Copythievery Advocated By Disney

Breaking news: Adorable Disney/Pixar robot commits thought crimes. Ban this film in Canada or Jimminy Prentice's corporate masters will be very upset.



Wall-E circumvents digital locks, makes illegal copies and listens to his stolen tracks repeatedly and even goes so far as to commit teh sin of sharing illegal copies of the ill gotten goods. Kudos to Jesse Willis at sffaudio for this catch!

(H/T Boing & Boing Inc)

Digital Lockdown

After months of hiding from Canadian stake holders, creators, educators, libraries and citizens, Jimminy Prentice and L'il JoJo Verner have squeezed out the legislation they crafted for America's entertainment giants. Funny how it took months after my initial letter to Slippery Jim before I got a form letter back that indicated that his office neither read nor gave a shit about my concerns. But yesterday I received a patronizing pack of half truths the very day they drop their little anti-consumer/creator bomb. I aren't the boss of him. And neither are you or any other interested Canadian. It is perfectly clear through their words and actions that, despite protestations to the contrary, Prentice and Verner received their marching orders from the RIAA, the MPAA and the offshore media conglomerates.

Here's the full text of the letter the bought ministers sent out, patting themselves on the back and denying that this is a copy of the American DMCA. This is a "Made in Canada" piece of paid for corporate shit:

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
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

You and I and your friends, we're all guilty. Sarah McLachlan, The Barenaked Ladies, Canada's actual "Made in Canada" music industry, the artists and publishers that aren't owned by usurious conglomerates from off shore, all opposed this legislative atrocity and were ignored. Canada's educators and libraries were ignored. Canadian innovators, technologists and entrepreneurs were ignored. Prentice, Verner and their gang have no interest in Canada's technological future. They serviced their crooked masters behind closed boardroom doors. Welcome to the digital lockdown.

It is now of vital importance that we, at the grass roots, fight this proposed legislation. Our Members of Parliament must hear our voices, since Prentice and Verner chose not to. Bill C-61 is not acceptable. The petty consumer exceptions are defeated by the absolute exceptions afforded media distibutors by making anti-circumvention and DRM sacrosanct. You are not allowed to back up your bought and paid for media if the corporate master says no. You can't shift it to another device, you can't use it as you choose and now there will be a regime of litigation to enforce the hideous EULAs attached to everything.

Links to visit:

Appropriation Art:

Today Harper’s Conservatives introduced legislation that would make Canadian copyright the most repressive in the free world. This, sadly, is neither rhetoric, nor sensationalism.

Many within the cultural community feared a draconian new legislation. Bill C-61 surpasses those fears. If passed Bill C-61 would make Canada the only democracy in history to have criminalized a recognized and legitimate art form. An art form criminalized not for its content, but for the process of its making. Today the Conservative Government erased much of the artistic discourse of the past 100 years. Today (with TPM’s) the Conservative Government locked Canadian culture firmly in the past.

Michael Geist:

As expected, Prentice has provided a series of attention-grabbing provisions to consumers including time shifting, private copying of music (transferring a song to your iPod), and format shifting (changing format from analog to digital). These are good provisions that did not exist in the delayed December bill. However, check the fine print since the rules are subject to a host of strict limitations and, more importantly, undermined by the digital lock provisions. The effect of the digital lock provisions is to render these rights virtually meaningless in the digital environment because anything that is locked down (ie. copy-controlled CD, no-copy mandate on a digital television broadcast) cannot be copied. As for every day activities like transferring a DVD to your iPod - those are infringing too. Indeed, the law makes it an infringement to circumvent the locks for these purposes.




Copyright Watch:

Back in the simpler times of the copyright debate, like, in 2002, Industry Canada set out a “long-term reform agenda”, defining “long-term” as “beyond 4 years”, an agenda which included “clarifying and simplifying the [Copyright] Act”.

And now, “beyond 4 years” later, we know can report how well that worked out.
The existing Copyright Act, after being stripped of some of its superfluous ornamentation, is 35,967 words long in the English-language version of the text.

Bill C-61, as tabled today at First Reading in the House of Commons, will replace or repeal 2,055 words of the current consolidated statute, and insert, instead of, or in addition thereto, 12,731 words.

That’s a net increase of 10,676 words. That’s 30% increase in the size of the Copyright Act.

Or, put another way, the amendments contained in Bill C-61 alone – just the amendments, not the existing Copyright Act, not the Copyright Act that will result from the amendments — the text of the amendments alone is fifty percent larger than the entire newly-enacted Israeli Copyright Act, and thirty percent larger than the entire Copyright Act of Canada was when first enacted in 1921.

Digital Copyright Canada:

Having a chance for a quick read of Bill C-61, I can say that it will likely be decades before we fully understand how this bill will be interpreted by the courts. Contrary to what the Minister claimed, this bill reduces certainty in the marketplace, not increases it.
The largest portion of this bill is a Canadian DMCA, which is to say an implementation of the 2 1996 WIPO treaties and an ISP liability regime. The ISP liability regime is similar to the Liberal Bill C-60 from 2005 in that it codifies the current voluntary regime used by ISPs which is notice-and-notice.

This bill is a torpedo aimed at your rights and will cripple artists, innovation and fair use in this country. It puts satire in peril. Hell, Bill C-61 makes collage illegal. This is about criminalizing and controlling consumers and guarantees a regime of predatory litigation the likes of which this country has never seen. I implore you to visit the links above and to further investigate the contents of the originating sights. Inform yourselves, see what is at risk if this law is allowed to pass. Let your M.P. know that you will not let this bill pass without protest. Do not believe the lies coming from government and industry. This law does not protect artists, it props up the industries and robber barons that prey on artists. There is a good reason why the homegrown music industry walked away from groups like the CRIA, an industry sock puppet that was working to betray our rights and freedoms as creators. As a singer songwriter, this legislation is a huge roadblock in the path of furthering my creative endeavours.

Copyright For Canadians has a handy widget for locating your M.P. write them, email them, call or drop by their offices and register your objections. Write to the leaders of the parties and the appropriate ministers and critics and let them know that Bill C-61 is not acceptable to Canadians. And certainly remind our friends in the Liberal Party of Canada that this would be exactly the wrong time to roll over and present their well used buttocks to the government. It is high time Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition grew some hind legs and stood up upon them. Anything less than opposition on this issue is just another betrayal of Canada.

