Study Says DRM Violates Canadian Privacy Laws

inkslinger77 writes "DRM technology used in consumer media may be violating Canadian privacy laws, according to a new report. The study, done by University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, found that a number of services like iTunes, Visio, and Symantec's North SystemWorks require too much personal information in order to verify their users. 'Another issue cited by [study lead investigator David Fewer] concerned the disclosure of DRM-collected personal information from users of Intuit's QuickTax software."It wasn't the use of QuickTax itself that triggered the concern, but rather the use of Intuit's online filing service where we found buried in one of the disclosures the notice that, as an international corporation, Intuit would send information across the border," Fewer said.'"

Re:Could this apply in the European Community too?

[Wowsers]

These "tough" privacy laws you speak of only apply when it suits the EU.

DRM

[Ethanol-fueled]

DRM is almost always a bad idea -- but I wouldn't mind it so much if it only prevented copied stuff from being played...as opposed to it collecting and phoning home my life story so big brother can sell it to ad companies.

The line between DRM/registration and spy/adware is being blurred. Soon legal extortion will be the norm.

Re:Canadian Tariffs & International Jurisdicti

[mark-t]

The tariff applies to media that is distributed to all resellers within Canada's borders. If someone in Canada buys media overseas or in the US, they do not have to pay the tariff, as neither the post office nor customs are authorized to collect it.

Re:Canadian Tariffs & International Jurisdicti

[Pig Hogger]

The blank media fee simply legitimizes private copy. Distribution is still illegal. However, courts have ruled that since P2P protocols compel you to upload (distribute) so you can download, then uploading is legal.

Foreign media companies are lobbying hard to have a "new" copyright law passed, but since the governments we have had for the last 3 years are minority governments, that law is not exactly a very high priority of politicians who are more inclined to do what people want...

And since the RCMP has admitted pulling piracy figures out of it's arse, the government is likely to be very sceptical about figured losses by any content industry, ever since it was foolish enough to railroad a law punishing camcording movies...

Link to the study.

[callmevinny]

http://www.cippic.ca/uploads/CIPPIC_Report_DRM_and_Privacy.pdf [cippic.ca]

Re:Nice thought, but...

[technicalandsocial]

This was not just an academic study, this was funded by the federal privacy commissioner [privcom.gc.ca], and CIPPIC [cippic.ca] is a group of lawyers who submitted their findings to the commissioner. The PIPEDA violations will now be investigated by the privacy commissioner.
I'm not sure why, but the original submitted left out the link to the actual report [cippic.ca].