News

Covering the Return of the Canadian DMCA

Yesterday's post on the government's plans for the copyright bill generated widespread coverage both online and in the mainstream media.  There were many notable blog posts from creators (here, here) and other sites (here, here, here, here, here, here). The media picked up on the story:

The articles themselves are home to hundreds of comments, with the CBC article alone featuring more than 700 comments in less than 24 hours.  The Wire Report includes a comment from Barry Sookman, CRIA's lawyer, arguing that leaking information was inappropriate and that the post is trying to "put pressure on the government to change a decision that is already made."

While Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and the Prime Minister's Office were unsurprisingly mum on the contents of the bill, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau didn't mince words in this tweet: "Forget the hockey spat; DMCA is where @mpjamesmoore and I REALLY disagree."

Update: It was brought to my attention that the CBC report says I that said that the bill will end fair dealing. I said no such thing. I did not speak to CBC before the publication of that article and the post on which it is based clearly refers to flexible fair dealing reform, not the elimination of fair dealing.

22 Comments

  1. With all due respect… all (and I do mean ALL) of those links to coverage are the result of your blog post claiming that this will happen; you’re usually on the ball with these things, but we’re still discussing information from unknown sources.

  2. voter
    OMG I agree with a Tudeau about something. My universe is
    upside down! I — I ahhhhh!

  3. Mr Source says:

    Graham Hendersons silence
    Well so far it’s been confirmed from the PMO that it’s coming out, as the Doc stated.

    “Andrew MacDougall, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office, confirmed a new bill is on the way”

    I have no doubt about the rest.

    Why all the interest in the sources? Especially the big interest from the industry lobbyists (as seen on their blogs and fake news websites). Does CBC give away it’s sources?

    Did CRIA paid lobbyists release meeting notes with Moores secretaries? Oh, yeah, the Liberals are now just now pushing for that to be covered by the lobby act:
    http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/05/05/lobbying-act-motion-day-liberals.html

    “The motion calls for the extension of the federal Lobbying Act to add parliamentary secretaries to the list of designated public office holders, and requires ministers and other senior government officials to proactively record and report their contacts with lobbyists”

    The source! WE MUST KNOW THE SOURCE screams the entrainment industry with thinly veiled US hate sites!

    Pathetic.

  4. Graham: to quote from the CBC article, for one, “Andrew MacDougall, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office, confirmed a new bill is on the way but would not speculate as to what it will contain.”

  5. Justin Trudeau would be wise and would demonstrate potential leadership qualities if he could unite the Liberals on this issue and seriously oppose this Bill.

    It could become an election issue.


  6. Here we go again… we have do do it all over again.

  7. pat donovan says:

    grunt
    in summary.i do NOT agree with the erosion of property rights in your legislative efforts.

    we are NOT a nation of renters, however profitable that be.

    The changes in property, privacy, freedom of speech and freedom of information put the ham-handed elgislation to shame.

    Shame, gentlemen, SHAME!

    —-
    SOMEBODY pass this on.. just to inject a little abstraction into the button-sorters.
    please.

  8. Rick Pali says:

    If we have to take action again, we will.
    After yesterday’s post here, I wrote to my MP and CCed Heritage, Industry, and the PM. I placed the envelopes in the mail this morning.

    This was my wrap-up:

    “For copyright to work, the government must balance the interests of the content creators and the interests of the public. Unfortunately for the public, the government has again forgotten this. I’m writing to ask you to remind them.

    “Voice your opposition to this power play by foreign media giants, clearly and unequivocally. I say ‘no,’ but they won’t hear me without your help.”

    Full text: http://www.alienshore.com/another/2010/05/remind-them/

  9. The Best Revenge
    Should this Bill get pushed through, I think we should create a fund to hire private detectives to follow the MPs who vote for it and their family members in order to catch them breaking this proposed law and have them charged. We all know it will happen. I think that would be the best revenge we could exact.

    I’ll throw in the first $100.

  10. a.martin says:

    Politicians
    Politicians really don’t care about the people anymore do they? Otherwise harper would have listened to The people of Canada the first time he tried this crap. Government seems to be voted in by the people to be used by other governments and big corps for their benefit. Time to vote harper out, he has too many puppet strings attached now, he is damaged goods.