[CC HERE, after PSA graciously gave me permission to add a little something.]

There are all kinds of ways to complain about this hideously crappy piece of legislation, but one of the easiest ways to attack it is to show whether Minister of Industry Jiminy Prentice simply lied. Consider this quote:

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.

OK, that's a fairly clear-cut claim there, isn't it -- that this legislation is functionally similar to that of a number of other countries listed. Therefore, it behooves one (who has the time, as I'm still kinda swamped) to make those comparisons, and demonstrate whether that claim is indeed true.

And you'll note that this approach is in no way biased or subjective -- it should be easily verifiable whether or not Prentice's claim stands up to scrutiny or not. So, take it away. Who's got some time on their hands?

Letter From Jim Prentice

Well, golly gosh kids (worded for precious Aaron's sensitivity). Months after writing to the, ahem, Honourable Member, some petty functionary in the offices of the Minister of Industry fires up the 'we didn't read it' machine and poops out a form letter responding to my letter about copyright reform. Well thanks a whole bunch for your attention to detail there Jim. Perhaps if my note had been scented with the musky aroma of a lobbyist, with just a whiff of future favours, it might have warranted reading.

But who am I kidding, Jim Prentice doesn't really care what I think. He doesn't care what you think. He has marked out a very exclusive constituency, one that could sit around a table. They are the CEOs of a handful of international conglomerates. Those are the people Jim Prentice served at the time I wrote him and those are the people he serves now. Those are the people for whom his schemes of copyright reform are being prepared. Otherwise, he might have responded to the volume of public outrage with public consultation. He might have begun seeking out the opinions and interests of Canadian stakeholders, creators, educators, innovators, libraries and businesses. What have we heard from the Minister? Nothing. Not a lick of information about the bill he is holding close to his chest and not the first hint of interest in why we gathered en masse to slow him down.

Instead I get this limp effort, bereft of information, rich in fibs and platitude:

Dear Ms. Stewart:

Thank you for your e-mail, regarding possible amendments to the Copyright Act.

Gosh, you're ever so welcome. And thank you for assuming my gender and getting it wrong.
 

The Act must continue to be supportive of innovation and research while reflecting current technological and legal realities.  To this end, it must provide adequate protection for copyright holders while promoting access to copyrighted material. 

Technological and legal realities? Like, how your pals at SONY/BMG/EMI/UNIVERSAL and etc. ignored shifts in technology and the market, shit on the consumers of their products, mistreated and routinely robbed the creators of their products. And now are attempting to have you write new laws to protect them from the repercussions of their own ineptitude, avarice, greed and stupidity. Adequate protection of copyright holders, as determined by who, the above noted multinational crooks? How about they sleep in the beds they've made. It is high time that some of those businesses went the way of the dinosaur. Promoting access to copyright materials. Excuse me, how does opening the door to litigious corporate behemoths promote access?

With this in mind, I am pleased to inform you that the federal government committed in the Speech from the Throne on October 16, 2007, to “improve the protection of cultural and intellectual property rights in Canada, including copyright reform.”  In this respect, I am working closely with my colleague, the Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, with a view to introducing amendments to the Act.

"Improve the protection of cultural and intellectual property rights..." Like the way that the Federal Government has presided over the decimation of the National Film Boards documentary library?

Please be assured that your comments will be taken into account as we move forward. 

Sincerely,

The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P.

Minister Prentice, it is eminently clear that you are neither interested in my thoughts nor in those of the thousands of other Canadians that have had to chase your sorry, dishonest ass down on this issue. Please, Minister Prentice, allow me to be perfectly clear, you sir, are a lying sell out. The future of Canadian artists, writers, musicians, archivists and educators are at stake. You can take your false assurances and stuff them up your empty suit. Do not insult our intelligence with this sort of drivel. You were ready and set to table legislation before Christmas. You aren't working closely with anyone, there are no consultation processes taking place, the legislation is written and you are biding your time, hoping that the public gets distracted. Well Jim, we're still here, we're still watching. And we won't settle for a piece of legislation designed to make bought and paid for shills like Graham Henderson happy.

Speaking as a working artist, he does not represent me or my peers or our interests and evidently neither do you. I spent my day and a chunk of change in the recording studio today polishing tracks for my next release. We are the people that move the cultural heritage forward. We are the people that learn our craft from those that have gone before us. Mr. Prentice, your corporate pals would brand us pirates. But the thing is that "piracy" is only wrong when they aren't profiting by it. The tales of the industry robbing artists blind are legend. Like most legends they are rooted in fact.

So since I'm a pirate, I might as well just copy and reproduce an entire essay by someone to illustrate the nature of the kinds of bastards that you, Mr. Prentice, are bedding down with. The following is by Steve Albini. I first became aware of Steve Albini when I bought the album "Earth, Atomizer, Let's Go" by Big Black. It was a beat box, distorted guitar, bass and guttural rage coming out of Chicago. It was fierce, ferocious and uncompromisingly intelligent music. I shared it with my friends because it wasn't readily available in the malls and shops. Because that's how the good music proliferates and gains fans. Steve Albini went on to become a highly respected producer, here's his take on the corporate music industry that Jim Prentice is working so diligently to support:

The Problem With Music 
by Steve Albini

Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed. Nobody can see what's printed on the contract. It's too far away, and besides, the shit stench is making everybody's eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract. Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and there's only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey says "Actually, I think you need a little more development. Swim again, please. Backstroke". And he does of course.

Every major label involved in the hunt for new bands now has on staff a high-profile point man, an "A & R" rep who can present a comfortable face to any prospective band. The initials stand for "Artist and Repertoire." because historically, the A & R staff would select artists to record music that they had also selected, out of an available pool of each. This is still the case, though not openly. These guys are universally young [about the same age as the bands being wooed], and nowadays they always have some obvious underground rock credibility flag they can wave.

