CBC-Copyright debate turns ugly

CBC- Copyright debate turns ugly
Heritage minister stirs hornet’s nest with ‘radical extremist’ comments
By Peter Nowak – CBC News – June 24, 2010

Blayne Haggart doesn’t consider himself a “radical extremist,” which is why he’s chafing at possibly being labelled as such by Heritage Minister James Moore.

The 37-year-old Ottawa native thinks there are many positives in Bill C-32, the copyright reform legislation unveiled by Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement earlier this month. But he says it also has a key flaw — it would make the breaking of any digital lock illegal, which could trump all the other positive provisions.

On his Orangespace blog, Haggart wrote that he doesn’t believe the government’s rationale for stronger copyright protection in general and the digital lock provision specifically — that they are essential to creative production — is supported by much evidence. He hopes that Bill C-32 can be modified and fixed when the parliamentary process begins in the fall.

Voicing such concerns, though, may brand him a radical extremist under Moore’s definition.

Read more

Copyright Reform Needs Made in Canada Approach

Vancouver Sun- Copyright Reform Needs Made in Canada Approach
By Kashif Admed and Eric Miller – Canwest News Service – June 11, 2010

Industry Minister Tony Clement knows only one way to write copyright laws for the country: heavyhandedly.

Although the Conservative-backed Bill C-32 provides a much needed modernization to Canadian copyright legislation, the proposed law contains serious flaws and undue restrictions on consumer freedom.

In an effort to be perceived as balanced, the act purports to expand consumer rights, but instead provides more favourable treatment to intellectual property holders.

While Canadians would be allowed to record programs and music for personal use, and educators would have the ability to access and copy online material for teaching purposes, these exceptions to infringement are rendered virtually ineffective by other provisions in the bill.

Michael Geist – The Canadian Copyright Bill: Flawed But Fixable

Michael Geist: The Canadian Copyright Bill: Flawed But Fixable

This afternoon, the government introduced the Copyright Modernization Act (or Bill C-32), the long-awaited copyright reform bill [the bill is not yet online, but I attended the media lockup in Montreal]. It is nearly two years since C-61 was introduced and nearly a year since the national copyright consultation, yet discouragingly some things have not changed. As I reported several weeks ago, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore won the internal fight over Industry Minister Tony Clement for a repeat of C-61’s digital lock provisions and against a flexible fair dealing approach and today’s bill reflects those policy victories.

Michael Geist: Government May Be Altering Copyright Submissions…

Michael Geist: Government May Be Altering Copyright Submissions Without Consent

The copyright consultation has one of its biggest days today with a major town hall in Toronto, a roundtable hours before, and increased media coverage. The consultation has attracted growing attention in recent weeks as the chart on submissions below demonstrates. There are now over 3,000 submissions with the overwhelming majority of them speaking out against Bill C-61, anti-circumvention rules, and for stronger fair dealing (earlier charts here, here, and here).

Unfortunately, the chart is not entirely accurate in part because the government has effectively been altering some of the submissions. This issue has arisen because of the large number of Canadians that have chosen to use the CCER submission form service. The service allows anyone to submit their comments by either using a form letter or modifying the content as they see fit. The government has decided to treat virtually all submissions from the CCER IP address as the form letter and simply added the relevant name to a single copy of the letter (the chart below reflects the fact that each letter is, in fact, an individual submission. Note that this is not limited to CCER, the government is doing the same thing for a form letter from the Canadian Private Copying Collective). I am reliably told that 10 to 20 percent of people who use the CCER site modify their submissions. The government’s approach has wiped out those modifications entirely by adding names to a letter that they did not sign.

Michael Geist: SpeakOutOnCopyright.ca Launches…

Michael Geist: SpeakOutOnCopyright.ca Launches

To help facilitate greater participation throughout the consultation process, today I am launching SpeakOutOnCopyright.ca. The site features dozens of posts and videos on Canadian copyright law, the Twitter #copycon stream, information on Bill C-61, and a Take Action page that highlights the ways individual Canadians can speak out on copyright.

Michael Geist: Conservatives Promise to Re-Introduce Canadian DMCA

Michael Geist: Conservatives Promise to Re-Introduce Canadian DMCA

The Conservative Party has released its platform and it devotes a half-page to copyright that leaves little doubt that it plans to bring back Bill C-61 and continue to support ACTA. According to the platform:

A re-elected Conservative Government led by Stephen Harper will reintroduce federal copyright legislation that strikes the appropriate balance among the rights of musicians, artists, programmers and other creators and brings Canada’s intellectual property protection in line with that of other industrialized countries, but also protects consumers who want to access copyright works for their personal use. We will also introduce tougher laws on counterfeiting and piracy and give our customs and law enforcement services the resources to enforce them. This will protect consumers from phoney and sometimes dangerous products that are passed off as reliable brand-name goods.

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.

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.

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.

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