Digital Copyright Canada

Michael Gurstein <mgurst@vcn.bc.ca> recently posted this to the
cpi-ua@vcn.bc.ca "Universal Access" discussion forum.  Hopefully he'll
forward this reply to canfutures@chatsubo.com as I am not a subscriber.

---forwarded text---

Copyright Reform Process

Based on what has been happening south of the border, it is likely that
this is one of the pivotal pieces of legislation in determining how Canada
positions itself in the re-territorialization of the global
information/knowledge commons...

Someone described this as the contemporary equivalent of the British
enclosure movement of the 17th Century which resulted in the enmiseration
of a substantial part of the population of the UK (and Ireland), the
subsequent Irish famines, the Highland Scottish dispersal and not
incidentally the mass migration of populations to the US, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand.

Unfortunately as with all "commons" (Garrett Hardin), since no one owns
them, no one has a "stake" in ensuring that they remain common while those
who are working for their enclosure have a clear financial stake in
obtaining a self-interested outcome.

Given the tragic weakness of the Canadian non-commercial sector with any
knowledge or interest in these issues, I have no idea how the Information
Commons can be protected in the context of this government initiative (and
no personal time or attention to devote to the issue) which will, if
recent history is any example, be long, complex, expensive and with
effectively no financial provision to enable or support participation by
those without a direct financial self-interest.

Suggestions...

MG

---cut---

My reply:

  This "commons" does have people who have a stake in ensuring that things
remain (or rather become) common.  This is a big part of the debate which
is not just an 'enclosure' or a 'tragedy of the commons', but a battle
between traditional Industrial and potential post-Industrial economies.

  Industrial economies and business models are formed primarily on the
concepts of buying/selling/amalgamating/renting/etc "property" of some
form or another.  This has been the source of the highly politically
motivated push to use the phrase "Intellectual property" for the class of
laws that grant temporary intellectual monopolies in relation to
intellectual economics. This phrase comes with it a large number of
assumptions, and many of us pushing for a transition away from
industrial-economic models question and often totally disagree with most
of those assumptions.

  http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#IntellectualProperty

  One entire industry that is very focused on this difference is the Free
Software industry which doesn't make money based on ideas being considered
'property', but based on information being a commons that people get paid
to 'improve' or better communicate rather than 'restrict'.

  I have been involved in this part of the software industry for quite
some time, and have been a strong promoter of all the advantages of this
software development model and the associated business models.  There are
advantages for the "authors/artists" (IE: models tend to be more
individualistic/freedom rather than based on centralized big-business
employers) as well as the public (information is less expensive given the
closer relationships between the artist/author and audience, more
individual freedoms exist, markets are more competitive due to the lack of
government-created monopolies, etc).

  Some of the same parts of civil society that have now awaken and noticed
the problems with neo-Classical Economic Globalization are also starting
to notice the problems with "Intellectual Property" and will be responding
to this as well.

  I've posted to this forum before inviting people to the forum at
http://www.flora.org/dmca/   - please get involved in the discussion with
everyone you can, and in particular forums like this one which will
hopefully provide information for submissions to the government.

   Not only should we ensure that the USA's DMCA does not become the form
of changes in the laws of Canada, but we should also push to ensure that
Canada's laws become the most forward-looking in the transition *AWAY
FROM* the Industrial economies to the future information/services
economies.

---now the sales pitch!---

  If you do not have the time yourself, and believe that only those who
have a financial interest will be able to push things forward in a better
direction, then help by investigating your own procurement policies.  If
you don't want the commons to be "owned" by private special interests,
then support those working in movements that have similar goals:

  What you can do:

  a) Hire "free software" rather than proprietary software.  If you have a
LAN server or desktop, consider using FreeBSD/Linux/etc based systems
rather than Solaris, Microsoft-Windows or MacOS.  If you need an office
suite, use OpenOffice/StarOffice, GNOME office, KOffice or similar rather
than Microsoft Office.  Hire consultants like myself (evil grins
<http://www.flora.ca/> ) rather than Microsoft/Novell certified
consultants.

  b) Keep up-to-date on more modern music licensing techniques such as
Open Audio <http://www.flora.org/dmca/forum/46>.  I for one get most of my
music from http://www.mp3.com/ and currently do not purchase music
distributed via the members of RIAA.

  c) Boycott DVD's, e-Books or other technologies which are currently
under litigation in any of the various countries that are pushing the
Industrial-models onto Intellectual economies: http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/

  d) Tell all your friends about the issues, especially people in
intellectual professions such as software developers, musicians,
librarians, and educators.  Some of them may get involved. One small
primer to the whole issue may be: "The Right to Read", by Richard Stallman
  http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 Free Sklyarov http://www.dibona.com/dmca/ http://www.freesklyarov.org/ 
 http://www.flora.org/dmca/ Oppose DMCA in Canada! (C) reform process....
 http://russell.flora.org/drafts/copyright-2001.html My submission...

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Digital Copyright Canada

enclosure movement, or economic transition? (Was: Re: Copyright Reform Process)

All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!