Meanwhile, in Canada, there’s a storm brewing, and it’s going to get ugly. I urge all Canadians who read this to contact their MPs regarding changes to the Canadian DMCA, Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s no-consultation copyright law.
- Canadian DMCA is worse than the American one: The Canadian DMCA allows every single exception to copyright to be eliminated by adding DRM: whatever the law allows you to do, a corporation can take away, just by using DRM to prevent you from doing it. Breaking DRM is illegal, unless you fit into a tiny, narrow, useless exception for security research. It used to be that Parliament got to write copyright law. Now, it’s Hollywood companies, who get to overrule Parliamentary law with whatever “business rules” they put in their DRM.
- PSA Video on Canada’s new copyright bill, C-61
- Comic book explains the fight over the Canadian DMCA: Canadian copyfightin’ law prof Michael Geist sez, “Gordon Duggan of Appropriation Art has created a remarkable comic book [PDF – 2.8 MB] chronicling the recent battle over Canadian copyright reform. The book includes over 100 links to websites, articles, and other resources as every quote or reference is hyperlinked. It concludes with references to groups actively involved in copyright issues and suggestions for how to get active. This left me absolutely speechless.”
- How Canada’s DMCA will criminalize everyday Canadians: I’ve been hearing from Boing Boing readers who’ve written to the government to protest the bill, and the government line is “We’re not taking away rights, we’re giving them to the public! We’re making it legal to rip CDs and make other personal copies!” (Indeed, Prentice sent a letter to the Toronto Star that says just this). This isn’t mere disingenuousness: it’s a flat-out lie. Yes, the bill will legalize ripping your CDs, so long as there’s no DRM on them, and so long as the EULA doesn’t forbid it. The Canadian DMCA says to rightsholders, “There are no exceptions to copyright law, except the ones you permit. If you want to prohibit a use that Parliament has protected, go right ahead! Just add some DRM or stick it in the EULA, and whatever you say will become the law of the land.”
- Talking points for Canadians speaking to their MPs about the Canadian DMCA: This bill is bad for Canadians for a number of reasons…
Please write/call/email your MP NOW! If the bill passes, our copyright laws will go from decent to worse-than-America’s, with the goal being to strip Canadians of rights will empowering Hollywood. Let’s do something about it. Now.
[Much thanks to BoingBoing, from whom I blatantly copied for this post.]
Filed under: canada, music, politics, teevee/movies, wtf?
Tradescantia Zebrina .:. The Wandering Jew 
I like how you call it worse than America’s as an American, and someone who once intended to study intellectual property law, I agree that our copyright laws are a complete and utter violation of our constitutional rights. Like anyone cares, people in the USA are all about number one. There is no such thing as “Christian Charity” that people talk about so much in this country. Being Jewish, I wouldn’t believe it anyway, but for a faith that is routed in our Torah, I did expect more.