i receive email notifications as an actra member, they're usually pretty dull but not right now. actra (association of canadian television and radio artists) is canada's sag. actra is on strike pending a contract settlement with the cftpa (production, the money guys). the production end of the business wants to roll back residual agreements, pay scales and all manner of stupidity. but this slays me. in the dawning days of the 21st century, they have the snarling gall to demand that we give away performance royalties in every, single existing new media. that's like telling composers that we can strike a deal where you still get royalties from player piano reels, as long as you sign away your rights to that new fangled radio machine. stunning.
so. here we are. i suppose it would be mean to note that many of the organizations, companies and bodies that comprise cftpa might also be among the "rights holders" playing check book footsie with bev oda. don't you just love those kindly media conglomerates that are helping the new government's new heritage minister to draft our new copyright laws? that would be the same cast of bean counters that call you a pirate for copying digital entertainments. these are the very same folks that will rend their armani suits and nearly pull a thread whining about how they're protecting the artists. here's how they protect us artists. they want to steal away our livelihoods.
the vast majority of actors work very infrequently. most of us have no clout. we get negotiated scale and we are damned happy when we get it. when the director tells you that your part is wrapped, you're unemployed. and there's no guarantee you'll be working again soon. residual performance royalties often don't amount to a great deal of cash but they can be the difference between indoor and outdoor living for an aging performer. not only do they want to screw the performers for their future efforts, they want a blank slate to ravage the vaults and exploit our past efforts. they want to have our cake and eat yours too. chances are, if you consume digital media on a mobile device, you pay for the privilege. then you get all the ads. why the only thing better than two streams of black, is to cut off a stream of red. you pay for the basic service, you pay for content, advertisers pay to interupt the flow of your content and the people that ARE the content get left out of the deal.
protect the artists my ass, here's an excerpt of a notice i got today:
"CFTPA's 1st offer: internet for free
ACTRA: no thanks
CFTPA's 2nd offer: internet for $5.65 a year
ACTRA: um, no thanks
The CFTPA has proposed that ACTRA agree to assign internet rights without any
revenue-sharing, for five years, in return for a 1% annual fee.
ACTRA's daily minimum fee is $565.
That's $5.65 a year, for five years.
What does CFTPA want for this?
Worldwide distribution of professional performers' work in "any new media now
known" including websites, wireless, IP television, handhelds, iPods, cell
phones, and so on.
No revenues would be shared with performers during those five years.
These terms would apply to every production ever produced in the past 64 years.
The CFTPA also proposed that performers accept a 0% pay increase in the first
year of the agreement, in order to pay for these fees.
Performers would fund the $5.65 fee out of the pay increase they would otherwise
receive. And then accept zero revenue sharing on internet distribution for five
years.
ACTRA rejects this proposal.
This proposal, for all intents and purposes, is still "internet for free."
--
these rude bastards are just drunk on greed. what a fucking insult.
Showing posts with label bev oda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bev oda. Show all posts
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
letter to my member of parliament
here is an email i sent to my m.p., karen redman, recently appointed caucus whip of her majesty's loyal opposition. i spoke at some length with ms. redman during the last election, i blogged about that conversation back here.
Dear Ms. Redman,
During the last Federal election you knocked on my door in the Victoria School Village. You were gracious enough to engage me in a discussion of several issues. One area of concern I had was with copyright reform. At the time, I addressed the unfortunate propensity of your former colleague Sarmite Bulte to accept funding from multi-national entertainment conglomerates. I was active in lending my voice to those condemning her poor choice of sugar daddies. Conservative Heritage Minister Bev Oda has also sought and accepted large sums of money from major, non-Canadian copyright holders in the entertainment industry. Only a public shaming has stopped yet another fundraiser on her behalf.
In recent months, notable Canadian artists and entertainment companies have spoken out against the excessive and over reaching attempts to cripple Canadain copyright law, scuttle fair use and fair dealing provisions and open the doors to endless litigation against and at the expense of Canadian consumers. Among the casualties are the creators of documentaries. The following link is a chilling and sad tale of abuse. As I am sure you know, the National Film Board of Canada is an organiztion that has won numerous awards around the world. The NFB has developed an international reputation for producing, supporting and maintaining Canadian works that fall outside the mainstream of entertainment. I would go so far as to say that the NFB is a signal repository and bulwark of Canadian heritage and culture.
We as a nation are facing the loss of our documentary heritage as copyright clearance fees and renewals sky rocket in cost. Important works are being locked away, never to be seen again. This is a crime against our nation, our cultures and heritage. I implore you to examine this learned paper and raise your voice in Parliament against this trend that dimishes our great nation.
