The Charlatan: Mixed reviews for copyright bill

The Charlatan: Mixed reviews for copyright bill
Cara Stern

University students may be negatively affected by the recently proposed Bill C-61, which, if passed as law, would amend current Canadian copyright laws.

Bill C-61 is an amendment to the Copyright Act, which intends to protect the rights of both the creator and user of copyrighted materials.

However, controversy has erupted due to the possible negative consequences for the users, specifically students and educators.

“There are a lot of clauses in this bill that can have a serious impact on post-secondary education and how students learn,” said Zach Churchill, national director for the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.

Toronto Star: Government copyright bill fails green test

Toronto Star: Government copyright bill fails green test
Michael Geist

The environment is obviously one of the biggest issues of the moment. The federal political parties are spending their summers trying to sell Canadians on their plans for the future, provincial governments are unveiling regulations to address waste, and local municipalities are getting into the game with increasingly sophisticated recycling programs.

As our environmental policies move beyond establishing emissions standards or cleanup requirements, law and regulation is increasingly focused on creating incentives for business to reduce polluting activities and for consumers to adopt environmentally-friendly habits. Given the desire to reorient long-standing practices, laws not traditionally considered part of the environmental file should also be examined to determine whether they are consistent with promoting “greener” behaviour.

The notion of “green copyright” sounds odd, yet the policy choices found in Bill C-61, Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s controversial copyright bill, disappointingly run directly counter to the current emphasis on the environment.

Copyrightwatch: Damn the facts, full term-extension ahead!

Copyrightwatch: Damn the facts, full term-extension ahead!

Taking a page out of the Canadian handbook, the European Union ignores sound economic and statistical analyses and gives the copyright industry what it wants anyway.

This was Andrew Gowers in 2006:

4.32 The incentives argument is sometimes applied to artists as well as to record companies. That is, if musicians were to receive royalties for an additional period of time, they would have more incentives to make music. This seems highly unlikely given there are a large number of bands already creating music without any hope of a financial return. Dave Rowntree, drummer with Blur and The Ailerons, commented that: “I have never heard of a single one [band] deciding not to record a song because it will fall out of copyright in ‘only’ fifty years. The idea is laughable.”

Laura Murray: Locking In and Locking Out

Laura Murray: Locking In and Locking Out

As many have observed, the lines between public and private are shifting in the digital age. Youth culture exuberantly and often voluntarily flouts earlier generations’ bounds of privacy: the Internet is full of confessions and revelations formerly locked in people’s hearts to their deathbeds. Perhaps in a less voluntary mode, consumers are providing reams of consumer information to commercial entities who swear they detach this information from particular identifiers, but still benefit from amassing formerly private and uncollatable data. Whereas television as a technology created a stark distinction between “providers” and “users” — TV audiences could talk back to the TV but nobody heard them — Web 2.0 allows those responses to go public. Publishing requires only access to a computer and the Internet.

Globe and Mail: Permissions, ungranted

Globe and Mail: Permissions, ungranted
Gary Michael Dault

APPROPOS AT EDWARD DAY GALLERY $350-$16,000. Until July 27, 952 Queen St. W., Toronto; 416-921-6540Kelly McCray, co-director of Toronto’s Edward Day Gallery, had already begun to organize this summer’s exhibition (a show called Appropos, which was to be about appropriated imagery in art) when he heard about the Conservative government’s introduction, on June 12, of Bill C-61. The aim of the bill is to prohibit the circumventing of digital locks or the removing of Technical Protection Measures (TPMs) on all digital media software.

Michael Geist: NDP Pledges To Make Copyright A By-Election Issue

Michael Geist: NDP Pledges To Make Copyright A By-Election Issue

The federal government is expected to call three by-elections within the next couple of weeks, with the voting set for early September. One of the most hotly contested by-elections will the riding of Guelph, which currently held by the Liberals. All three parties believe they have a shot at this riding – the riding was held by the Conservatives under Brian Mulroney and the NDP views the riding as a possible pickup as well. With that in mind, it is noteworthy that the NDP candidate Tom King today put copyright reform fairness squarely on the table as an election issue.

