Canada To Introduce Copyright Law Next Week

[BJ_M]

well - it has been a nice ride, but thanks to the pressure of the nazi party , i mean the CRIA and RIAA , legislation much like the USA's will be brought forth ..

File-sharing law to be tabled next week: CTV

he federal government will introduce new legislation aimed at toughening up copyright laws in the digital world, CTV News has learned. Still, industry stakeholders who say file sharing is stealing say the laws are not stringent enough.

About seven million Canadians download music from the Internet and the Canadian market for music downloads is estimated to be $100 million, according to The Canadian Independent Record Production Association.

"Somebody once described it as the the celestial jukebox, because you can find just about anything out there," Internet user Joey de Villa said.

Copyright holders have long been pushing for the federal government to toughen up laws. While new legislation will be tabled next week, industry stakeholders say the legal action is still not tough enough.

"Not only is it not as tough as we would like. It doesn't provide the adequate legal framework that we would like," Graham Henderson, of the Canadian Recording Industry Association told CTV News.

The new legislation will contain rules that will make it illegal to hack or break into the digital locks often used to prevent the copying of movies and software -- although it will remain perfectly legal in Canada to copy a CD for personal use.

"The digital locks themselves can be used to take away rights that users already have," University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist told CTV News.

The legislation also sets up what is called a notice-and-notice regime to handle complaints of copyright infringement.

Under this system, an Internet service provider will receive a notice from a copyright holder complaining about violations from its provider's customers. The ISP would then send a notice to that customer.

"If a father or mother gets a notice from their ISP that they might be sued because of the activities of their teenaged son or daughter, you could be pretty well assured that that activity is going to change," said Jay Thomson of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers.

This puts the onus on a rights holder to prove a violation has occurred.

But that's still not good enough for de Villa.

"I want to be policed by the police, rather than by the record companies," he said.

This legislation likely won't become law until later this year and experts say it may only be the first of several changes to the legal environment on music downloading. They expect entertainment industry heavyweights to continue pushing to banish Internet-based file sharing.

Last month, Canadian record labels were dealt another legal blow in their quest to curtail online music sharing.

In a unanimous decision, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the Canadian Recording Industry Association's appeal to oblige Internet service providers to release the names and addresses of 29 people alleged to be trading music with Net surfers.

As well, the judges refrained from making sweeping conclusions on copyright laws -- specifically about whether downloading or uploading music should be illegal.

[BJ_M]

this shows how nuts they are:

CRIA's New Take on Copyright Reform

"This is terrific news. Canada is one step closer to having a copyright law that will reflect the realities of the digital marketplace and allow the music industry a chance to prosper. We want to thank the government and the opposition parties for their support in getting to this stage."

Graham Henderson, CRIA President, March 24, 2005



"Not only is it not as tough as we would like. It doesn't provide the adequate legal framework that we would like."

Graham Henderson, CRIA President, June 8, 2005

they dont even know which way to blow

[BJ_M]

Fact and Fiction



With the government likely to introduce copyright legislation sometime in the next week or two, Canadians are likely to face a barrage of rhetoric from copyright owners, alternately saluting the government for introducing a copyright bill while also criticizing them for not going far enough to protect Canada's cultural industries.

I am certain I will have a thing or two to say about the bill once it is introduced, though assuming the government follows the plan unveiled in March, Canada is likely to get a bill that overwhelmingly addresses copyright owner interests (making available right, protection for technical protection measures rather than from them, new copyright rights for photographers and performers of sound recordings, etc.) with little for millions of individual Canadians other than the cold comfort that it could have been worse (the U.S. implementation of TPM protection and the adoption of a notice and takedown system, for example). There will be nothing on reforming the statutory damages provisions, moving toward fair use (as the Australians are considering), eliminating crown copyright, providing for greater transparency of the copyright collectives so Canadians have a better understanding of where the hundreds of millions of dollars collected each year ends up, and embracing policies that support the incredible flourishing of creativity that we are seeing on a daily basis today online.

Copyright owner rhetoric aside, it is unfortunate that we are also unlikely to see many people actually referring to statistical evidence to support their claims that copyright reform is desperately needed. There is a reason for this, of course. The evidence suggests otherwise. Statistics Canada today released the latest in a long line of reports on the Canadian cultural sector. Today's report, which focuses on the periodical industry, is the most comprehensive look at the industry from the government's statistics agency in many years. The verdict? The Canadian periodical industry has never been healthier with a steady increase in magazines, revenue, and circulation between 1993 and 2003. Government cultural programs, not stronger copyright laws, have supported that growth. In fact, digging deeper into the data reveals that Canadian magazines generated more than $10 million in revenues in 2003 from their websites and e-commerce activities.

This report is not an isolated incident. I've previously written about the music industry's exaggerations regarding its financial situation, with growth in both revenue and units shipped in the 13 months since the trial level file sharing decision last March (there is an answer to Graham Henderson's recent rhetorical comment that we don't know how many artists' careers have been hurt by that decision. We do. None). Statistics Canada also reported on economic growth in the television, industry last week, though it again called attention to the Canadian cultural deficit in late May.

The sum total of this data (and similar relatively recent data on film) is that there are good news, bad news, and really bad news stories here. The good news is that Canadian cultural industries are doing well and that Canadian cultural support is having its desired effect. The bad news is that notwithstanding the growth, Canada still has a significant cultural goods and services deficit so that for all the success, foreign creators and companies continue to take far more out of Canada, than Canadians earn abroad. The really bad news is that we are about to see proposals for Canadian copyright laws that will both ignore our successes and exacerbate our shortcomings.

Michael Geist
law professor at the University of Ottawa

further reading:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/home.php#418

[lordsmurf]

they dont even know which way to blow

I think they are busy blowing themselves.

[mbellot]

About seven million Canadians download music from the Internet and the Canadian market for music downloads is estimated to be $100 million, according to The Canadian Independent Record Production Association.

Is that US $, Canadian $ or Monopoly money?

Since they don't bother to substantiate the claim why not say $100 billion? It sure sounds more impressive.

[Nilfennasion]

Because seven million downloaders could never add up to a hundred billion. The US' population of 250 or so million, I can see doing that much downloading, but the only other country where a hundred billion dollars worth of songs could be downloaded in a year would be China.