Lyle Preslar, former guitarist for Minor Threat, is one of them. Terry Tolkin, former NY independent booking agent and assistant manager at Touch and Go is one of them. Al Smith, former soundman at CBGB is one of them. Mike Gitter, former editor of XXX fanzine and contributor to Rip, Kerrang and other lowbrow rags is one of them. Many of the annoying turds who used to staff college radio stations are in their ranks as well. There are several reasons A & R scouts are always young. The explanation usually copped-to is that the scout will be "hip to the current musical "scene." A more important reason is that the bands will intuitively trust someone they think is a peer, and who speaks fondly of the same formative rock and roll experiences. The A & R person is the first person to make contact with the band, and as such is the first person to promise them the moon. Who better to promise them the moon than an idealistic young turk who expects to be calling the shots in a few years, and who has had no previous experience with a big record company. Hell, he's as naive as the band he's duping. When he tells them no one will interfere in their creative process, he probably even believes it. When he sits down with the band for the first time, over a plate of angel hair pasta, he can tell them with all sincerity that when they sign with company X, they're really signing with him and he's on their side. Remember that great gig I saw you at in '85? Didn't we have a blast. By now all rock bands are wise enough to be suspicious of music industry scum. There is a pervasive caricature in popular culture of a portly, middle aged ex-hipster talking a mile-a-minute, using outdated jargon and calling everybody "baby." After meeting "their" A & R guy, the band will say to themselves and everyone else, "He's not like a record company guy at all! He's like one of us." And they will be right. That's one of the reasons he was hired.

These A & R guys are not allowed to write contracts. What they do is present the band with a letter of intent, or "deal memo," which loosely states some terms, and affirms that the band will sign with the label once a contract has been agreed on. The spookiest thing about this harmless sounding little memo, is that it is, for all legal purposes, a binding document. That is, once the band signs it, they are under obligation to conclude a deal with the label. If the label presents them with a contract that the band don't want to sign, all the label has to do is wait. There are a hundred other bands willing to sign the exact same contract, so the label is in a position of strength. These letters never have any terms of expiration, so the band remain bound by the deal memo until a contract is signed, no matter how long that takes. The band cannot sign to another laborer or even put out its own material unless they are released from their agreement, which never happens. Make no mistake about it: once a band has signed a letter of intent, they will either eventually sign a contract that suits the label or they will be destroyed.

One of my favorite bands was held hostage for the better part of two years by a slick young "He's not like a label guy at all," A & R rep, on the basis of such a deal memo. He had failed to come through on any of his promises [something he did with similar effect to another well-known band], and so the band wanted out. Another label expressed interest, but when the A & R man was asked to release the band, he said he would need money or points, or possibly both, before he would consider it. The new label was afraid the price would be too dear, and they said no thanks. On the cusp of making their signature album, an excellent band, humiliated, broke up from the stress and the many months of inactivity. There's this band. They're pretty ordinary, but they're also pretty good, so they've attracted some attention. They're signed to a moderate-sized "independent" label owned by a distribution company, and they have another two albums owed to the label. They're a little ambitious. They'd like to get signed by a major label so they can have some security you know, get some good equipment, tour in a proper tour bus -- nothing fancy, just a little reward for all the hard work. To that end, they got a manager. He knows some of the label guys, and he can shop their next project to all the right people. He takes his cut, sure, but it's only 15%, and if he can get them signed then it's money well spent. Anyways, it doesn't cost them anything if it doesn't work. 15% of nothing isn't much! One day an A & R scout calls them, says he's 'been following them for a while now, and when their manager mentioned them to him, it just "clicked." Would they like to meet with him about the possibility of working out a deal with his label? Wow. Big Break time. They meet the guy, and y'know what -- he's not what they expected from a label guy. He's young and dresses pretty much like the band does. He knows all their favorite bands. He's like one of them. He tells them he wants to go to bat for them, to try to get them everything they want. He says anything is possible with the right attitude.

They conclude the evening by taking home a copy of a deal memo they wrote out and signed on the spot. The A & R guy was full of great ideas, even talked about using a name producer. Butch Vig is out of the question-he wants 100 g's and three points, but they can get Don Fleming for $30,000 plus three points. Even that's a little steep, so maybe they'll go with that guy who used to be in David Letterman's band. He only wants three points. Or they can have just anybody record it (like Warton Tiers, maybe-- cost you 5 or 7 grand] and have Andy Wallace remix it for 4 grand a track plus 2 points. It was a lot to think about. Well, they like this guy and they trust him. Besides, they already signed the deal memo. He must have been serious about wanting them to sign. They break the news to their current label, and the label manager says he wants them to succeed, so they have his blessing. He will need to be compensated, of course, for the remaining albums left on their contract, but he'll work it out with the label himself.

Sub Pop made millions from selling off Nirvana, and Twin Tone hasn't done bad either: 50 grand for the Babes and 60 grand for the Poster Children-- without having to sell a single additional record. It'll be something modest. The new label doesn't mind, so long as it's recoupable out of royalties. Well, they get the final contract, and it's not quite what they expected. They figure it's better to be safe than sorry and they turn it over to a lawyer--one who says he's experienced in entertainment law and he hammers out a few bugs. They're still not sure about it, but the lawyer says he's seen a lot of contracts, and theirs is pretty good. They'll be great royalty: 13% [less a 1O% packaging deduction]. Wasn't it Buffalo Tom that were only getting 12% less 10? Whatever. The old label only wants 50 grand, an no points. Hell, Sub Pop got 3 points when they let Nirvana go. They're signed for four years, with options on each year, for a total of over a million dollars! That's a lot of money in any man's English. The first year's advance alone is $250,000. Just think about it, a quarter million, just for being in a rock band! Their manager thinks it's a great deal, especially the large advance. Besides, he knows a publishing company that will take the band on if they get signed, and even give them an advance of 20 grand, so they'll be making that money too. The manager says publishing is pretty mysterious, and nobody really knows where all the money comes from, but the lawyer can look that contract over too. Hell, it's free money. Their booking agent is excited about the band signing to a major. He says they can maybe average $1,000 or $2,000 a night from now on. That's enough to justify a five week tour, and with tour support, they can use a proper crew, buy some good equipment and even get a tour bus! Buses are pretty expensive, but if you figure in the price of a hotel room for everybody In the band and crew, they're actually about the same cost. Some bands like Therapy? and Sloan and Stereolab use buses on their tours even when they're getting paid only a couple hundred bucks a night, and this tour should earn at least a grand or two every night. It'll be worth it. The band will be more comfortable and will play better.