King, a long-time artist and writer, has pledged to raise Bill C-61, noting that “this type of American approach to copyright law does not benefit Canadian consumers, or Canadian artists.” King is looking to Guelph area residents to put copyright and net neutrality on the election agenda. There is a Guelph Fair Copyright for Canada chapter – if you’re in the area, be sure to get involved to ensure that all candidates are forced to account for their party’s position on copyright.

Northern Sentinel: It’s going to be a long hot summer

Northern Sentinel: It’s going to be a long hot summer

Often, people just don’t like new legislation. They just don’t want to toe the line, obediently.

People, in many cases, are also significantly fed up with some old legislation and they are sick and tired of endless price increases.

Governments of all stripes are finding out about it in spades.

The Canadian government, which seemed to be drifting along safely – with the able assistance of the affable, but seemingly hapless Stephane Dion – has finally seriously stubbed its collective toe with the tabling of new copyright legislation.

Many thousands of upset Canadians are literally foaming at the mouth because it too closely parrots restrictive and unpopular US legislation dictated by large American corporations and lobbyists.

Globe and Mail: Copyright bill stirs debate about privacy, consumer rights

Globe and Mail: Copyright bill stirs debate about privacy, consumer rights
Steve Lambert
THE CANADIAN PRESS

If Canada’s new copyright bill becomes law, will the police be knocking on your door because your 16-year-old son copied the latest Pirates of the Caribbean DVD or downloaded the latest chart-topping single?

The answer will depend on whether the entertainment industry will turn a blind eye to all but the most serious offenders, or whether it will pounce on sections of the proposed law that deal with downloading music, copying CDs and DVDs, and recording TV shows.

“There are some really serious privacy issues that this legislation raises,” said Mira Sundara-Rajan, a professor of copyright law at the University of British Columbia.

Patrick Tanguay: Duceppe Answer On C61

Patrick Tanguay: Duceppe Answer On C61

I got a letter on friday (Word document by itself in an email, no text at all ) answering my letter to Duceppe concerning the crapiness of C-61, I’m wondering about this part :

Cependant, la loi actuelle sur les droits d’auteur est obsolète et n’est pas conforme aux traités signés par le Canada en 1997. Il nous apparaît essentiel de procéder à une révision en profondeur de l’actuelle loi et c’est pourquoi nous entendons voter en faveur du principe du projet de loi de telle sorte qu’il puisse être amendé en profondeur lors des travaux du comité qui suivront. À ce moment, nous aurons toutes les chances de faire valoir nos préoccupations émises plus haut avant une éventuelle réforme de la loi existante.

My translation :

However, the current law on copyright is obsolete and does not conform to the treaties signed by Canada in 1997. It seems essential to us to proceed with an in depth review of the current law which is why we intend to give our approval to the principle of the bill so that it can then be amended in depth during the comitee sessions that will follow. At that moment we will have all opportunities to make our preocupations (cited above) be known before the eventual reform of the current law.

blogTO: There Must be 50 Ways to Kill Your Lover

blogTO: There Must be 50 Ways to Kill Your Lover

My appetite was whet after hearing about the Canadian Conservative Government’s introduction of Bill C-61 and how artists will respond to what is being hailed a police state if the act is passed. Bill 61 is the Harper Government’s attempt at initiating digital locks by ensuring complete control over media that is purchased, rented or downloaded.

The Appropos group, a coalition of artists whose exhibit opened at the Edward Day Gallery on Thursday night is a middle finger to the proposed law displaying imagery of existing popular culture icons.

The work that stole the show was by Diana Thorneycroft appropriately titled There Must be 50 Ways to Kill Your Lover, which portrays the murderous behaviour of popular cartoon characters commenting on the “ubiquitous use of violence as a form of entertainment…particularly in television shows geared towards a younger audience.”

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