Canadian election important for computer users
The Liberal (the party in power) government introduced a bill in the last session (C60) which amends the copyright act. Having read the bill on the House of Commons web site, I have to wonder if any of these people "get it"...
The bill effectively ends all back up and fair use rights for material less than 40 years old (all those MP3s and videos become illegal over night and can result in jail and/or heavy fines). My MP (Member of Parliament) claimed it was to protect starving artists. Yet in the bill itself the only new thing the artist could do is to walk up to anybody and say "I don't want you using my work". The vast majority of the changes benefit the distributors/owners of the work (eg. the recording industry). There are heavy fines which get paid to the recording industry (the artist doesn't see a cent). The issue of what happens if someone walks down the street with a boombox playing a CD is addressed. They are in violation of the copyright laws.
Additionally, this bill makes experimentation/learning on ones own illegal if the person uses copyrighted work. For example, I am experimenting with burning video DVDs under Linux. If I create a video from clips (there was a 30 second rule of thumb for fair use) and an MP3, it would be illegal unless both the clips and the MP3 were more than 40 years old.
ISPs will have to "tattle tale" on their customers if the bill is reintroduced and passed. The hardware necessary for the ISPs to do this will increase the costs to the consumer and slow down the net.
Although my MP said this was a 100% Canadian bill, I noticed the authors used an American spell checker to correct the document. Therefore I suspect the bill was authored after influence was placed on the government by certain American institutions.
Presuming this is true, I can't imagine the Conservatives (aka Tories, Born Again Tories, BATs) having the backbone to reject anything coming from the States.
The disturbing thing is although the consumer went out and bought legal media contain a legal piece of work from a legal source, the right to use it can be removed at a whim of any number of people if this bill passes.
In Canada slightly more than half the people vote in federal elections. The MPs get elected by margins of 10% - 20%. Therefore if enough people went out and voted the results could be changed. Even if protest voters voted for someone else, it could scare the politicians into listening if the margin of victory were only 10 votes or someone unexpected gained position.
The bill effectively ends all back up and fair use rights for material less than 40 years old (all those MP3s and videos become illegal over night and can result in jail and/or heavy fines). My MP (Member of Parliament) claimed it was to protect starving artists. Yet in the bill itself the only new thing the artist could do is to walk up to anybody and say "I don't want you using my work". The vast majority of the changes benefit the distributors/owners of the work (eg. the recording industry). There are heavy fines which get paid to the recording industry (the artist doesn't see a cent). The issue of what happens if someone walks down the street with a boombox playing a CD is addressed. They are in violation of the copyright laws.
Additionally, this bill makes experimentation/learning on ones own illegal if the person uses copyrighted work. For example, I am experimenting with burning video DVDs under Linux. If I create a video from clips (there was a 30 second rule of thumb for fair use) and an MP3, it would be illegal unless both the clips and the MP3 were more than 40 years old.
ISPs will have to "tattle tale" on their customers if the bill is reintroduced and passed. The hardware necessary for the ISPs to do this will increase the costs to the consumer and slow down the net.
Although my MP said this was a 100% Canadian bill, I noticed the authors used an American spell checker to correct the document. Therefore I suspect the bill was authored after influence was placed on the government by certain American institutions.
Presuming this is true, I can't imagine the Conservatives (aka Tories, Born Again Tories, BATs) having the backbone to reject anything coming from the States.
The disturbing thing is although the consumer went out and bought legal media contain a legal piece of work from a legal source, the right to use it can be removed at a whim of any number of people if this bill passes.
In Canada slightly more than half the people vote in federal elections. The MPs get elected by margins of 10% - 20%. Therefore if enough people went out and voted the results could be changed. Even if protest voters voted for someone else, it could scare the politicians into listening if the margin of victory were only 10 votes or someone unexpected gained position.
posted by Mike at 1:39 p.m.
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