The following letter was sent in email to Joy Smith, Conservative member of parliament for Kildonan-St. Paul
Dear Mrs. Joy Smith,
Conservative member of parliament for Kildonan-St. Paul,
I notice that on September 30'th, and again on October 6'th you asked the Minister of Heritage a question about the proposed levy on educational use, and likely eventually all use, of the public part of the Internet. Both times the Minister tried to deflect your question with misinformation.
On September 30th the Minister claimed that, "We want to have material available to students, but we also want to protect the rights of those who are giving that material". This is false. What is being proposed is to ignore the rights of those who are Internet literate and use the technology appropriately to support a full spectrum of modern business models. The proposal is to levy the Internet to subsidize our competitors from Access Copyright. Access Copyright is an administrative body for a legacy business model used by the paper-publishing industry that does not apply to the Internet.
On October 6'th the Minister claimed that, "What I am also saying is it is not because it is available on the Internet that it is free.". This is also a misrepresentation of the facts. The part of the Internet that is proposed to be levied is the part where no subscription or membership is required. Technically literate authors worldwide have understood since the inception of the Internet that where no subscription/membership is required for access that no royalty can legitimately be expected.
The Conservative party has already indicated that it would eliminate the controversial Private Copying levy on blank audio recording media. This proposed Internet levy is far worse in that it applies only to the parts of the Internet where it is not legitimate to expect royalties, and the proceeds of the levy will go entirely to the competitors of those authors who are properly using the Internet.
I would be happy to discuss this further with you. I am a software and non-software literary author who focuses on Internet-era methods of production, distribution and funding of creativity. There are considerable opportunities with the Internet to explore a full spectrum of competitive methods. It is very important for the health of this dynamic part of the economy that the government not step in and "pick winners" by imposing business models.
Thank you.
Russell McOrmond
305 Southcrest Private,
Ottawa, ON
K1V 2B7
Phone: (613) 733-5836
http://www.flora.ca/#contact
Further reading:
4 Letters about Access Copyright (previously CANCOPY) in this week's Hill Times
- Letters to the editor published in the Hill Times discussing the Access Copyright proposal to levy the Internet
Exposing the extremists in the Canadian copyright debate
- Discusses some background on Access Copyright's lobbying in this area, and why the levy is entirely inappropriate.
Freelance journalist Pippa Wysong speaks out about Access Copyright lobbying
Uses and Abuses of Technical Protection Measures (TPMs)
- Article tries to differentiate between the appropriate uses of technical measures (passwords, encryption - AKA: digital locks), and abuses which have harmful consequences.
