform, I hope that you will work to ensure that any new legislation is not a regression from the sensible policies set out in Bill C-60.

In particular, I do not believe that "digital rights management" (DRM) technologies should stop the public from making lawful uses of their legitimately acquired media. Publishers using DRM push aside the delicate balance between copyright and the rights of the public - a balance set according to an assessment of the public interest by legislators - and replace it with one-sided rules that reflect publishers' private interests. Even artists disagree with publishers' anti-consumer use of DRM, as evidenced by the recently formed Canadian Music Creators Coalition. Therefore, as in Bill C-60, new copyright reform legislation should not make it illegal to circumvent DRM for lawful purposes.

I am also concerned that the use of DRM can threaten computer security and consumer privacy, as in the recent Sony-BMG "Rootkit" fiasco. When content companies routinely use technological measures to control how people enjoy entertainment in the privacy of their own homes, I think we need protection *from* DRM more than we need protection *for* it.

These concerns are shared by a substantial and growing number of informed Canadian citizens. I hope that you will take them into account when considering any changes to Canadian copyright law. Thanks very much for your time.

Not going to pass without major amendments...

[Hamster Lover (558288)]

For those that have no clue about Canada's current political situation, the governing Conversative party holds minority power, less than 50% of the seats in Parliament, and as such requires the votes of the other parties, the NDP, the Liberals or the Bloq Quebecois, to pass any legislation. The Liberals, which have the largest number of seats after the Conservatives, have also just elected a new, dynamic leader to head their party and he is out for blood. So, regardless of the legislation that is introduced it is going to be amended when the bill heads to committee (second reading), if it even gets that far. Once the bill heads to committee look for it to be sliced and diced by the opposition if for no other reason than to earn some political points with the public. A similar situation occured when the Liberals amended the Conservatives much vaunted crime reform bill and watered down or removed key sections of the legislation.

Stephen Dion, the new Liberal leader, has also indicated that he will not co-operate with the Conservatives on any legislative initiatives and has intimated that he will vote to bring down the government on the next confidence motion and force an election. So we may not even make it that far.

Don't hold your breath on this passing.

Make this a voting issue.....

[Kernel Kurtz (182424)]

Make this a voting issue, and make it clear to your MP and other government representatives that it is. We have a minority government here right now, and an election is likely sooner rather than later. Issues like this could swing the balance of power, or make the difference between a majority or another minority government.

I voted CPC last election, but if they take away my fair use rights they will not get my vote again. Ever.

petition

[jeffstar (134407)]

A petition [digital-copyright.ca] exists which has around 2500 signatures already and is sent to parliament as new batches of signatures are received.

And I was so happy about Canada, too.

[Grendel Drago (41496)]

I was sure they'd move from Life+50 to Life+70 before Winnie the Pooh went out of copyright, but no, the works of A. A. Milne (and a hojillion others [copyrightwatch.ca], including Alfred Kinsey, Jackson Pollock, and H. L. Mencken) are in the public domain in Canada. If they manage to hold out for another year, the public domain will grow to include (for instance) John von Neumann.

At least they've managed to keep their laws reasonable compared to those in the U.S., though that's not saying much. If they keep being an oasis of comparative sanity, I may end up moving there. Here's hoping they'll stay that way for a good long while.

Re:

[Tablizer (95088)]

Canadians don't like to do anything the U.S. asks at the best of times, why would they start now? If anything, a request from the U.S. would have them do the opposite as an expression of patriotism.

Don't undere$timate the power of lobbyi$t incentive$ on politicians.
     

Re:Intense pressure?

[jbr439 (214107)]

Or the desires of a Conservative government intent on more closely aligning Canada with the US.

Re:Just another attempt to blame the US?

[shaitand (626655)]

You think these are rights we still have in the US? Apparently you missed the part where the DMCA makes it illegal to excercise fair use rights if there is DRM in place.

Re:

[Ironsides (739422)]

I buy lots of CDs and DVDs. None of it goes to the MPAA or RIAA or the Canadian equivalents. Just about everything I buy is from companies outside those cartels. You might want to look at doing the same and learn of some new artists you've never heard before.