Digital Copyright Canada

On Sat, 9 Mar 2002 mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca wrote:

> Do we know of anyone who actually went to the Halifax consultation
> meeting yesterday?  I have one contact in Nova Scotia who wasn't able to
> make it, partly because of the short notice.  I sure hope somebody on
> our side of the issues got to be there.

  I am setting up a meeting with someone from Canadian Heritage in Ottawa,
towards my being involved in making a small presentation in Ottawa.  We do
have April 11 to look forward to.

  If someone reading this lives in the Ottawa region and wish to make
contact as well, please send me an Email.  I was asked to pass on the
contact information to others I know in Ottawa working on this issue, but
not to post it to a web-archived forum such as this one.

  It would be nice to get ideas from the other presentations to know what
we are up against, or what level of support we have received so far.  I
also hope that many others in the Ottawa region will consider making
presentations on the 11'th.

 From this: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/rp00838e.html

  I gather the session we would be able to get involved in is the last
(5'th session), and presentations will be max 10 minutes.  I know this
will feel short given that I've filled 75 minutes alone doing my short
presentation with High-school teachers (this did include Q&A).  
  http://weblog.flora.ca/article.php3?story_id=114

Short version of what I would like to present:

  a) That there are 3 different rights being discussed, and they should be
     discussed separately.  That there are 3 constituencies: authors,
     publishers and individuals/users/citizens and that there needs to be
     a specific effort to protect the communications rights of this third
     group.

     EG: http://www.flora.ca/pd-20020222/img3.htm          - slide
         http://www.flora.ca/copyright-2001.shtml#rights   - long version

  b) The Free Software industry is an example of software development
     paid for primarily in a services model rather than a manufacturing
     model.  Treating ideas as a new form of property that is
     bought/sold/rented is only a single business model amongst many.
     One single business model should not get such absolute protection
     from the Government.

     EG: http://www.flora.ca/pd-20020222/img2.htm

     Requirements are different for success : open (secret-free) access to
     all electronic communications formats whether that be file formats,
     communications protocols.  Communications formats should not only not
     be protected by copyright, but the right to reverse-engineer 
     and publicly document these communications formats should be
     explicitly protected.

     Copyright primarily used to protect moral rights which is what is 
     common with all Free Software/Open Source licenses.  Specific 
     licenses are often further used to protect specific other rights, 
     such as ensuring that derivatives of works have the same license as 
     the original.

  c) What laws take precedence when they are in conflict? 
     The DVD-CCA/DeCSS case is an example where Competition law is in
     conflict with Copyright law.

     Competition law is aimed to protect the core values of a Free Market
     economy while Copyright law aims to protect a monopoly reportedly
     required by a single company to pay for investment.

     Given this, competition law should always trump Copyright law, not
     the other way around.
        http://www.flora.ca/copyright-2001-cmpda-reply.shtml

     "Being opposed to antitrust laws in support of free markets is like
      being opposed to laws against theft in support of private property."  
                   - Me http://www.flora.org/flora/server/comnet-www/1872

  If there is anyone similar (business/beliefs/etc) that would like to
co-present these ideas, and who would otherwise not present on their own,
please let me know.  It may have more impact to have a number of people
from this form of business come there together to present in parts.  It
might go faster to have multiple people, and people hearing the
presentation would remember what we said better.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 See http://weblog.flora.org/ for announcements, activities, and opinions
 "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise,
  we don't believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky

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Digital Copyright Canada

Towards a presentation in Ottawa April 11'th.

All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!