copyright in a digital age
Some of you may be familiar with the US' Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that notorious piece of legislation that allows the RIAA to sue pretty much anyone it feels like. Well folks, Canada is now considering a bill that would amend the Copyright Act to provide similar "protections for artists" (read: money and power for those who exploit them) north of the border.
Although it doesn't seem likely that Canada will implement the DMCA in all of its ISPs-must-disconnect-you-when-the-RIAA-raises-an-eyebrow glory, in its current state it does include an anti-circumvention clause that makes it illegal to work around any encryption of content, including any DVD or copy-protected CDs (most of them, these days). So you could end up paying for a CD, paying a tariff on your CD-R for fair use personal copying, but not being able to legally back up your CD (which falls under fair use; that doesn't change) solely because the label decided they didn't want you to, and applied a DRM scheme to the CD.
If this makes you as mad as it does me, consider getting together with your friends and signing this petition.
For more general information, Michael Geist, a U of Ottawa-based law professor keeps an informative weekly column about Canadian internet privacy and copyright issues.
Check out his article, "Piercing the P2P myths". Apparently, the tariffs we pay on CD-Rs and MP3 players have reimbursed Canadian artists and copyright holders about 10x as much as they could reasonably have lost due to file sharing. Huh. Who knew?
Although it doesn't seem likely that Canada will implement the DMCA in all of its ISPs-must-disconnect-you-when-the-RIAA-raises-an-eyebrow glory, in its current state it does include an anti-circumvention clause that makes it illegal to work around any encryption of content, including any DVD or copy-protected CDs (most of them, these days). So you could end up paying for a CD, paying a tariff on your CD-R for fair use personal copying, but not being able to legally back up your CD (which falls under fair use; that doesn't change) solely because the label decided they didn't want you to, and applied a DRM scheme to the CD.
If this makes you as mad as it does me, consider getting together with your friends and signing this petition.
For more general information, Michael Geist, a U of Ottawa-based law professor keeps an informative weekly column about Canadian internet privacy and copyright issues.
Check out his article, "Piercing the P2P myths". Apparently, the tariffs we pay on CD-Rs and MP3 players have reimbursed Canadian artists and copyright holders about 10x as much as they could reasonably have lost due to file sharing. Huh. Who knew?