The agent says a band on a major label can get a merchandising company to pay them an advance on T-shirt sales! ridiculous! There's a gold mine here! The lawyer Should look over the merchandising contract, just to be safe. They get drunk at the signing party. Polaroids are taken and everybody looks thrilled. The label picked them up in a limo. They decided to go with the producer who used to be in Letterman's band. He had these technicians come in and tune the drums for them and tweak their amps and guitars. He had a guy bring in a slew of expensive old "vintage" microphones. Boy, were they "warm." He even had a guy come in and check the phase of all the equipment in the control room! Boy, was he professional. He used a bunch of equipment on them and by the end of it, they all agreed that it sounded very "punchy," yet "warm." All that hard work paid off. With the help of a video, the album went like hotcakes! They sold a quarter million copies! Here is the math that will explain just how fucked they are: These figures are representative of amounts that appear in record contracts daily. There's no need to skew the figures to make the scenario look bad, since real-life examples more than abound. income is bold and underlined, expenses are not.

Advance:
$ 250,000
Manager's cut:
$ 37,500
Legal fees:
$ 10,000
Recording Budget:
$ 150,000
Producer's advance:
$ 50,000
Studio fee:
$ 52,500
Drum Amp, Mic and Phase "Doctors":
$ 3,000
Recording tape:
$ 8,000
Equipment rental:
$ 5,000
Cartage and Transportation:
$ 5,000
Lodgings while in studio:
$ 10,000
Catering:
$ 3,000
Mastering:
$ 10,000
Tape copies, reference CDs, shipping tapes, misc. expenses:
$ 2,000
Video budget:
$ 30,000
Cameras:
$ 8,000
Crew:
$ 5,000
Processing and transfers:
$ 3,000
Off-line:
$ 2,000
On-line editing:
$ 3,000
Catering:
$ 1,000
Stage and construction:
$ 3,000
Copies, couriers, transportation:
$ 2,000
Director's fee:
$ 3,000
Album Artwork:
$ 5,000
Promotional photo shoot and duplication:
$ 2,000
Band fund:
$ 15,000
New fancy professional drum kit:
$ 5,000
New fancy professional guitars [2]:
$ 3,000
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs [2]:
$ 4,000
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar:
$ 1,000
New fancy rack of lights bass amp:
$ 1,000
Rehearsal space rental:
$ 500
Big blowout party for their friends:
$ 500
Tour expense [5 weeks]:
$ 50,875
Bus:
$ 25,000
Crew [3]:
$ 7,500
Food and per diems:
$ 7,875
Fuel:
$ 3,000
Consumable supplies:
$ 3,500
Wardrobe:
$ 1,000
Promotion:
$ 3,000
Tour gross income:
$ 50,000
Agent's cut:
$ 7,500
Manager's cut:
$ 7,500
Merchandising advance:
$ 20,000
Manager's cut:
$ 3,000
Lawyer's fee:
$ 1,000
Publishing advance:
$ 20,000
Manager's cut:
$ 3,000
Lawyer's fee:
$ 1,000
Record sales:
250,000 @ $12 =
$3,000,000
Gross retail revenue Royalty:
[13% of 90% of retail]:
$ 351,000
Less advance:
$ 250,000
Producer's points:
[3% less $50,000 advance]:
$ 40,000
Promotional budget:
$ 25,000
Recoupable buyout from previous label:
$ 50,000
Net royalty:
$ -14,000

Record company income:

Record wholesale price:
$6.50 x 250,000 =
$1,625,000 gross income
Artist Royalties:
$ 351,000
Deficit from royalties:
$ 14,000
Manufacturing, packaging and distribution:
@ $2.20 per record: $ 550,000
Gross profit:
$ 7l0,000

The Balance Sheet: This is how much each player got paid at the end of the game.

Record company:
$ 710,000
Producer:
$ 90,000
Manager:
$ 51,000
Studio:
$ 52,500
Previous label:
$ 50,000
Agent:
$ 7,500
Lawyer:
$ 12,000
Band member net income each:
$ 4,031.25

The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month. The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never "recouped," the band will have no leverage, and will oblige. The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won't have earned any royalties from their T-shirts yet. Maybe the T-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys. Some of your friends are probably already this fucked.

Steve Albini is an independent and corporate rock record producer most widely known for having produced Nirvana's "In Utero".

Copyfight!

Alright my friends, the new year is almost a month old and there is little doubt that our perfidious friends in Ottawa are up to no good. Industry Minister Tricky Jim Prentice has been vewy quiet and he ain't just hunting rabbits. He still has every intention of foisting his bought and paid for copyright legislation on the nation. Don't let him! Michael Geist asked me to start the Kitchener Waterloo chapter of Fair Copyright for Canada and it be done. If you are part of the FaceBook Kitchener network, please join up. If you aren't and still want to get involved in preventing a travesty, please visit the main site,Fair Copyright for Canada. And if you don't have a FaceBook account then please visit here, faircopyrightforcanada.ca. I'll be updating as things get rolling. Remember, it's only a participatory democracy if we, you know, participate.

More To Come.

Just so you don't think I'd forgotten, there will be much, much more to come on the copyfight front in the next little while.

El Kabong!

Oh my goodness me. The NDP's inimitable Charlie Angus polished up a silver platter, got out the good china and with the skill of a cordon bleu chef, carved up Jim Prentice and served the Minister a delicious filet of ass kicking. Snap! More Charlie Angus, less weasels. Please.

A Good Day.

The Canadian DMCA will be on the shelf until at least the end of January. I trust that the energy and passion that was brought to bear on the corporate legislation will carry over. We'll make damned sure that our elected representatives don't soon forget that they are responsible to us, the citizens. And now we have found our voice, we won't stop shouting. All of the news pieces I've read tonight indicate that the government was "freaked out" by the surge of interest, community and condemnation. Golly. Who'd have guessed that an intelligent, tech-savvy population wouldn't respond well to having their digital rights snuffed for the sake of foreign profiteers?