  11. What a wonderful country we live in ! First this, now the CRTC approves UBB!

    I hate this government. And I am quickly starting to hate the whole damn country. If our leaders don’t smarten the f*ck up there will be hell to pay for them.

  12. Gee Queue says:

    It’s probably time…
    … to remind this government that they serve at OUR pleasure — by bringing this government to an end with another election.

  13. the recording industry is like a zombie- a walking soulless corpse feeding off the living. They digitized their “treasury”, broadcast it, sold it, got paid well, and now want to start suing us – please die zombie, die

  14. With SECRETIVE governments like ours, leaks are totally appropriate
    “With all due respect… all (and I do mean ALL) of those links to coverage are the result of your blog post claiming that this will happen; you’re usually on the ball with these things, but we’re still discussing information from unknown sources.”

    With secretive governments with inflated executive branch accountable to transnational lobbies, it is totally appropriate to oppose to the bill based on the info we get from the leaks.

  15. RIAAtarded says:

    another in a long line of bad decisions
    I have complained about this foolishness every time the government tries to sneak it through. This is one of the few topics I actively voice my opinion on and loudly. Once I buy a product it is mine to do with as I see fit. The manufacture no longer should have any say in it’s usage. This crap throws open source into a grey area and turns me into a criminal. Why? because the short sighted rights holder wants to keep me from doing anything useful with a product. I don’t run a Windows OS I prefer linux but try buying a PC without it on there. Now If i swap then what? My xbox runs XBMC and is chipped to do so. My router has DD-WRT on it which has more functionality then the original firmware. All products are free and I bought the hardware based on the fact I could change it to something better. Now the government wants to put a stop to that innovation. Harper do us a favour try doing something in the best interests of the Canadian people rather then being a sheep for corporate america.

    As always Micheal thx for being a voice of reason in a sea of stupidity.

  16. Sean Hunt says:

    Hypocrites
    I’m sure that if Harper had made the decision the other way, then the CRIA would be decrying how the government is trying to destroy creators rather than just say that the decision has been made and that there’s no reason to change it.

    Not to mention that the comment indicates that the CRIA did know about this decsision and has some serious insider access that it shouldn’t.

  17. Jan Rubak says:

    A small tool to aid the public awareness campaign
    (I posted this in yesterday’s comment thread, too, but I came late to the party, so please forgive me for repeating myself.)

    I participated in the protest at Jim Prentice’s Stampede breakfast back when Bill C-61 was still on the table. For the event I burned and distributed 100 audio CDs with two speeches that I think encapsulate the core issues in an accessible way for the laity.
    http://www.archive.org/details/DoctorowOnCopyrightVonLohmannOnDrm

    In a nutshell:
    – Copyright is about balancing interests and serving the public good, not about preserving business models that are no longer viable in the face of technological progress.
    – Digital Rights Management (a.k.a. Technological Protection Measures) are primarily about anti-competitive practices and have essentially zero impact on digital piracy.

    It’s all CC-licensed, so feel free to record your own introduction or create your own abridgements. Burn to CD and distribute to your hearts content!

    (For people seeking a more detailed and legally nuanced treatment, I’m currently working to add more chapters to my audio version of James Boyle’s “The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind”. http://www.archive.org/details/JamesBoyle-ThePublicDomain)

  18. Just as someone said,

    Why Do We Need the Federal Government Anyway?

  19. When will we see the officially proposed legislation?

  20. Vote out all the Conservatives next many times an election is called. This is the only way we can be heard very loud and clear. Politicians dont care about anything other than themselves.

    I find it very offensive to hear the entertainment industry are able to meet with members of the prime minister’s office every single week to pressure the government into policies that they are ‘suggesting’.

    I guess we now know who runs this government – corporations. This government is spineless and shameless. The minute the Americans or Europeans complain just a tiny bit, Harper caves in. Vote them all out.

  21. Laurel L. Russwurm says:

    not just conservatives
    The Liberal Bill C-60 was also pro corporation and anti-consumer.

    On Wednesday May 12th the Waterloo Region Fairvote Chapter is hosting a debate Debate: Strategic Voting – What’s a voter to do?
    http://www.fairvote.ca/en/WaterlooRegion

  22. strunk&white says:

    Well, the most important part of all of this is that news outlets are calling Mr. Geist an expert. Sensational media coverage is usually a reliable sign of accuracy.