Canadian DMCA

The Canadian DMCA: A Betrayal

Because in a country whose Supreme Court of Canada has emphasized the importance of balance between creators rights and user rights, the Canadian DMCA eviscerates user rights in the digital environment by virtually eliminating fair dealing. Under this bill, the right to copy for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, and news reporting virtually disappears if the underlying content is digitally locked.

Because in a country that rightly promotes the importance of education, the Canadian DMCA erects new barriers for teachers, students, and schools at every level who now face the prospect of infringement claims if they want to teach using digital media.

Because in a country that prioritizes privacy, the Canadian DMCA will render it virtually impossible to protect against the invasion of privacy by digital media companies. The bill includes an exemption for those that circumvent digital locks to protect their privacy, yet renders the tools needed to circumvent illegal. In other words, the bill gives Canadians the right to protect their privacy but prohibits the tools needed to do so.

Made-in-America copyright law

...If you record a TV show on a digital video recorder, the show must be deleted immediately after you watch it. It will become illegal to maintain a library of recordings or to lend copied material to family or friends.

I forgot that Bill C-61 was being presented while I was out of the country. It's worse than I had feared.

Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

We don't want to sue our fans

It's basically a week off for basement development, so I'll get a chance to peek out and see what's happening in the real world.

Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sum 41, Sloan, and other prominent Canadian artists have formed the Canadian Music Creators Coalition to make their voices heard on copyright laws and politics.

Record companies and music publishers are not our enemies, but let's be clear: lobbyists for major labels are looking out for their shareholders, and seldom speak for Canadian artists. Legislative proposals that would facilitate lawsuits against our fans or increase the labels'’ control over the enjoyment of music are made not in our names, but on behalf of the labels' foreign parent companies.

And, of course, Dr. Geist has some commentary.

CRIA study shows P2P not as bad as they've said

CRIA's Own Study Counters P2P Claims

In summary, CRIA's own research now concludes that P2P downloading constitutes less than one-third of the music on downloaders' computers, that P2P users frequently try music on P2P services before they buy, that the largest P2P downloader demographic is also the largest music buying demographic, and that reduced purchasing has little to do with the availability of music on P2P services. I've argued many of these same things, but now you don't have to take my word for it; you can take it from the record labels themselves.

Race cars, Mobsters, and Pirates

What distracted me today:

• A driver's view video from a race car on a mountain road. By the way, that's definitely not an Audi R8 as the video is titled, it's probably a Norma M20. What a ride.
• What do a totaled million dollar Ferrari, bankrupt portable game company, exaggerated California bus police force, and the Swedish Mafia of Uppsala have in common? Apparently one Stefan Eriksson. What a story.
• And the film industry continues to blame the drop in theater revenue on pirates. What a shame.

My last Sony post (I hope)

I didn't think Sony could screw this situation up anymore, but they have. It turns out their "fix" they've given out for the DRM actually introduces some really bad security holes to your computer.

Boycott Sony

I don't feel like quite the crackpot now that Wired is saying Boycott Sony as well. I wonder if there will be any implications with advertising sales to Sony for my favorite magazine?

The Sony fallout

The reaction was swift to the evil Sony DRM tactic I mentioned. You know, the one where they stop CD copying by secretly putting a "rootkit" program on your computer that forces their music player and leaves you open to viruses and can't be removed, except it doesn't even stop pirates because it only affects Windows?

• Italy, California, New York are the first to sue
• Microsoft updates their software to fight it
• Department of Homeland Security comes out against it
• A virus is released that exploits it
• Sony backs down, but won't apologize
• Sony doesn't learn

The ugly side of DRM (is there any other side?)

DRM Crippled CD: A bizarre tale in 4 parts

As is typical with DRM, the purchaser is blocked from various legal activities like copying the music to his iPod or making a backup, yet a technical savvy pirate can easily bypass the protection. In other words the technology harms the average consumer while not stopping the real threat. This particular story has some even better details like the band didn't want this technology and the argument that it's not about piracy at all, but just Sony trying to interfere with people using the competition: Apple's iPod.

