p2pnet - rss feed: Win for Harper? Return of Canadian DMCA
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- If the Conservatives manage to win the election, you can expect copyright-reform legislation to make a reappearance.
The newly revealed party platform devotes a half-page to copyright, “that leaves little doubt that it plans to bring back Bill C-61 and continue to support ACTA,” blogs Michael Geist.
ACTA is short for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement of which, “If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas, what would they look like? This is pretty close,” said Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) counsel David Fewer.
Hollywood front man Dan Glickman and other corporate interests desperately want to see the ACTA become law.
But More than 100 international public interest organizations are demanding officials from Canada, the United States, Mexico, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, all of which are negotiating ACTA, publish immediately the draft text of the agreement, said p2pnet recently.
“Secrecy around the treaty negotiation has fueled concerns that its terms will undermine vital consumer interests,” our story quoted CIPPIC as saying.
Meanwhile, Harper now pledges »»»
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.
Of course, “Bill C-61 did not strike the appropriate balance and tens of thousands of Canadians told Harper just that over the summer,” says Geist, adding:
“Unlike the Liberals, NDP, and Greens, no Conservative has supported the copyright pledge, which now makes sense given this platform commitment.”
Bill C-61, which, “died on the order paper when the election was called,” was released in June to a wave of criticism, says the CBC, adding:
“While a number of organizations that represent copyright holders, such as the Canadian Recording Industry Association and the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, praised the plan, it was roundly criticized as unfair by consumer advocates, artists, privacy watchdogs, education groups and other businesses.
“The legislation proposed hefty fines for people caught downloading copyrighted materials but also made it illegal for consumers to work around locks — known as digital rights management — placed on media.”
Stay tuned.
Michael Geist - Conservatives Promise to Re-Introduce Canadian DMCA, October 7, 2008
p2pnet - Hollywood steps up for ACTA, September 22, 2008
copyright pledge - 50 more sign Geist Copyright Pledge, October 6, 2008
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October 8th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Based on what little we’ve seen of ACTA, it appears that the acronym really expands to the Anti-Consumer Trade Act. If it really restricted itself to counterfeit goods I would probably have no problem with it. It seems to suffer from feature creep.
DRM is a nonsensical technology. Jon’s snake oil reference is very appropriate. The use of cryptography to prevent copying is pure nonsense.
Alice can use cryptography to send a message to Bob. If Charlie intercepts and copies the message he can not read the message because he lacks the decryption key. Bob can read the message because he has the key. Now try to extend this to giving Bob the key so that he can watch the DVD movie but he can’t make copies even though you gave him the key. Did your head explode?
Any law enforcing DRM is a law based on snake oil.
Shutup Johnny and take your MPAA patent medicine.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
DRM is another step for SKYNET.
SKYNET and big brother are coming for you.
Harper,Bush and McCain are hiddenly making SKYNET.SKYNET must be stopped!