Canada's lost documentaries.
I realize that copyright is a dry and unexciting area but it is vital. Recently, artists of both humble and international repute have taken a stance against the litigious and extranational interests working to undermine Canada's history of freedom of expression and fair use. The Barenaked Ladies have been champions of this cause. The CRIA, an organization that falsely purports to represent the interests of Canadian artists, has been abandoned by virtually all of this nation's major recording companies. Notably Nettwerk, home to Sarah McLaughlin, Avril Levigne and other high profile Canadian artists has walked out on CRIA. The truth is that CRIA represents the interests of Sony, BMG, Universal Music Group, EMI and the the world's largest and most notorious anti-consumeer conglomerates. Their practice of suing children and families is disturbing. These are the people from whom Bev Oda receives very large cheques. These are the people who are supposed to be regulated by the Heritage Minister. These are the people who are trying to buy legislation in our Parliament.
Canadian law professor Michael Geist has been a key in the battle to protect Canadian law from rapacious interests. I urge you to visit his site, http://www.michaelgeist.ca/. Canadian author Cory Doctorow has also worked tirelessly to document incursions against the reasonable and fair use of copyright material. He is one of the bloggers at http://www.boingboing.net (which offers a treasure trove of fun and interesting articles on all manner of art, invention and culture).
In the interest of disclosure, I am a Canadian creator of original works of music, literature and art. I am a member of SOCAN and ACTRA. As a working artist I see this as a vital issue for the future of Canadian art, artists, culture and education. I sincerely hope that you can find the time to look into these areas, raise the issues in caucus and on the floor of the house.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing your position on these matters.
Yours sincerely,
Lindsay Stewart
i sent this to her offices on december 8, 2006. to date, i have received no response. one of my new hobbies is going to be writing letters to the people that we elected to look after our interests, on our behalf and on our account. i will be posting the text of such letters and i encourage everyone to get involved in this exciting new hobby. i like to call it participatory democracy. when these posts occur, please feel free to copy, alter and personalize the wording for your own letters to parliament. when writing to your elected representatives, always be polite, stress your concerns and ask them to respond. if you blog, post your letters and post their responses, should they decide to write back. i'll be posting resources as i get them organized.
cheers
Dear Ms. Redman,
During the last Federal election you knocked on my door in the Victoria School Village. You were gracious enough to engage me in a discussion of several issues. One area of concern I had was with copyright reform. At the time, I addressed the unfortunate propensity of your former colleague Sarmite Bulte to accept funding from multi-national entertainment conglomerates. I was active in lending my voice to those condemning her poor choice of sugar daddies. Conservative Heritage Minister Bev Oda has also sought and accepted large sums of money from major, non-Canadian copyright holders in the entertainment industry. Only a public shaming has stopped yet another fundraiser on her behalf.
In recent months, notable Canadian artists and entertainment companies have spoken out against the excessive and over reaching attempts to cripple Canadain copyright law, scuttle fair use and fair dealing provisions and open the doors to endless litigation against and at the expense of Canadian consumers. Among the casualties are the creators of documentaries. The following link is a chilling and sad tale of abuse. As I am sure you know, the National Film Board of Canada is an organiztion that has won numerous awards around the world. The NFB has developed an international reputation for producing, supporting and maintaining Canadian works that fall outside the mainstream of entertainment. I would go so far as to say that the NFB is a signal repository and bulwark of Canadian heritage and culture.
We as a nation are facing the loss of our documentary heritage as copyright clearance fees and renewals sky rocket in cost. Important works are being locked away, never to be seen again. This is a crime against our nation, our cultures and heritage. I implore you to examine this learned paper and raise your voice in Parliament against this trend that dimishes our great nation.
Canada's lost documentaries.
I realize that copyright is a dry and unexciting area but it is vital. Recently, artists of both humble and international repute have taken a stance against the litigious and extranational interests working to undermine Canada's history of freedom of expression and fair use. The Barenaked Ladies have been champions of this cause. The CRIA, an organization that falsely purports to represent the interests of Canadian artists, has been abandoned by virtually all of this nation's major recording companies. Notably Nettwerk, home to Sarah McLaughlin, Avril Levigne and other high profile Canadian artists has walked out on CRIA. The truth is that CRIA represents the interests of Sony, BMG, Universal Music Group, EMI and the the world's largest and most notorious anti-consumeer conglomerates. Their practice of suing children and families is disturbing. These are the people from whom Bev Oda receives very large cheques. These are the people who are supposed to be regulated by the Heritage Minister. These are the people who are trying to buy legislation in our Parliament.
