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wootah
June 13th, 2008, 11:34 PM
On reddit, and apparently re-stoked as of today:

If you're a Canadian and you care about the future of culture, art, free speech and the Internet, you need to do something about the Canadian version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act:
http://www.reddit.com/info/6n9tn/comments/

Direct link to main article: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/12/canadians-write-to-y.html

The article:


Canadians: write to your MPs about Canada's disastrous new copyright bill
Posted by Cory Doctorow, June 12, 2008 8:19 PM | permalink
If you're a Canadian and you care about the future of culture, art, free speech and the Internet, you need to do something about the Canadian version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced yesterday. This bill was prepared without any consultation with Canadian stakeholders: there was no input from industry, libraries, education, artists' groups, Canadian record labels, technology developers or citizens' groups. Instead, the bill was written to specs handed down by the US trade rep and ambassador (who kept on telling the press about the "assurances" they'd had from the Minister on the bill's features).

The bill makes it flatly illegal to break any kind of digital lock, or to violate terms in one of those absurd end-user license agreements that make you promise to agree to let the record industry kick your teeth in and drink all your beer, just for the dubious privilege of paying for a song at iTunes or watching a video on Viacom's website. This amounts to private law: under Prentice's plan, Parliament would get out of the business of making copyright law, simply enforcing whatever copyright law the entertainment industry itself dreamed up.

This is even worse than the approach the US DMCA took ten years ago, and look where that's got them. Tens of thousands of Americans have been sued, key innovative technology companies have been destroyed, computer scientists have been jailed, and what did it get them? Certainly not an end to infringement -- file-sharing is up in every country in the world. And for all the money the record industry has harvested from tech startups and music fans, not one dime has been paid to an artist.

Here's your chance to tell your Member of Parliament what you think. Kat sez, "Copyright for Canadians ) has a handy tool that makes it easy to email your MP about bill C-61. After you send your email, print it out, address an envelope and send a physical copy, too--no stamp necessary! Here's the address:

House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A0A6" Link (Thanks, Kat!)
The bill itself: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=3570473&File=9

The sugar coated, 'Make you feel happy about passing the Bill', promotional email sent by PR:


The Government of Canada has introduced Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. The proposed legislation is a made-in-Canada approach that balances the needs of Canadian consumers and copyright owners, promoting culture, innovation and competition in the digital age.
What does Bill C-61 mean to Canadians?

Specifically, it includes measures that would:

expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own; and limit the "statutory damages" a court could award for all private use copyright infringements;
implement new rights and protections for copyright holders, tailored to the Internet, to encourage participation in the online economy, as well as stronger legal remedies to address Internet piracy;
clarify the roles and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers related to the copyright content flowing over their network facilities; and
provide photographers with the same rights as other creators.
What Bill C-61 does not do:
it would not empower border agents to seize your iPod or laptop at border crossings, contrary to recent public speculation
What this Bill is not:
it is not a mirror image of U.S. copyright laws. Our Bill is made-in-Canada with different exceptions for educators, consumers and others and brings us into line with more than 60 countries including Japan, France, Germany and Australia
Bill C-61 was introduced in the Commons on June 12, 2008 by Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner.
For more information, please visit the Copyright Reform Process website at www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/home (http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/home)

Thank you for sharing your views on this important matter.


The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P.
Minister of Industry

The Honourable Josée Verner, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women
and Official Languages and Minister for
La Francophonie
and finally, the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6315846683
Please join this group, as it has a LOT of useful information for what to do. This is not a promotion for this group either, I sincerely believe that pointing the spot light at this issue by Linux users will help a lot.

A few issues that will directly affect us are using DVDs, Blu-Ray discs and mp3 playback among others.

At the very least, please take a look all us Canadians. Judge your opinion on the severity of the issue after taking a look at the entire bill, especially the two sections:

Reproduction onto Another Medium or Device (http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Redirector.aspx?RefererUrl=%2fHousePublications%2f Publication.aspx%3fDocid%3d3570473%26File%3d9&File=45#7)
Technological Measures and Rights Management Information (http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Redirector.aspx?RefererUrl=%2fHousePublications%2f Publication.aspx%3fDocid%3d3570473%26File%3d9&File=57#11)


I really think that us going through the crap that the States has had to in regards to the DMCA is a serious issue.

EDIT: Additional Information:

Blog post voicing serious concerns: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3029/125/ (Again, this is not promotional, but rather trying to get more information to people with less effort for the people searching for information)
UBC Blog speaking up: http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/googlescholar/archives/046767.html

original_jamingrit
June 14th, 2008, 01:51 AM
Anyone concerned ought to take the time to e-mail your MP at http://www.copyrightforcanadians.ca/action/firstlook/ . Send more than just the default template, as well.