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..

[Rufty (37223)]

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

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.

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.

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:what?

[TheSpoom (715771)]

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

Like anything

[RichPowers (998637)]

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

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 )

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]

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.