Canada Copyrights laws to change :(

[Kanada Kev]

Bev Oda is a twit. She shouldn't be holding her position for a number of reasons ... this is just one (others include refusal to investigate the way CBC spends the money that is supplied by the gov't when she has the paperwork to show her that a lot of it is being wasted)

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/01/11/copyright-canada.html

Copyright law changes could leave consumers vulnerable

Last Updated: Thursday, January 11, 2007 | 9:39 AM ET

The Canadian Press

Ever recorded a television show or a movie so you can watch it later? Or ripped a CD so you can listen to it on your MP3 player?

With changes to Canada's copyright laws expected as early as next month, these mundane 21st century activities could theoretically be open to prosecution — unless the Conservative government steps in with expanded "fair use" or "fair dealing" protections for consumers.

Close observers of the file say all signs point to a new regime that will improve safeguards for major music, film and media companies and artists for unpaid use of their material, but neglect to make exemptions for personal use of copyrighted content.

'About as market interventionist as you can get'

"We're dealing with an industry minister [Maxime Bernier] that's tried to extricate government from the telecom area with a very strong deregulatory focus," said Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.

"Yet the kind of copyright reform that is being contemplated is about as market interventionist as you can get."

Amendments to the Copyright Act are fraught with problems, since there are so many players with contradictory views.

Exacerbating the situation is intense pressure from the United States, where Canada is considered a rogue when it comes to copyright and intellectual property. It still hasn't ratified a 1997 World Intellectual Property Organization copyright treaty.

Sources say the new legislation is ready, but Bernier and Heritage Minister Bev Oda are struggling on final wording. Two of the most controversial issues are called digital rights management and the closely related technological protection measures.

'People just assume it's free'

Graham Henderson of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, one of Canada's top lobbyists for stiffer copyright controls, notes that a variety of digital services have taken off in the United States and started to make up a large percentage of music revenues.

"In Canada, that's not happening and it's not happening because we have a culture here where people just assume it's free," said Henderson.

"It's a big black market effect and so instead of 25 per cent [of the market], it's eight per cent here. People are simply abandoning the marketplace altogether, and they've made the decision they'll just download the music and worry about how the artist gets paid later."

Exemptions for consumers urged

But what does this mean for the consumer who legitimately buys a song or a film, and wants to use it on several different devices?

Consumer advocates, such as Ottawa-based lawyer Howard Knopf, are urging the government to protect Canadians with wide exemptions in the Copyright Act for "fair use."

As well, a group of Canadian musicians, including the Barenaked Ladies and Broken Social Scene, have come out against the technological protection measures, arguing they actually stifle creativity and their relationship with consumers.

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And here's a good link to the story via BoingBoing, that includes contact info for MPs directly involved in this crap:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/11/canadas_about_to_hav.html

Later . . .

Kanada Kev =8)

[StoneMtn]

That's all fine, but it really comes down to enforcing the copyright. Unless companies plan to actually sue individual people to quell soon-to-be-illegal downloads and recordings, legislation won't matter.

I have to wonder whether it is, in fact, economically viable to go after consumers in Canada. There simply aren't a fraction of the number in this country as there are in the USA, so it may not be worth the money to police this. It would also be very difficult to investigate and police such infringement as people making copies of legally-purchased material, for their own use (presuming such a "fair use" exception is not included in the proposed legislation).

Copyright law has always been good at addressing large infringers of copyright, but bad at addressing small infringers. Guys selling bootleg Ralph Lauren shirts on the street are rarely targeted, and the people who buy those shirts are almost never targeted. The factory producing the shirts, though, or the importer bringing them in is usually the target.

Now, the above being said, in the case of music/video downloads, there has been litigation in the USA to go after the end-user for such infringement, as a deterrent to others; so I'm not counting out the RIAA or Jack Valenti just yet.

Interesting; at the very least.