This is one of the reasons I have become very anti-Sony. Yes, I have a big Sony TV at home, but that's from 1999, back when I was a Sony fan. The DRM, the stubborn refusal to accept standard technology, baring major corporate changes I'll never buy a Sony product again.

File sharing is good for the music industry

But they're to stubborn and short-sighted to accept it. Michael Geist's latest post has some details: More Music Industry Myths Exposed

The UK study finds that music file sharers buy nearly five times more music from services such as iTunes than do non-file sharers.

Canada's new copyright bill

Yesterday as expected Canada got some new copyright legislation. The bill has some good and some bad, but overall is more on the side of record labels and less on the side of individuals. Law professor Michael Geist provides a nice summary of the reactions and his more detailed first reaction. My biggest complaint is we still have that tax on blank media. Even if I buy a blank CD to store some photos, a chunk of what I paid goes to some musician. Are you unhappy about that too? The Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access has info on the ministers to contact

Did you know that the music industry already charges you a levy on most recordable media that you buy, like blank CDs, minidisks, and audio-cassettes? Plus GST and PST!

Satellite radio

The CRTC authorizes Canada 's first three subscription radio services Finally. The application was only made when, 2003? Oh well, better late than never. Of course there are Canadian content rules, but if they have to be there then they seem reasonable to me. The best part, though, was that the CRTC smartly rejected the Canadian recording industry request for copy protection. The CRIA is as scared and confused as their American counterparts.

Cloning cells, Suing swappers, Fixing fences

• Koreans Report Ease in Cloning for Stem Cells. Great news. But no surprise it's happening in Asia, people here in North America who are fighting stem cell research are seeing to that.
• Cdn. record labels lose appeal in swapping case. Good news. But the door is still open to lawsuits, it's just a smaller door and you have to jiggle the lock.
• Is my fence sinking? We've had some heavy rain and a couple fence posts look like they've dropped an inch or so. Should be easy to fix, I haven't trimmed the post tops yet so I'll just unscrew the 2x4s on the lower side and screw them in at a higher point. With a little help from my car jack, it should be a one man job.

Awesome, no broadcast flag

Court Nixes 'Broadcast Flag'

This is extraordinary victory for fair use and innovation.

Here's another article with some background.

Green Day: Burn our CDs

So Green Day is selling CD-Rs (blank CDs) with the artwork printed on it so you can download and burn their music onto them. Very cool.

Fair use & free speech

Earlier I posted a link to this hilarious cartoon. It's a witty political commentary where actors impersonating US presidential Bush & Kerry sing "This Land is Your Land" with different lyrics.

The parody was written by Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, brothers and business partners who run a small animation studio out of a warehouse in Santa Monica, Calif. "We do these things as a labor of love," Evan Spiridellis, 30, said in a phone interview this week. He thinks the appeal stems from the even-handed approach of the film -- Bush and Kerry get equal time and are equally ridiculed.

Well Ludlow Music, owners of the rights to the original song, are threatening to sue the brothers.

According to CNN, the publisher thinks the animation "threatens to corrupt Guthrie's classic—an icon of Americana—by tying it to a political joke; upon hearing the music people would think about the yucks, not Guthrie's unifying message.

*GAG* Thankfully the defenders of freedom, the EFF (who I support) are going to court to defend the brothers. Here's hoping humor and common sense wins!

No ISP royalties

Thank you supreme court!

In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the court ruled that although ISPs provide the hardware and technology, they aren't responsible for what people download.

Top court rules ISPs not liable for royalties The music companies wanted the big providers like Telus, Bell, Sprint, and AOL to pay because some people download music from the Internet. I hate this sort of "punish everyone, guilty or not" mentality like we currently have on blank media. Buy a 30 cent blank CD in Canada and 21 cents goes to some musician no matter what that CD is for. *sigh*

DRM bad

Digital Rights Management is technology that limits what you can do with content you have purchased. Entertainment companies want it everywhere. This article explains why it's bad. BTW, I'm a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit that fights for our rights and freedoms.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was created to defend our rights to think, speak, and share our ideas, thoughts, and needs using new technologies, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web. EFF is the first to identify threats to our basic rights online and to advocate on behalf of free expression in the digital age.