I can't begin to say how proud I am of all of the people that I've never met, my many unknown new friends, who all got up on their hind legs and told the powerful and wealthy industry lobbies that no, you can not fuck with us by the power of the cheque book. We staged something of a miracle and I'm sure we won ourselves some potent enemies. To those companies and associations, to those that believe that the consumers and citizens, their own customers, are their enemies, well screw you. The RIAA, CRIA, SOCAN, MPAA and ACTRA and the rest of the alphabet soup just got put on notice. What has been an ugly and foolish strategy in the States will be fought here. You are not welcome to purchase laws and use the courts to declare financial war upon us. You are not welcome to snoop through our drives. We do not want your broken wares and crippled machines. If we are your enemies it is because you have decided to make us so.

This week, a rag-tag assemblage of bloggers and ordinary folk lit up the government, knocked them on their heels and forced them to pull a piece of legislation. The next step is to force that government to review that legislation and bring us to the table. Today's victory is an empty one if it does not result in any prospective draft of the bill taking fair dealing and consumer protections into account. We're going to have to keep up the pressure. We're going to have to offer some concrete proposals and demands. Over the next days and weeks, a lot of very clever and motivated people will be hard at work trying to cement today's victory with long term, substantive policy gains. And a lot of wealthy, influential people will be trying to cut our legs out from under us. I hope that the many people that got involved, stay involved. And I'd very much like to see a positive contribution from the online politicals. I challenged the Blogging Tories and extended that challenge to the Liblog folks. This is an issue that effects all of us, regardless of ideology. Repression doesn't care what colour your hat is.

I'm looking forward with some optimism. If we keep pressing, we can no longer be ignored. I have a lot of letters to write, a lot of people to win over and inform and a lot of posts to come. Today the battle was ours but the war is not over. We will fight like only pixel stained techno-peasants can fight, one byte at a time, with potty mouths and keyboards.

Prentice Backs Down!

All right you pack of drunken savages. According to the esteemed Professor, Michael Geist, Jim Prentice has backed off once more. His secretary has let it be known,

The Industry Minister's press secretary has advised journalists that the bill will not be introduced today or tomorrow. Since the House of Commons will break at the end of the week, the Canadian DMCA will not be introduced until at least late January.

While this is excellent news and something of a momentary reprieve, it is not the last of this issue. In fact, now it is perhaps even more vital that we press onward. And yes, that does include the challenge to the BTs. The House will not reconvene until mid-January. We have a month to rally support and organize, educate and consolidate. This time can be well used if we keep the pressure on all of our elected representatives. We either demand fair and equitable copyright that balances the needs of all parties or we'll get stuck with a broken DMCA.

Again, thanks to everyone that woke up and started yelling this morning. I've kept an eye on our site meter this morning and we have had a lot of hits from the federal government as well as provincial and municipal. Many of those hits went directly to the posts on the issue at hand. Whether they admit it or not, the government is paying attention. I suspect they are reeling a little from the speed and vigour of response from the Canadian online grassroots community. That is significant in that it indicates that we can have an effect on the process, despite the economic and political weight of the media cartels and the American government being brought to bear.

Once more I'm proud of all of the folks that have gotten behind this and written, yelled, faxed and phoned their way into the timid hearts of our pols. Thank you all. Don't quit now, we have them on the ropes, let's finish this fight and let's fucking well win.

Who You Gonna Call?

Contact your Members of Parliament. Here's how to find them:

Parliamentary Directory

And let's not forget the Senate:

Senate Directory

These are the members of the Cabinet:

Cabinet Directory

And let us not forget the Secretaries:

Parliamentary Secretaries

Copyfight Game On. Blogging Tories, A Challenge.

Again from comments, Chris submits the following link:

Copyright For Canadians

You know what to do.

Let me hereby issue a challenge to our counterparts on the right. Please, for your own sake and for the sake of our country and our future, get involved. This is not a partisan issue. There is no right or left here. This is about our freedom of expression, fair dealing and the protection of our rights. The damage this legislation could do to education will effect your children every bit as much as ours. The chill on innovation and damage to the technology sector will reduce jobs and harm a growing Canadian industry to your detriment as well as ours. I will make you this promise, I am going to be going after Minister Prentice tooth and nail, not as a Conservative but as a politician whose agenda does not serve Canada's greater good. I will also be going after my MP, the Liberal party whip, who has yet to respond to this constituent's concerns. I will be going after Stephane Dion and the Liberal Party of Canada. I will be going after Jack Layton and the NDP. If I have a little piss left in my vinegar I'll go after the Bloc as well.

I will refrain, as best possible, from slamming Mr. Prentice for his affiliation. He is part of the government of Canada and he is working to sell Canadian rights down a river that runs south. I have fought in the past against the Liberal's corrupt bill C-60 and I fought against the lobby funded Sarmite Bulte. I will stand up against any politician of any stripe that would willingly diminish the country I love. Blogging Tories, we await your response. Join us in this. We can call each other names later.

The Power of Information

Educate yourselves! From the comments Red Tory (who is up either very early or very late) provides the following excellent link:

A rough guide to the Canadian DMCA

Go. Read. Act.

ACTRA: Industry Dupes Lip Off

ACTRA is the Canadian equivalent of America's SAG. It is a guild that is supposed to look after the interests of Canadian actors and performers in film, television and on radio. Just last year, ACTRA went on strike to win a victory against the media cartels to protect Canadian performers rights online. Unfortunately, like SOCAN, they suckle a little too close to the corrupted belly of the business.

ACTRA spokesflunkies have come out of their little holes to attack Canadian dissent and in support of the broken and abusive, anti-consumer copyright regime proposed by bought man, Minister Jim Prentice. The CBC covers the petulant huffing of ACTRA:

The union for Canada's English-language performers is fuming over the government's decision to delay copyright reform legislation, demanding Minister of Industry Jim Prentice to "do the right thing" and ignore the protests of a "vocal minority.

"This government is turning its back on legislation that is long overdue. Politics must not trump policy," said Stephen Waddell, national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, in a statement. "By not releasing the promised legislation, the government is causing further delays, and in the process shelving years of hard work."

