Can someone - many someones - please explain to me what on Earth is going on with Canadian copyright laws? I missed the first week of school and now I can't seem to get caught up. Everything I read either assumes too much prior knowledge or is so technical that my eyes instantly glaze over.
Have at it. Links to primers are welcome.
10 comments:
I found James Bow's explanation helpful.
The key issue is that they're trying to make it illegal to circumvent any technological protection measure. So that means that if you buy a DVD in Europe and convert the DVD or hack your DVD player so you can watch it here, or if you convert your DVDs to watch them on your ipod, you're breaking the law. And the maximum penalty for this is 40 times the maximum penalty for piracy for personal use, which is just upgefukt.
So the circumvention issue that you mention on your blog is the main thing, not a side issue.
I'll check out James Bow, too.
Thanks!
Basically, it's handing the RIAA and MPAA the rules they want so they don't have to update their business model. From what I understand, it's like the DMCA, but without the nice bits (and I bet you didn't know there were any nice bits in the DMCA!).
The Tories have been scrambling to assure people that Fair Use is still protected, but they keep glossing over the bit about "unless there's some DRM -- doesn't matter how weak -- and then you're not allowed to do anything with it".
The way the law is worded, this even applies to public domain works -- someone could take an old public domain movie, like (say) the 1920 silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, slap some DRM on it, and sue anyone who copies/uses it in any way.
Musician Nash the Slash has a show where he performs a live soundtrack to Caligari. He used to do a Nosferatu one as well, but when the US pushed copyright protections back, the band Type-O Negative bought up the rights to Nosferatu, and anyone else working with it suddenly had to pay royalties. The Canadian DMCA will cause similar problems.
Lori & I are in the middle of building a media server for our house -- the idea is that we'd rip our 800+ DVDs to it, then we could use our XBox or PS3 to play them on demand over the home network. Under the new law, that's definitely illegal.
Keep in mind that we've paid for those 800+ DVDs. However, the MPAA only wants us to use distribution systems that pay them kickbacks, so they want home media servers to be illegal.
Microsoft & Sony (and other companies) are fighting them, because they want to be able to sell home media servers. HMSes are legal in the US even under DMCA, but would be illegal here (at least, from what I understand of the situation).
Laura, I believe I emailed you about this a while back, with a link to a blog post by a copyright professor about the Canadian law. I will try and find my email and forward it to you.
I am afraid my knowledge of Canadian law (like too many things Canadian) is pretty limited, but if I have a chance, I will read more about this and see what I can share. (Now if you want to know about US copyright law...)
Here's the link Amy sent: The Patry Copyright Blog.
Go to Boing Boing dot com to find outmore about the horrible copyright changes they want to foist on you all.
Doc, Boing Boing is a big place. Can you give me a link?
Here's a recent one that links to categories: Canada's DMCA: a new public service announcement
Another poston Boing Boing
Thank you very much everyone.
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