June 3rd, 2010
Today the government introduced new copyright legislation. The good
news is that there are some worthwhile proposals in it. The bad news
is that the good measures are all trumped by digital locks. Recording
a TV show will be legal – unless there is a digital lock. Copying
music to your iPod will be legal – unless there is a digital lock.
Parody and satire (think Jon Stewart’s Daily Show) will be permitted -
unless there is a digital lock. Michael Geist explains.
We must not let the interests of foreign entertainment companies
overrule the interests of Canadian artists, consumers, and citizens.
We know that the U.S. has threatened to “thicken the border” if we did
not pass an appropriate law. Apparently in 2007 when the ministers
responsible for copyright pushed back against a bad law, the PMO
response was “we don’t care what you do, as long as the U.S. is
satisfied”:
In last summer’s consultation the vast majority of Canadians argued
that digital locks should not trump our rights. Ordinary legitimate
activities of Canadian citizens should not run afoul of copyright law.
If we value artistic creativity – if we think satire is valuable, or
pop art, or documentary – then we cannot allow a technology company to
outlaw it simply by wrapping content in a lock. It is our job to
insist that our government listen to the democratic will of the
people. This bill is not yet law. Michael Geist says the bill is
fixable. Let’s get our politicians to fix it.
Today the government introduced new copyright legislation. The good news is that there are some worthwhile proposals in it. The bad news is that the good measures are all trumped by digital locks. Recording a TV show will be legal – unless there is a digital lock. Copying music to your iPod will be legal – unless there is a digital lock. Parody and satire (think Jon Stewart’s Daily Show) will be permitted – unless there is a digital lock.
Michael Geist explains the bill below.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5080/125/
We must not let the interests of foreign entertainment companies overrule the interests of Canadian artists, consumers, and citizens. We know that the U.S. has threatened to “thicken the border” if we did not pass an appropriate law. Apparently in 2007 when the ministers responsible for copyright pushed back against a bad law, the PMO response was “we don’t care what you do, as long as the U.S. is satisfied”:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5079/125/
In last summer’s consultation the vast majority of Canadians argued that digital locks should not trump our rights. Ordinary legitimate activities of Canadian citizens should not run afoul of copyright law. If we value artistic creativity – if we think satire is valuable, or pop art, or documentary – then we cannot allow a technology company to outlaw it simply by wrapping content in a lock. It is our job to insist that our government listen to the democratic will of the people. This bill is not yet law. Michael Geist says the bill is fixable. Let’s get our politicians to fix it.
The government’s consultation is nearly over. Reports from the copyright townhall in Toronto are that the room was stacked by the recording industry. We need to make our voices heard. Come out to the meeting, ask questions, and learn about what you can do.
Time & Place
Wednesday, September 3, 2009
6:30pm – 9:30pm
SFU Harbour Centre, room 2245
555 W. Hastings St.
Vancouver, BC
Facebook event page
Getting There
If coming by Skytrain, get off at Waterfront Station. Exit onto Cordova St. Cross the street and walk uphill on Seymour for one block. The building on your left is Harbour Centre. Midway along the block is the entrance to SFU Harbour Centre.
A number of buses from elsewhere stop within a block along Hastings, the #135 (Hastings in Burnaby) and #160 (Coquitlam Centre).
If coming by car, you will need to find parking. There are some meters in the area, and a number of parking garages. My experience trying to park under Harbour Centre itself has not been good – I usually go to a place SE on Cordova near Homer (I think it has a large orange P sign).
The photo is by Richard Smith, available under a Creative Commons attribution license: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smith/228913502/
RiP is a documentary about copyright and remix culture. It has won a number of awards at film festivals, where it has been receiving standing ovations. Vancouver Fair Copyright is very pleased to be a community partner for she screening. Here is what DOXA, the documentary film organization have to say about the film:
On March 8th RiP, a seriously entertaining and ground-breaking documentary, premieres in Vancouver. RiP: A remix manifesto is an edgy exploration of copyright law’s effect on the future of art and our daily activities in a world where watching YouTube and downloading music is the norm.
The film follows Girl Talk, a hip hop dj, acknowledged by many as a ‘lawsuit waiting to happen’ due to his famous mash-ups. His story demonstrates copyright law’s original purpose of artist protection and its dominant incarnation today as a money-making tool for corporations. RiP asks us to consider a balance between artistic inspiration, sharing within a community and copyright protection.
RiP: A remix manifesto is from local filmmaker and web activist Brett Gaylor. A founding instructor of the Gulf Islands Film and Television School, Gaylor founded opensourcecinema.org, a video remix community which allowed RiP to be the first open source documentary.
The film will be screened at the Vancity Theatre on Seymour St. at 7pm on Saturday, March 8. You can see full details and buy tickets on the DOXA site.
The Third Issue
Anime Evolution
Jesse Betteridge and Kris Best conducted a copyright panel at Anime Evolution at UBC, which was a huge success with lots of participation. A recording of the panel (about an hour long) is available at http://www.zannen.ca/copyright_panel.mp3.
Student Clubs
We plan to start fair copyright clubs at SFU and UBC, and we’re looking for students of those institutions to join. Students at SFU should contact Chen Shen (chen|at|cshen|dot|ca), while at UBC Bruno Godin (godin|dot|bruno|at|gmail|dot|com) is setting things up.
Website
The main website has now been converted to WordPress. We are looking for a designer to re-design the website for usability and presentation. It does not have to be fancy, but should look nice.
Logo Making
We are looking at making t-shirts with our message to easily identify Fair Copyright members at events. In order to do this we need to have a logo which is simple (to be printed on the t-shirt), identifiable, and easily communicates our core message of fair copyright. Being able to draw it by hand is of course a bonus. Please post any ideas/sketches/etc on the mailing list or discussion board. A handy image host is http://imageshack.us/ if you need it.