In the interest of disclosure, I have been a dues paying member of ACTRA since 2000. The guild has done much to be proud of when it comes to protecting the rights of performers and advocating for Canadian culture. With all due respect, in this case they have their heads wedged firmly up their arses. The years of hard work cited above, have taken place in secret and have not involved all of the stake holders, in particular smaller Canadian creators, authors, musicians, libraries, educators and online rights activists. Mr. Stephen Waddell, as a representative of ACTRA, how dare you demand that the rights and concerns of your peers in other creative fields be ignored? To be sure, I will be addressing myself directly to ACTRA. This ignorant and petulant stance is not becoming of an organization that purports to protect the rights of artists. A delay costs us only time. That delay would allow for consultation, compromise and considered debate. Mr. Waddell and the fools at ACTRA and SOCAN are welcome to dangle their toes over the edge of a cliff and scream jump. We do not have to follow their ill considered and misguided advice. In short, Mr. Waddell and ACTRA can take a flying leap if they want but they can't do it in my name and they can't take me with them.

Here is the response I submitted to the CBC:

As a member of ACTRA, I am disappointed and dismayed with the guild's stance. The misplaced fears that seem to lie behind the willingness to abandon fair use provisions of copyright law smack of kowtowing to the corporate media cartels. ACTRA went on strike only a year ago to protect the rights of performers, in particular as regards online distribution, now they are ready to cut everyone else loose. That is a sad and selfish move on ACTRA's part and I will be writing to state my complaints to the membership and office.

I hope my fellow actors and performers will see through the heavily funded smoke and mirrors. You don't fix a broken window by burning down the house. Many of my peers are content creators as well as performers. I ask them to write to ACTRA as well. The haughty outrage coming from the guild has more to do with fear and greed than it has to do with rights and freedoms. I'm not famous or powerful but I hope the CBC will continue to give voice to the legitimate public concerns over this issue and not just listen to the payed flacks of the industry.

Yes. We are vocal. Perhaps. We're in the minority but I wouldn't be so sure of that. No. We will neither shut up nor will we go away. Yes. We will storm the gates with every means at our disposal and we will shout ourselves hoarse. When the curtain falls, we might very well be a resounding majority and we will fight until the fight is done. We will not stand idly by. Ladies and gentlemen, the gauntlet has been thrown down. It is time to kick some greedy ass. And Mr. Waddell, I think if you do a little rudimentary math, you will find that the well funded lobby, whose water you are carrying, represent a majority only of dollars. Your pissing and griping is for the benefit of a very few of the very wealthy. So please sir, since my dues help to pay your wages, go and fuck yourself.

DMCA - Call To Action!

Jeeziz H. Clustermonkey Fuck. Just when you think a politician might have a gram of sense, might have caught a clue, they turn around and prove why we tend not to trust them. As CC notes, it is now expected that poor Jim Prentice, flailing in the wind and caught between the pressure of legitimate Canadian protest and the enormous thumb of the American and corporate media lobby, will press lips to the ass of funding and table his DMCA legislation this morning.

Let me make this as clear as possible. Canadian Federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice has decided that he serves at the beck and call of a foreign government and foreign controlled industry. Jim Prentice has decided to abandon the interests of his true and valid constituents and is taking orders from those that would see the freedoms and rights of Canadians abridged. It falls to us to sing long and loud, to fight this attack on Canadian liberty, culture and sovereignty. We have asked for no more than consultation and balance in legislation and we have been rebuffed. Mr. Prentice's true masters are sneering at us as a vocal minority. If we are now in the minority, then we must adjust that position.

Organize. Communicate. Act. Tell everyone that will listen. Explain the issue simply and clearly and ask for assistance. Make it as easy for others to help as possible. Lists of addresses, email addresses, phone and fax numbers can be shared. Online resources and information can be distributed. The cartels and their lackeys think we can be steamrolled. They are wrong, as we have demonstrated and as we shall continue to demonstrate. Get angry. Be smart. Stand up and protect your rights, your freedoms and your nation's cultural heritage and future.

Copyright the Next Step

First, thank you to all of the bright, engaged folks that have taken an interest and made a stand against abusive, anti-Canadian copyright legislation. You people are amazing and you deserve a round of applause. For the moment we have held back the corporate barbarians at the gate but they will not be stayed, they will keep coming. So we must remain vigilant and we must be ready to carry this fight forward in the long term. Now it is imperative that we make our voices heard, we must demand broad public consultation. We must also let our elected representatives know that we are paying very close attention and that we are only beginning to organize. We will not disappear. We will not forget. We will continue to fight for fair and equitable legislation. To do less would be to fail our beautiful nation and a disservice to future generations (are you listening Blogging Tories?). Here's what I sent off to the Minister a moment ago:

Minister Prentice,

Allow me to thank you for not tabling your copyright legislation at this time. As I am sure you have noticed, a great many Canadians are very concerned about the protection of fair dealing in our copyright laws. At this point in the process, you have the opportunity to win over a lot of public good will. I urge you to engage the concerns of Canadians from the educational sector, Canadian artists and musicians (whose interests have been sorely misrepresented by organizations like CRIA) and consumers. Sir, as a member of ACTRA and SOCAN, I can assure you that the lobbying end of the arts community is not in step with the concerns of the creators they represent.

I have been assured by a friend, an author and veteran, that you are a man of honour. So i will extend the benefit of the doubt. I will presume that you have been misled by the high pressure tactics and misinformation of the CEOs and lobbyists that have spent so much effort and money trying to shape this legislation to their own benefit. It is time for you to hold open public hearings and enact a consultation process that includes Canadians. Any bill that you bring before the house will have an enormous impact on the fabric of Canadian culture. We are in an era of epic change in terms of the nature of information storage, use and transmission. It would be unwise to move hastily toward a bill that satisfied only the powerful media giants.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding this vital area of Canadian law. Copyright has an enormous effect on education, freedom of speech, privacy issues and consumer rights. Please do not let Canadians down, we are watching and we will spare no effort to protect our rights and freedoms.

Sincerely,
Lindsay Stewart
Kitchener, Ontario

Canadian DMCA on Hold!

Funny what a few thousand calls and letters can do. According to Michael Geist the Cons are going to delay the tabling of the DMCA style bill that was going to drop tomorrow (Tuesday). If that's the case, congratulations my friends. Participatory democracy 1, Sneaky Buggers 0.

A Letter From Steve

Huh. Over the last bunch of days I sent out quite a few notes to members of parliament, the leaders of the parties and so forth. As of today I have received one response, from the Prime Minister's Executive Correspondence Officer, one L. A. Lavell. So here are my letter to Steve, the response from his flack and the first draft of what will be my response (yes I will tidy it up, I've already taken out the swearing).