Canadian law professor Michael Geist has been a key in the battle to protect Canadian law from rapacious interests. I urge you to visit his site, http://www.michaelgeist.ca/. Canadian author Cory Doctorow has also worked tirelessly to document incursions against the reasonable and fair use of copyright material. He is one of the bloggers at http://www.boingboing.net (which offers a treasure trove of fun and interesting articles on all manner of art, invention and culture).
In the interest of disclosure, I am a Canadian creator of original works of music, literature and art. I am a member of SOCAN and ACTRA. As a working artist I see this as a vital issue for the future of Canadian art, artists, culture and education. I sincerely hope that you can find the time to look into these areas, raise the issues in caucus and on the floor of the house.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing your position on these matters.
Yours sincerely,
Lindsay Stewart
i sent this to her offices on december 8, 2006. to date, i have received no response. one of my new hobbies is going to be writing letters to the people that we elected to look after our interests, on our behalf and on our account. i will be posting the text of such letters and i encourage everyone to get involved in this exciting new hobby. i like to call it participatory democracy. when these posts occur, please feel free to copy, alter and personalize the wording for your own letters to parliament. when writing to your elected representatives, always be polite, stress your concerns and ask them to respond. if you blog, post your letters and post their responses, should they decide to write back. i'll be posting resources as i get them organized.
cheers
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
bev oda, minister of heritage and chauffeurs
for whom the register tolls.
it must be nice to be the heritage minister. all those powerful, glamourous, short term friends. and they're so generous. it's like being the prettiest flower at the prom. how exciting. how things change.
and now, i digress.
back in the hairspray haze of the 80s, i played in the post-punk basement bars and sleaze pits of southern ontario. good times, served weird. the reagan/thatcher era spawned a vibrant and articulate underground arts opposition. with the advent of micro-tours, indie labels and alternative distribution networks taking root, with the zines and word of mouth buzz, more obscure artists began to find an audience. for a golden moment, before muchmusic, video was a wild new field. the most interesting artists and the most challenging visuals got the most airplay. technology was on the march and things were changing.
used record stores across the country offered a tenuous but promising opportunity to reach new markets and college radio would play cassettes (my band's tape even charted on ckms-fm). with home 4-track recording anybody could take their shot. be a star. and maybe you didn't need warner bros. to do it. it was a great time, full of energy with a sense that anything could happen. though a lot of it was also pretty blurry as i recall. faced with increasingly sophisticated home audio and video recording, the big media industries predictably responded by buying everyone that could be bought and acting like dicks to everyone else. i guess some things don't change so much, after all.
the poor, weeping billionaires got together and hornswoggled the canadian government into levying a tax on all blank media. cassette, dat, vhs, cdr, dvdr, all of it. that tax goes to the big media and rights organizations to compensate the poor kids for all the loot they claim to lose to home recording. that is why it is legal to copy things from one format to another in canada, you paid for the right. their sales pitch and shiny justification? it was to protect the artists. sound familiar?
years pass and millions collect, funny, i've never heard of those blank media funds being disbursed to any artists. and i'm a member of one of the organizations holding the purse. they see you, sitting there reading, as a crook. you are a pirate. and for the sake of the artist (uh huh), big media is looking to get in your business. the riaa and lap dog, branch office proxy cria have brought their considerable weight to bear, lobbying and trying to pay for influence on impending revisions of intellectual property law.
that's why it is so nice to be heritage minister. hell, that's why it is nice to even be in the running for the portfolio. the so called rights holders, international music, movie, videogame and software conglomerates, poured money, celebrities and shmooze into the parkdale riding of liberal sarmite bulte during the last federal election. fundraisers and expensive plates were had by all. well except the artists, the consumers and constituents but the important people were happy.
meanwhile, in the mysterious west, the tinkle of silver coins in a conservative cup. bev oda, touted as the cons choice for the portfolio, also received substantial campaign funding. if you bet on every horse in the race, you always win. bev oda is heritage minister. hooray! we won. thank goodness the millionaires and their stock holders are there to protect the artists. from you.
along the way, while the palm greasers were busy putting the same shoe on the other foot, the artists tried to have their say. the bare naked ladies tried to talk sense to oda and were accorded the equivalent of a photo op and a pat on the head, thanks for coming. but now with these intertube things other people saw what was at stake. private citizens, arts lovers, consumers and privacy advocates began to grumble and the arts community stepped up. the cria (canadian recording industry association)is the front group for sony, bmg, emi and universal music group in canada. the whole cartel. as the shape of potential legislation became clearer the canadian music industry abandoned the cria. nettwork, home to sarah, avril and a roster of international names, anthem, home to rush and max webster and the other major canadian independent labels walked.
