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Friday June 20, 2008 |
The week in the life of the Canadian DMCA concludes (day one, day two, day three, day four) with Stephen.
Stephen is a big music fan. Tonight, he is going with his girlfriend to see his favourite band in concert. He has purchased every CD issued by the band. To get ready for concert, he downloads a live version of one of his favourite songs that was released commercially in Europe (it is not available in Canada) that he finds on a file-sharing network. The song is downloaded to an external hard drive that he uses to store his music. While on the network, one hundred songs on the hard drive were available in his shared folder for others to download, though none were. At his girlfriend’s request, he also copies three of the band's best songs onto a CD to play during the drive to the concert. He gives the CD to his girlfriend as a gift.
If Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s Bill C-61 becomes law, all of these copying activity - with one exception - would arguably violate the law.
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Wednesday June 18, 2008 |
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My colleague Jeremy deBeer did a terrific job answering questions about Bill C-61 at the Globe and Mail today. The transcript is definitely worth a read. Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareWednesday June 18, 2008 |
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Wednesday June 18, 2008 |
The week in the life of the Canadian DMCA continues (day one, day two) with Josee.
In the morning, Josee teaches a class on media in the digital world. The class is conducted in a distance-learning classroom and includes both her students and students from a school in Edmonton using Alberta's SuperNet network. This is the second year that she has run the course and she is using the same lessons, which include extensive copies of articles for course materials. In the afternoon, Josee teaches a communications class, making use of a website that features a copyright and an “all rights reserved” notice. A student in the class presents a research assignment that features short excerpts from a DVD copy of the movie Broadcast News and passages that are cut-and-pasted from an electronic book that contains a digital lock. Josee is a big Calgary Flames fan. The Flames are playing that night with the game broadcast on pay-per-view. Josee has a dinner commitment, but decides to buy the game and record it with her PVR to watch when she gets home.
If Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s Bill C-61 becomes law, all of these copying activities arguably violate the law.
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Tuesday June 17, 2008 |
The week in the life of the Canadian DMCA continues (day one here) with Rona, Jim and Josee's ten year old daughter. Rona is a huge American Idol fan, faithfully watching each episode and buying CDs released by former contestants with her savings. Last January, Jim set the family's PVR to tape and retain each episode to allow Rona to watch how the contestants progressed. That night, Rona records an Internet-only broadcast of American Idol highlights on her personal computer. She also asks her brother Stephen to transfer songs from her newest CD to her computer. The CD is copy-protected, but Stephen uses a circumvention program to transfer the music files.
If Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s Bill C-61 becomes law, all of these copying activities arguably violate the law.
Bill C-61 gives Canadians the right to record television shows with their PVR. However, the recordings may only be kept long enough to allow for the program to be viewed at a more convenient time. By retaining copies of earlier programs, Rona (or Jim) is likely violating the law. (Section 29.23 (1)(d)).
Rona’s recording of an Internet broadcast also violates the law. Bill C-61 explicitly prohibits recording Internet-only broadcasts (Section 29.23 (3)).
The copying of the music files also violates the law. The act of circumventing the copy-controls on the CD violate Bill C-61 (Section 41.1). Moreover, the much-promoted provision to allow users to transfer their music onto their device of choice doesn't apply either, since one of the conditions is that users cannot circumvent a digital lock as part of the music transfer process (Section 20.22(1)(c). Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsfeeder, Reddit, StumbleUpon, TwitterTagsShareTuesday June 17, 2008 |
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