First, here is the letter I sent to the P.M.

Mr. Prime Minister

Sir, as a member of ACTRA, SOCAN and the SAC, I am a creator of intellectual
properties, a stake holder. I am deeply concerned with issues of copyright
as it effects my work and as it effects the audience for my work.

New legislation intended to update Canadian copyright law has been placed on
the Notice Paper for this coming week's session of Parliament. Every
indication points to a piece of legislation that mimics the deeply flawed
and dangerous DMCA enacted in the United States. Industry Minister Jim
Prentice has put this legislation forward with no input from the creative
sector or from Canadian consumers. The path he has chosen is one that has
done great damage to businesses and individuals in the United States. It has
resulted in excess of 20,000 lawsuits and the serial abuse of DMCA takedown
notices. It has criminalized the consumer and harmed artists, all while
solving none of the problems it was intended to address.

I, along with many other Canadian artists, ask you to withdraw this
legislation and reconsider the goals of copyright protections going into the
future. Mr. Prentice's bill places fair use provisions at risk, this will
have a devastating effect on education, culture and business. We have
already seen documentaries being withdrawn from circulation by the NFB due
to the onerous demands of rights renewals. The major Canadian labels have
all joined in condemnation of this anti-consumer legislation. Nettwerk
records, home to Sarah McLachlan, Avril Levigne and Sum 41, has walked away
from the CRIA. Anthem Records home to Rush, has abandoned the CRIA. The
Barenaked Ladies have worked diligently to represent a positive example of
new business models that do not make enemies of their fans. All of these
artists and labels recognize that they must adapt to a changing paradigm in
both delivery and use of their works.

The powerful lobbying groups that speak for a handful of very large,
offshore corporations are not working for the interest and benefit of
Canadians. Canadian law should never be shaped to benefit foreign cartels
and conglomerates at the expense of Canadian citizens. There is a
groundswell of opposition to this intended legislation. I and many of my
peers are prepared to speak out and work against the locking down of our
technology and culture. We will not stop working against legislation that
breaks technology and impedes culture. To do so would be un-Canadian. This
is not a partisan issue, this is about our heritage and our future.

I hope your government will reconsider the wisdom of following what has
proven to be a deeply flawed path. Please sir, withdraw this legislation and
engage in the responsibility and transparency you promised Canadians.

I look forward to your response on this issue.

Sincerely,
Lindsay Stewart
Kitchener, Ontario

And here is the response I received from L. A. Lavell,

Dear Ms. Stewart:

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for
your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which falls within the portfolio of
the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry. The Prime Minister always
appreciates receiving correspondence on subjects of importance to Canadians.

Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I
have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail to Minister Prentice, so that
he too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will
give your views every consideration. For more information on the Government's
initiatives, you may wish to visit the Prime Minister's Web site, at
www.pm.gc.ca.

L.A. Lavell
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister's Office
Agent de correspondance
de la haute direction
pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre

Mr. or Ms L. A. Lavell:

Not that it has any particular bearing on the issue at hand but I am not a woman. Yes, it is one of those names, thanks for presuming. As to the content of your note I have a few thoughts, I have a gut feeling that the Prime Minister doesn't give a toss about what is important to Canadians unless those concerns come wrapped in votes or written on cheques.

As for your assurance that my statement has been "carefully reviewed", I'd like to see some evidence of that, thank you very much. A careful review might result in a response to the points raised, a clarification or even a rebuttal. Your so called careful review appears to delve no deeper than to see who you can abdicate your boss's responsibility to. Mr. Prentice has quite distinctly shown that he has no interest in addressing the concerns of Canadians or his constituents. He has refused to answer concerns about the impending legislation. He has admitted that he is acting under pressure from the CEOs of media companies. Which is why I have written to the Prime Minister, L. A. Lavell. But you have taken the liberty to divert my letter away from the attention of Mr. Harper, which I am sure he appreciates even more than receiving correspondence on subjects of importance to Canadians.

You are certain that Minister Prentice will give my views every consideration. Well, there is no need to be telling lies to a citizen. Minister Prentice has shown no inclination to consider the views, opinions or legitimate concerns of Canadians as regards copyright reform legislation. There have been no public consultations, he has rebuffed the concerns of the educational sector, he has ignored Canadian artists and Canadian owned and operated music labels. Minister Prentice has evidently decided that he is employed to serve a small handful of corporate masters from outside of Canada and to please the administration to our south. The repercussions of the legislation he will be tabling before the house will have a long lasting impact on the very fabric of Canadian culture. The continued profitability of a few global conglomerates has taken precedence over the rights, the concerns and the future of Canadian citizens and home grown businesses. That is quite plainly unacceptable.

We are expecting the legislation to be tabled tomorrow, Tuesday, December 11. There are a great many articulate and passionate advocates for fair and reasonable copyright legislation. We are educating our friends and families about what is at stake, we are organizing and spreading the word. There is a storm building and Mr. Prentice and Mr. Harper have done nothing to stem the rising anger of a people who will not lightly allow their rights to be sold off. Anyone that imagines Canadians are a soft people, easy to mold and step over is in for a surprise and a fight. This is not a partisan issue and these concerns cross party lines. We will not stand idly by.

Gabriela Is My Hero

This is Rodrigo y Gabriela and they play some guitar. One of my friends sent me a link to one of the bootleg concert clips floating around on youtube. As a guitar player, all I can say is, holy crap. Gabriela's right hand technique is astonishing. If it wasn't for the viral marketplace of the moment, players of this caliber would be labouring in obscurity, local sensations and no more. Radio won't be picking them up. And with the consolidation of media into a handful of massive cartels, unique artists like Rodrigo y Gabriela will not have access to the larger market place through any means other than the passionate advocacy of their fans online.

Sadly their disk is distributed through Sony (villains) but I love these guys so I'm ordering the album.

In Jim Prentice's possible future I would never have come across these guys. And now I share them with you.

Prentice Squirms

Tyler Kinch reports from Jim Prentice's little open house, that the Minister is prepared to sneak about and avoid the Conservative promises of accountability and transparency when it come to his impending copyright legislation.

