Canada’s DMCA: Yay or Nay?
p2pnet news | Freedom:- This group has 11,989 members.
That’s Michael Geist’s new Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook Group and on
Tuesday, Canadian industry minister Jim Prentice Prentice (right, with friends), “will rise in the House of Commons and introduce Bill C-36 or C-37 which will quickly become better known as the CDMCA,” says Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, one of the prominent Canadians who’s spearheading the fight to stop Canada from being turned into a mini-America where the entertainment cartels rule and copyright protection has become a farce.
“If the initial comments are any indication, he will invoke a series of discouragingly weak justifications for a law that will cause significant harm to education, consumer interests, personal property rights, and free speech,” says Geist, going on:
The House will call it quits for 2007 a day or two later. When MPs return in late January, Prentice will bet that Copyright’s 10K will have moved on to other things.
Prentice is wrong. Copyright’s 10K will be 20K or 30K or more. It will include Canadians from all walks of life such as business people, teachers, librarians, musicians, writers, technologists, seniors, students, and soccer moms. It will include Canadians from all political parties and all 308 ridings. Something exceptional happened this past week. Fair copyright in Canada found its voice. It will be silent no more.
Cost of singing carols
Recently, SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) decided hairdressers, here, were having things little too easy. So they went after them for playing music to their customers without a SOCAN licence.
But that was nothing new. In 2004, SOCAN lit after dentists, among others, for committing the same crime.
Nor is North American the only area thus targeted.
In Manchester, England, “Staff at historic Dam House in Astley, part of which is now a tearoom, were shocked last year when a Performing Rights Society officer visited and told them they needed a licence for staff to listen to a radio in the kitchen,” says WiganToday.com, going on:
“They were even more surprised when quizzed about what other activities they allowed on the premises and were stunned to be told their annual carol concert would be taken into account when the cost of their licence was calculated.”
They wouldn’t have been so shocked if they’d been familiar with a case featuring Kwik-Fit, a UK car repair firm which allowed its employees to listen to music att work —- only to be similarly accused of infringing music copyrights.
Says Geist on the Facebook site:
The Canadian government is about to introduce new copyright legislation that will be a complete sell-out to U.S. government and lobbyist demands. The new Canadian legislation will likely mirror the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act with strong anti-circumvention legislation that goes far beyond what is needed to comply with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet treaties. Moreover, it will not address the issues that concern millions of Canadians. For example, the Conservatives’ promise to eliminate the private copying levy will likely be abandoned. There will be no flexible fair dealing. No parody exception. No time shifting exception. No device shifting exception. No expanded backup provision. Nothing that focuses on the issues of the ordinary Canadian.
Instead, the government will choose locks over learning, property over privacy, enforcement over education, (law)suits over security, lobbyists over librarians, and U.S. policy over a “Canadian-made” solution.
And on Danielle Dennie’s Librarian Activist, “As I’m sure most have you have heard, the Canadian Government is planning on pushing through some new copyright legislation to conform with the WIPO treaties that is going to be supposedly stricter than the DMCA,” posts writer and musician David Jackson.
He goes on:
As I’m sure most have you have heard, the Canadian Government is planning on pushing through some new copyright legislation to conform with the WIPO treaties that is going to be supposedly stricter than the DMCA. There are some really serious issues about this legislation that is likely to affect all of us as students, researchers, librarians and journalists, and as citizens in terms of fair use, circumvention, parody, downloading, digital rights management, and so on.
Three things bother me specifically about this. The first is the Government’s general refusal to answer questions clearly about what the legislation is going to entail, and its refusal to consult the public adequately.
The second involves the industry and trading partners push that is the supposed reason behind this sudden eagerness to table new copyright legislation. Intense lobbying by the Canadian Recording Industry Association which represents the ‘big four’ record labels (sony, universal, emi, and warner) who make up 75% of the global music industry, US ambassador David Wilkins, are all supposedly the big players pushing for reform.
Third, the DMCA is strict enough, as are the WIPO provisions, yet the government is planning to implement a copyright act that goes well beyond the requirements set out by WIPO itself. Why is this? Canada has a pretty strict and fairly sensible copyright legislation already.
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada is opposed to reform as it stands.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers is questioning whether or not this is the right way to go. Check out Excess Copyright as well.
Canadian musicians are opposed to this version of copyright.
I believe quite strongly that when multinational corporations begin to make Canadian legislation there is something seriously wrong with how things are being done. I also believe that when the public is shut out of the process of law making by the government we are setting a dangerous precedent.
I urge you to take action and let the government know that this is not acceptable for copyright reform and not acceptable for good governance.
Links to sample and form letters, MP addresses, and other important government contacts can be found here.
A really great breakdown at what is at stake by Wayne Macphail can be found here.
Michael Geist’s excellent blog that will keep you up to date on these issues like no other is here.
Canadian Library Associations page on Copyright (though I can’t seem to find a position on the proposed legislation. Let me know if you have it:
Finally, if I haven’t convinced you, maybe Brian the Frog will.
Stay tuned.
Also See:
Michael Geist – Copyright’s 10K, December 9, 2007
playing music to their customers – SOCAN threatens p2pnet. Again, August 2, 2007
lit after dentists – Just say Ahhhhhh, July 26, 2004
WiganToday.com – Charity hit with carol copyright bill, December 7, 2007
infringing music copyrights – Music at work? Illegal!, October 9, 2007
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December 10th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Who’s in Toronto? Maybe we should go down on Front Street and rally in front of the CBC Headquarters and make an attempt to *finally* get some national news coverage with this.