artists are fed up with having their fans harassed, threatened and sued. nobody wants to buy broken hardware, malicious software or enter into abusive end user license agreements and non-negotiated contracts. these huge corporations that market cultural materials, failed to adapt to shifts in culture. they are steam engine salesmen trying to insist that internal combustion engines be fitted with boilers and that they should take a cut off the top. if we, as citizens and consumers of cultural products, don't make ourselves heard, we'll have no-one to blame but ourselves.
as a canadian and a working artist, i believe we have a lot to be proud of and a lot that we need to protect. i've always been immensely proud of the nfb. the national film board is a sterling example of the good that can be done with government support of the arts. the nfb is revered around the world for the high quality and integrity of the work, groundbreaking animation, award winning documentaries and a living library of our heritage and cultures. sadly, the nfb is bleeding the work and passion of canadian filmmakers into shadows and dust. documentaries are being pulled from circulation. important works, flickering strips of our spirit and nationhood, disappearing. lost to the expense of rights maintenance.
bev oda is in conflict of interest. she can not honestly claim to represent us, her constituents or the interests of canadian heritage in these matters. we have to decide to protect our existing cultural works and foster the growth of new, original canadian work in all fields of the arts. we need to protect and insist on protection of unfettered access to the net and bandwidth neutrality. we need to secure our data privacy from over reaching business and governmental interests. if we do not act we allow the gates to slam shut on our past and diminish our access to the future. even if you aren't a technophile, your interests, your rights, privacy and security are at risk. all for the greed of a few short sighted monopolists and their paid political lackeys.
if you don't want big media companies, telcos and governments snooping though your hard drives, suing your niece and selling bandwidth and baud rate to the biggest advertiser, write to your member of parliament. demand accountability from bev oda, insist that artists be invited to the table to re-negotiate copyright and intellectual property legislation. how dare these duplication and distribution businesses and their best friend the minister claim to speak on behalf of the artists. large foreign business concerns have enjoyed remarkable access to the offices of the minister. it is only fair that the true rights holders, the artists and creators be heard. it is after all, their work, their passion and their lives that are being bartered over.
maybe we should ask the canadian musical community how their rights should be dealt with. oh that's just silly. what could a bunch of scruffy musicians know about their own best interests?
for more information, please visit boing boing and follow the bouncing oda links. canadian science fiction great, cory doctorow has been tracking bev oda and the copyfight here in canada and works hard to educate. he also leads by example. his works are published under the creative commons. cory has an excellent new collection of short stories called overclocked available. you can read the stories free online. if you like them, you can buy the treeware version or find your own way to share and appreciate what is great work by a canadian author.
michael geist is an ottawa law professor who has been stalwart in tracking the back room deals and dollars flow of the corporate assault on canadian copyright. no one knows the minutiae of the issues better than michael. digital-copyright.ca is another excellent resource.
and finally, bev oda, gives a harper-rific example of that transparency and accountability. $5,500 for limos at the juno awards. your new canadian government, because selfishness and greed aren't partisan.
it must be nice to be the heritage minister. all those powerful, glamourous, short term friends. and they're so generous. it's like being the prettiest flower at the prom. how exciting. how things change.
and now, i digress.
back in the hairspray haze of the 80s, i played in the post-punk basement bars and sleaze pits of southern ontario. good times, served weird. the reagan/thatcher era spawned a vibrant and articulate underground arts opposition. with the advent of micro-tours, indie labels and alternative distribution networks taking root, with the zines and word of mouth buzz, more obscure artists began to find an audience. for a golden moment, before muchmusic, video was a wild new field. the most interesting artists and the most challenging visuals got the most airplay. technology was on the march and things were changing.
used record stores across the country offered a tenuous but promising opportunity to reach new markets and college radio would play cassettes (my band's tape even charted on ckms-fm). with home 4-track recording anybody could take their shot. be a star. and maybe you didn't need warner bros. to do it. it was a great time, full of energy with a sense that anything could happen. though a lot of it was also pretty blurry as i recall. faced with increasingly sophisticated home audio and video recording, the big media industries predictably responded by buying everyone that could be bought and acting like dicks to everyone else. i guess some things don't change so much, after all.
the poor, weeping billionaires got together and hornswoggled the canadian government into levying a tax on all blank media. cassette, dat, vhs, cdr, dvdr, all of it. that tax goes to the big media and rights organizations to compensate the poor kids for all the loot they claim to lose to home recording. that is why it is legal to copy things from one format to another in canada, you paid for the right. their sales pitch and shiny justification? it was to protect the artists. sound familiar?