At a holiday open house for his constituents in Calgary, Jim Prentice was bombarded with questions about his copyright bill that he will be tabling in the House of Commons soon. It is rumored that this bill will be a complete sell-out to US Government and Lobbyist demands.

When a member of the press asked who was asking for Canada’s copyright laws to be updated, the minister stated that CEOS had been pressuring him.

He avoided or provided very weak answers to the questions of the over 60 ordinary citizens who came out to ask him questions.

Yeah, I bet CEOs have been pressuring him. Well here's a fucking news flash for Jim Prentice, you don't work for CEOs. You work for us bucko. Last time I checked, a CEO had exactly one vote. Unless of course this is a matter of money talking. Anyone care to chase Mr. Prentice's paper trail, see who's filling his coffers. If Sam Bulte (Lib - Fired) and Bev Oda (Con - Shuffled) are any indication, media money might well be flowing like wine. By my reckoning, Prentice made a tacit admission that the legislation he refuses to detail to the Canadian public, until it is too damned late, has been tailored to meet the demands of a few heavies from the media cartels. Not good enough Jim Prentice, not by a long stretch. Go read the rest of Tyler's report and decide whether you can trust a man that won't even answer the questions of people in his own riding.

Kudos and a big tip of the hat to Tyler Kinch!

Update:

Tyler has posted video of Jim Prentice evading question after question at his open house in Calgary. He states blankly that he has consulted with all manner of CEOs and they are pressuring him to write them up some good old corporate welfare legislation. Apparently it is just terribly important that we are being criticized for failing to live up to the WIPO treaty obligations. Funny, I seem to recall that a certain Conservative minority government has had no qualms about scuttling another treaty we signed, despite worldwide criticism by more than just CEOS. If we can take a long beery piss on Kyoto and the environment, I think we might be able to justify telling the CEOs of the media mafia to go take a flying fuck. Their bottom line does not trump the culture, education and heritage of future generations of Canadians.

Because retarded isn't stupid enough.

I first read of this comically stupid move at the Galloping Beaver when Dave cited Saskboy pointing at this Wired article. Got that?

Anyway, hardware manufacturer Western Digital has decided that their business model is now one that requires them to make very large, one-way hard drives that won't let you move your files. Who doesn't want that feature, eh?

Western Digital's 1TB MyBook external hard drives won't share media files over network connections

Because gawd knows you have to have at least a terrabyte of storage, because those files ain't going anywhere. Here's the list of files you aren't allowed to move around, you fucking pirate criminal bastards.



As Wired points out, the only file types that are guarded by this data black-hole are video and audio files. I guess nobody bothered to tell Western Digital that books are often available in "text" files of varying types. With luck they'll upgrade their DRM (Demonic Robot Master) to lock out Word docs, RTF files and certainly those dastardly pdf files that can house more than one kind of information at a time. If the science wizards at Western Digital really up their game, they'll soon realize that all digital information is encoded in zeros and ones. If they upgrade their drives to never share files that are encoded in zeros and ones, well that should keep the MPAA happy.

Gosh, in a decent universe, you'd be able to buy Western Digital stock at a huge discount for the next while. I wonder if anyone's told the shareholders about this marketing plan. Idiots. That's the kind of bright, technologically advanced future we can expect if we allow the government to pass the suspected hyper restrictive copyright law that Jim Prentice is getting ready to throw at us. Isn't that an innovation!

*Disclosure: Image of not useful drive copied without permission from Wired's article, long list of file extensions not supported by expensive paperweight, stolen outright from the companies own promotional literature.

That horse ain't fuckin' dead...

No, in fact I won't be dropping this topic any time soon. If any of you are considering writing to your MPs, to Industry Minister Prentice or any of the others government officials that owe you an explanation. You would do well to read over the following letter. It was drafted by pacanukeha. I suspect it would be okay if you adapted it to your own purposes. Thanks pacanukeha for sending this along.

Dear Minister Prentice

It is believed that on Tuesday, the 11th of December 2007 you are expected to introduce new copyright legislation without public consultation. I would like to inform you of my sadness that you are letting a great opportunity to lead the Canadian people fall by the wayside. In my work as a scientific researcher I am intimately associated with the use and creation of copyrighted works and patented ideas so I consider myself to be both knowledgeable in the area and directly affected on a daily basis by any new law. The obfuscated process used to create our new copyright law is of great concern to me. It is also a disservice to your stature as a senior politician, to the people of the Calgary riding whom you represent, to Canadians at large, and to Canadian industry – cultural, technical, or otherwise. The anticipated contents of the bill lead me to believe that the benefits of international copyright cartels were considered to the exclusion of many Canadian copyright content generators and Canadian copyright users.

If, as the public suspects, you are intending to introduce, among other things, a Canadian version of the DMCA, you would do well to consider the fate of the original American DMCA: Bruce Lehman, it's architect, has stated publicly that the results of that have not been those that the crafters of the legislation wished. In addition, 2 of the 4 major international music labels are beginning to abandon the DRM technologies that the DMCA was created to protect.

Does Canada really want to follow in failed footsteps or do we want to follow the lead as described in recent Canadian Supreme Court rulings that speaks to the necessity of balance in any copyright policy? Does Canada really want to create a law designed to aid local talent where this talent has explicitly and vociferously rejected such aid?

Prime Minister Harper in his recent throne speech included copyright reform as being one of the priorities of the Canadian government in the coming year but no public consultation has been carried out on digital technology – the area most likely to be addressed by new legislation – for more than 5 years.

Ordinary Canadians such as myself have many issues that we would like addressed in such legislation. I wonder if fair-use, time-shifting, device-shifting, personal and public archiving, free and open educational use, unhindered academic research, notice-and-notice safe harbour provisions, parody, satire, criticism and library access will be addressed with the care, fairness, and balance that they deserve.

You stated on the 6th of December that you would hold consultation and review of the law after it has passed. How can this be logical or sensible? Given the speed with which mature consideration of such complex issues is undertaken we cannot expect any revisions or changes to the law for many years. Canada and Canadians deserve forethought from their government – this new law puts that at risk.

I would therefore hope that you would respond to the recent outcry over this bill by referring it to a committee where its content and merits will be debated in an open and transparent process so as to benefit all Canadians.

Sincerely

CC: The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Josee Verner, James Rajotte, Thierry St-Cyr