Post Tagged with: "drm"

Tell Me Lies

This evening I participated in a lively, well-attended forum on copyright in Toronto.  Hosted by MP Olivia Chow, the panel included MP Charlie Angus, Victoria Owen (representing the Canadian Library Association), Stephen Waddell (ACTRA), and Don Quarles (Songwriters).  A streamed version of the event should soon be available here.

While the discussion covered a range of issues and featured some important revelations which I'll address soon in a separate post, I thought that I would post my opening remarks.  I used as my starting point Clay Shirky's terrific post on the weekend about newspapers and applied some of his thoughts to Canadian copyright.  My prepared remarks:

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March 19, 2009 10 comments News

The Music Industry’s Digital Reversal

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) opens by noting that Canadians focused on hockey success and economic doom-and-gloom over the past month may have missed a series of events that suggest a dramatic shift for the recording industry.  For much of the past decade, the industry has relied on three pillars to combat peer-to-peer file sharing – lawsuits, locks, and legislation.  

The lawsuits, which began in 2003, resulted in suits against more than 35,000 alleged file sharers in the United States.  The locks, which refers to digital locks that seek to impose copy-controls on music files, was a requirement for online services such as iTunes before it was given the green light, while the lobbying for legislative reforms to support the use of copy-controls led Canada to introduce the failed Bill C-61.

In a matter of weeks, the foundation of each of these pillars has either crumbled or shown serious signs of cracking.

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January 12, 2009 8 comments Columns

The Music Industry’s Digital Reversal

Appeared in the Toronto Star on January 12, 2009 as The Music Industry's Digital Reversal Canadians focused on hockey success and economic doom-and-gloom over the past month may have missed a series of events that suggest a dramatic shift for the recording industry.  For much of the past decade, the […]

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January 12, 2009 1 comment Columns Archive

Apple Drops DRM For iTunes Music

While the writing has been on the wall for a long time, Apple announced yesterday that it is dropping DRM for music from all four major labels.  As I told the Globe and Mail, this decision continues to shift away from the failed strategy of locks and levies, though the […]

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January 7, 2009 11 comments News

Privacy Commissioner of Canada on C-61

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has released a letter she wrote in response in concerns about Bill C-61.  Commissioner Stoddart expresses clear concern about the anti-circumvention provisions, noting that: the amendments would allow companies to use digital rights management (DRM) software on media sold to Canadian consumers.  These tools have […]

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October 2, 2008 2 comments News