years pass and millions collect, funny, i've never heard of those blank media funds being disbursed to any artists. and i'm a member of one of the organizations holding the purse. they see you, sitting there reading, as a crook. you are a pirate. and for the sake of the artist (uh huh), big media is looking to get in your business. the riaa and lap dog, branch office proxy cria have brought their considerable weight to bear, lobbying and trying to pay for influence on impending revisions of intellectual property law.
that's why it is so nice to be heritage minister. hell, that's why it is nice to even be in the running for the portfolio. the so called rights holders, international music, movie, videogame and software conglomerates, poured money, celebrities and shmooze into the parkdale riding of liberal sarmite bulte during the last federal election. fundraisers and expensive plates were had by all. well except the artists, the consumers and constituents but the important people were happy.
meanwhile, in the mysterious west, the tinkle of silver coins in a conservative cup. bev oda, touted as the cons choice for the portfolio, also received substantial campaign funding. if you bet on every horse in the race, you always win. bev oda is heritage minister. hooray! we won. thank goodness the millionaires and their stock holders are there to protect the artists. from you.
along the way, while the palm greasers were busy putting the same shoe on the other foot, the artists tried to have their say. the bare naked ladies tried to talk sense to oda and were accorded the equivalent of a photo op and a pat on the head, thanks for coming. but now with these intertube things other people saw what was at stake. private citizens, arts lovers, consumers and privacy advocates began to grumble and the arts community stepped up. the cria (canadian recording industry association)is the front group for sony, bmg, emi and universal music group in canada. the whole cartel. as the shape of potential legislation became clearer the canadian music industry abandoned the cria. nettwork, home to sarah, avril and a roster of international names, anthem, home to rush and max webster and the other major canadian independent labels walked.
artists are fed up with having their fans harassed, threatened and sued. nobody wants to buy broken hardware, malicious software or enter into abusive end user license agreements and non-negotiated contracts. these huge corporations that market cultural materials, failed to adapt to shifts in culture. they are steam engine salesmen trying to insist that internal combustion engines be fitted with boilers and that they should take a cut off the top. if we, as citizens and consumers of cultural products, don't make ourselves heard, we'll have no-one to blame but ourselves.
as a canadian and a working artist, i believe we have a lot to be proud of and a lot that we need to protect. i've always been immensely proud of the nfb. the national film board is a sterling example of the good that can be done with government support of the arts. the nfb is revered around the world for the high quality and integrity of the work, groundbreaking animation, award winning documentaries and a living library of our heritage and cultures. sadly, the nfb is bleeding the work and passion of canadian filmmakers into shadows and dust. documentaries are being pulled from circulation. important works, flickering strips of our spirit and nationhood, disappearing. lost to the expense of rights maintenance.
bev oda is in conflict of interest. she can not honestly claim to represent us, her constituents or the interests of canadian heritage in these matters. we have to decide to protect our existing cultural works and foster the growth of new, original canadian work in all fields of the arts. we need to protect and insist on protection of unfettered access to the net and bandwidth neutrality. we need to secure our data privacy from over reaching business and governmental interests. if we do not act we allow the gates to slam shut on our past and diminish our access to the future. even if you aren't a technophile, your interests, your rights, privacy and security are at risk. all for the greed of a few short sighted monopolists and their paid political lackeys.
if you don't want big media companies, telcos and governments snooping though your hard drives, suing your niece and selling bandwidth and baud rate to the biggest advertiser, write to your member of parliament. demand accountability from bev oda, insist that artists be invited to the table to re-negotiate copyright and intellectual property legislation. how dare these duplication and distribution businesses and their best friend the minister claim to speak on behalf of the artists. large foreign business concerns have enjoyed remarkable access to the offices of the minister. it is only fair that the true rights holders, the artists and creators be heard. it is after all, their work, their passion and their lives that are being bartered over.
maybe we should ask the canadian musical community how their rights should be dealt with. oh that's just silly. what could a bunch of scruffy musicians know about their own best interests?
for more information, please visit boing boing and follow the bouncing oda links. canadian science fiction great, cory doctorow has been tracking bev oda and the copyfight here in canada and works hard to educate. he also leads by example. his works are published under the creative commons. cory has an excellent new collection of short stories called overclocked available. you can read the stories free online. if you like them, you can buy the treeware version or find your own way to share and appreciate what is great work by a canadian author.
michael geist is an ottawa law professor who has been stalwart in tracking the back room deals and dollars flow of the corporate assault on canadian copyright. no one knows the minutiae of the issues better than michael. digital-copyright.ca is another excellent resource.
and finally, bev oda, gives a harper-rific example of that transparency and accountability. $5,500 for limos at the juno awards. your new canadian government, because selfishness and greed aren't partisan.
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