The Canadian DMCA Battle Concludes: How Thousands of Canadians Changed Copyright

An anonymous reader writes "Nearly 15 years of debate over digital copyright reform will come to an end today as Bill C-11, the fourth legislative attempt at Canadian copyright reform, passes in the House of Commons. Many participants in the copyright debate view the bill with great disappointment, pointing to the government's decision to adopt restrictive digital lock rules as a signal that their views were ignored. Despite the loss on digital locks, the "Canadian copyright" led to some dramatic changes to Canadian copyright with some important wins for Canadians who spoke out on copyright. The government expanded fair dealing and added provisions on time shifting, format shifting, backup copies, and user generated content in response to public pressure. It also included a cap on statutory damages, expanded education exceptions, and rejected SOPA-style amendments."

Re:Inevitable

[crazyjj]

What makes you think it's over?

Re:Inevitable

[Anonymous Coward]

The vicious cycle is not between big media and the pirates.

The cycle is between the big media and their customers suffering from battered wife syndrome, such as people like you and the GP/OP.

People like you and the GP keep paying them money, so they can keep on existing, doing what they want to do, and what they want is DRM

If you don't like DRM, simply don't buy it. Do not give them the privilege of your money. Whether you pirate it or not afterward is irrelevant. The bottom line is... the bottom line. Hit them where it hurts.

They're not going to magically turn around if you keep paying them money.

Re:Not sure about Canadian law...

[TheSpoom]

I'm sorry, are you contributing multiple millions of dollars to reelection campaigns? No? Then you don't exist.

Cold Turkey

[ThatsNotPudding]

Or you could, you know, stop watching/listening to all this stuff (even for 'free') and tell the content creators explicitly why you won't be bothering with their works until *they* are willing to cut out the Content Lords and deal with their fans directly in an honest and fair (affordable and DRM-free) manner. And if they won't (due to greed) why would you want to pay them or even pay attention to them anyway? Even copying their stuff helps keep a corrupt, democratically corrosive system going.

And if we cannot truly go without the luxury of entertainment (to keep us distracted from contemplating how empty and meaningless our lives are or some peer pressure 'did you see...' BS), then we have to take the first step and admit we're nothing but an addict.

Re:They're idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Freakin' morons!!!

They're not morons. They're con-men. They're providing wonderful representation to their real constituents, who definitely aren't your average Canadian citizen.

Re:Inevitable

[shoehornjob]

The vicious cycle is not between big media and the pirates. The cycle is between the big media and their customers suffering from battered wife syndrome, such as people like you and the GP/OP. People like you and the GP keep paying them money, so they can keep on existing, doing what they want to do, and what they want is DRM If you don't like DRM, simply don't buy it. Do not give them the privilege of your money. Whether you pirate it or not afterward is irrelevant. The bottom line is... the bottom line. Hit them where it hurts.

That pretty much says it all right there. What this really comes down to is a lifestyle change. I'm willing to give up on certain kinds of media if I can't get it on my terms. Plain and simple.

Fighting Piracy?

[Anonymous Coward]

So they are going to fight piracy by making a law that will make legitimate sources (music, video, etc...) MORE restrictive?

Solution: Don't buy media with locks on them.

Is it just me or is the result going to be different than what the people that wrote that thought it was going to be?

I mean if I legally buy something, and to make it useful to me I have to defeat a lock, which makes me a criminal anyway, why do I bother spending ANY money on legitimate services, which I might as well just skip the middle man, and pirate media directly? I mean sure perhaps I'm a criminal, but at least I wouldn't be paying to be one.

Re:Much more solid way of removing that

[Samalie]

I'm afraid you're entirely incorrect in regards to the Canadian legislation.

As it is worded, you have the right to timeshift, formatshift, etc to your heart's content UNLESS there is a digital lock on the original.

IF there is a digital lock of ANY sort, you still technically have the right to timeshift, format shoft, etc, but in order to do so you will have to commit an illegal act to do so (circumventing the digital lock).

Now, IANAL, but as far as I can tell, there is nothing wrong with legitimately purchasing media and then downloading a DRM-free copy from torrent_site_01...in that case, YOU are not (personally) circumventing the digital lock.