A reader sends along the following response from the Green Party on their position on Canadian copyright reform:
Copyright legislation must evolve with the culture it is protecting, and the rapid evolution in technology has made it pertinent to revisit today. Tantamount to reforming copyright legislation is protecting the interests of Canadian producers and consumers of intellectual property. Responsible and reciprocal treatment of our international partners will follow from clearly defining our domestic interests. In order to achieve these objectives the Green Party of Canada will:
- Oppose ratification of the WCT, recognizing both their imprecise definition of obligations and their incongruence with fair dealing;
- Establish a copyright registry that will facilitate tracking and protecting of copyrights where registration is optional for the original author, but mandatory upon the transfer of ownership or death of the author;
- Remove the Levy on Blank Audio Recording Media and replace it with private copying exemptions;
- Introduce a formal notice-and-notice mechanism for dealing with copyright infringement online, thereby affirming common carrier status for Internet Service Providers (ISPs);
- Renounce the Crown Copyright applied to all government produced documents, thereby immediately releasing them into the public domain;
- Hold consultations with music and movie industry artists, producers and distributors along with citizen's assemblies to address the issues of online peer-to-peer networks.
About time…
Brilliant! I was on the edge between the Greens, NDP, and the Liberals, even after an all-candidates debate last night. My main problem with the Greens was a lack of clear policy on this topic. If this is their party policy, then I am moving from undecided to Green.
Great news! go greens! It cant get much fairer than this people.
BAD very bad keep levy
YES absolutely brilliantly perfect for THE CRIA
it GIVES THEM EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT
the end of the levy
and then the ability to SUE THE CRAP out of you
WHEN WILL PEOPLE REALIZE
copyright is a right we grant fo rthem to make SOME money not gouge us for a lifetime.
if they want to really have reform
drop the copyright time to 30 years and see where we are in 30 more as far as innovation.
DO YOU want to LEAD or be lead on a leash.
That levy is the only reason they do not try to sue people cause they know its legal limbo they’d not like to go up agaisnt after all they asked for it.
thats why they would introduce private copying exemptions… just because they would remove the levy doesn’t open you to law suits. Get with the times.
Not relevant …
Peer-to-peer or any other network protocol has no place in copyright regulation. It is totally irrelevant to the copyright issue.
As usual the Green Party’s heart is in the right palce but not necessarily their head.
What about fairness?
It’s unfair to get rid of the levy and carve out exemptions. All that means is that the creators don’t get paid and the public gets to use their rights for free. That’s not fair! The levy puts some money in the pockets of songwriters – this is really important money for them, but not that much of a penalty for CD-R buyers. Your private copies are legal, and the creators get paid something. That’s fair. Legal private copies and no compensation for creators? That’s unfair. Don’t waste your vote on the Greens.
Jimmy
ok so in the same sense ” I claim to be an artist whose music/video/text/images is downloaded without my permission and transferred to a meaningless disc how do I get paid the big bucks as well” Exemptions are their for innovating artists, educators and consumers the levy is only their for “popular” artists.
I want a cut of the levy if it remains in place for the next 5 years where do i sign?
Why should creators get paid something .
… if I am not copying their work? I use blank digital media to record my OWN compositions and save my OWN digital property. Why should I pay a levy? I am using the media to copy MY copyrighted material, but i pay a levy that goes into the pockets of the record labels. Why?
The levy must go. Recordable media is used for purposes other than duplication of non-transferable materials, but the government has no appetite for dealing with users like me fairly.
RE:What about fairness?
Jimmy….
Do you think it’s fair the artist & songwriter receive about $1 or less from the sale of a CD?
Re: About Time…
@ Abattoir:
You should take a look at the rest of the green parties policies before making a hasty decision to vote them based solely on their copyright views.
I used to vote green, but I do not agree with many of their policies now.
Be careful, and choose wisely, a vote for NDP or Liberal is likely better served (NDP being my choice) as it will get one of them closer to beating the Conservatives. And the *LAST* thing we need to do is waste an election re-electing a minority conservative gov’t.
X
Ndp are pro union my fathers 30 yr business is being hit by a union and if the judge rules in the unions favor it will likely put his company into bankruptcy. No vote for NDP though I agree with Mr angus’ digital views. Liberals refused to make any comments on copyright reform when called; emailed and confronted. Thought my vote through, muzzled candidates = no vote!