Canadian DMCA delayed. yay.

so, I followed Dave's directions in the previous blog post, and wrote an email to my MP. and I was very impressed when my MP, Libby Davies, replied to me basically saying,

"The NDP is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure that artists receive fair remuneration for their work. But we must not blindly accept restrictive copyright legislation that could be used to quash the development of new digital distribution models, sue kids who share music files and impose tollbooths on the educational use of the Internet. There are no simple answers to this very complex issue..."

So when I got an invite to join a facebook group for the same cause, I figured I wouldn't join for a couple reasons:
a) I already wrote my MP, that was bound to be more effective than some fb group; and
b) I think I'm done joining random facebook groups.

And today, I read this article. What do ya know? That article gives the impression that facebook mobs are more influential than a good old fashioned letter to your MP. Then again, there are almost 16000 members in that facebook group vs. the 2361 people that sent the form-email to their MPs.

what have I learned from this? you want something done in Canada? bully your ministers with facebook groups. stay tuned for the facebook group "Free Gas for all 1967 Chargers in Canada"

Jailbreak the ipod touch - go to real jail?

The Canadian government is at it again, putting forward another bill that will restrict our rights and freedoms in favour of the record labels. As usual, Michael Geist has a lot of important information on what is going on, and also what you can do about it.

BoingBoing is also carrying this story (God bless their souls) and in some ways they put it best: (The proposed laws)... will contain an "anti-circumvention" clause that prohibits breaking the locks off your music and movies in order to move them to new devices or watch them after the company that made them goes out of business... with no exceptions to the ban on circumvention, not even for parody, fair dealing, time shifting, or other legal uses.

Let's break this down: our office recently got ipod touches. About half of the people here have already performed the jailbreak hack to open up their devices. That alone would now be against the law, even if all they ever did was install a few freeware applications, or God forbid, they wrote their own programs to use on this 'little computer called ipod.'

If you read this, please - write your Member of Parliament. Here is a handy link to find their contact info and remember - a physical letter is worth millions of emails to these guys. Since it is going to the government, postage is paid too, so no 'I'm to cheap to afford a stamp' excuses. For the really lazy, the govt actually provides a point and click method of putting together a memo to your MP. Thanks again to M. Geist for showing me those links.

This isn't law yet. We can still use our voice to indicate the preference of the people to our representatives.

Canada to get DMCA style laws?

I may have to contact my local politician to let him know that I would rather this bill not be passed.

Highlights from the linked article:

In particular, the report makes the following recommendations:

• ratify the WIPO Internet treaties (seemingly because the U.S. has placed us on the Special 301 list)
• increase damages and penalties under the Copyright Act
• create a new offence for the distribution of pirated works
• create a new offence for the manufacture or distribution of circumvention devices for commercial gain
• create new administrative penalties for the importation of counterfeit and pirated goods
• create a new criminal offence for manufacturing, reproducing, importing, distributing, and selling counterfeit goods
• strengthen civil remedies for counterfeiting and piracy infringement
• increase the resources allocated to the RCMP and Justice to counter counterfeiting and piracy
• prioritize RCMP and Justice copyright enforcement
• encourage prosecutors to seek more significant penalties for counterfeiting and piracy violations, including imprisonment
• create a new IP Crime Task Force
• new border measures, data sharing, and the creation of an IP registry

Now what I want to know, if this comes into play, does this mean the levy on recordable media gets lifted? And if so, what about the media I purchased prior to then?

CPCC wants the ipod tax back?

Bottom line: if I buy a CD, I am legally entitled to put this music on my ipod, hard drive, cell phone, etc. The artist was paid when I bought the CD. Putting a levy on an ipod, or other portable media players basically means I will be paying twice.

This does not even consider the fact that there are all sorts of reasons why one would use an ipod for purposes other than recording unpurchased music. My wife uses hers to play back podcasts quite extensively - podcasts that are freely distributed and that have nothing to do with music. Peter Jackson and his film crew used them as an effective way to transport video footage from a set to the director because the ultra portability made ipods the best device. Oh yeah, one other scenario comes to mind: putting my purchased CD collection onto my portable media player for the purposes of listening to legal music, where the artist was in fact rewarded for their efforts when I bought their CD. Tell me - how many times should an artist be paid for their work? This is not about a 'free ride' as they claim. This is about double dipping into the consumer's wallet.

Teen Accuses Record Companies of Collusion

Newsflash: Mom gets sued by RIAA. She does not back down, so they sue her kids. Now at least one of her kids is taking the fight back to them, accusing the RIAA of collusion, among other things.