Post Tagged with: "Copyright Microsite – About the Canadian DMCA"

A Week in the Life of the Canadian DMCA: Part Three

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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June 18, 2008 22 comments News

A Week in the Life of the Canadian DMCA: Part Two

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 […]

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June 17, 2008 Comments are Disabled Stop CDMCA

A Week in the Life of the Canadian DMCA: Part Two

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 […]

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June 17, 2008 46 comments News

CBC’s Search Engine Crowdsources Copyright Questions

CBC's Search Engine, which last year crowdsourced questions for Industry Minister Jim Prentice, is asking Canadians for practical questions about the consequences of Bill C-61.

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June 14, 2008 4 comments News

The Canadian DMCA: A Betrayal

Having had a few more hours to think about Industry Minister Jim Prentice's Canadian DMCA, I am left with one dominant feeling – betrayal.  I have already highlighted the key provisions and coverage (and note that it will take some time to fully assess the implications of this bill) but it is immediately apparent that the concerns of thousands of Canadians – now over 45,000 on the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group alone – have been realized.  If enacted, the Canadian DMCA would strongly encourage the use of technological locks and lawsuits. While Prentice has given a handful of new rights to Canadian consumers, each is subject to many limitations and undermined by the digital locks provisions that may effectively render the new rights meaningless. 

So why is it a betrayal?

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June 13, 2008 108 comments News