The Ottawa Centre NDP are in the process of nominating the candidate that will run in the next election. To date there are four declared candidates : Paul Dewar, Jamey Heath, Shannon Lee Mannion, and Tiffani Murray.
I sent them a message asking for views about copyright, and will post any replies. (One received from Shannon Lee Mannion, one from Tiffani Murray)
Letter follows:
While I don't live in Ottawa Center, I do have many friends who will be asking me for my thoughts as someone who is politically active. I sent the attached message to sitting NDP MPs, and believe that any reaction that you have to this letter would be very helpful to people in Ottawa Centre in deciding who they wish to be their next NDP candidate and (hopefully after next election) NDP MP for Ottawa Centre.
In any response please let me know if I can publicly publish. We have a BLOG specially for Ottawa Centre, and will want to publish any thoughts you have on this area of policy.
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/taxonomy/page/or/189
Thank you.
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Subject: What you will be debating starting this week: the future of the Canadian new-economy and culture
I am sending this to each NDP member of parliament as I believe it is important for each of your portfolios. An act to amend the copyright act will be tabled this week. While Copyright is often seen as being as complicated and obscure as the tax act, in the new economy it is one of a few key acts that define the shape of the economy.
You will hear from many lobbiests from the old economy who were successful with the way things used to be. In any way that modern technology has improved the lives for the rest of us, they want to not only turn back the clock but also grant themselves more control over the economy and culture than they ever had in the past.
I am part of a movement in Canada to try to ensure that the economy and culture will not be under their control. We are creators and other citizens who have thus far collected almost 1700 signatures to our "Petition for Users' Rights". As far as I know this is the largest polling of the views of Canadians on copyright, with our old-economy opponents not even bothering to poll their own membership on policy directions.
I believe the following article by Lawrence Lessig explains what the debate is really about, using a story about the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The People Own Ideas!
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/06/issue/feature_people.asp
Add to this an article that I wrote as a technology person to explain that the control mentioned in Lessig's article, "digital rights management" (DRM), does not give control to copyright holders. Control would be handed over to what would become the new owners/controllers of the economy and culture: DRM manufacturers. Legal protection for DRM will harm the rights of copyright holder just as much (if not more) than the rights of every other citizen, but it unfortunately takes a technical person to understand this important factor.
Digital identity and privacy protection: the right tools for the right job
http://www.flora.ca/russell/drafts/digital-id-privacy.html
"Non-technical people should recognize intuitively that TPMs can't protect copyright. They are often told that TPMs are like a lock. Locks stop people without the key from gaining access through a locked door, but can not protect you against people who have been given a key. With digital content the copyright holder wants to give you access to the content, so is going to give you a key (either directly or indirectly such as within a device such as a DVD player). What they want to restrict is not your access to what is behind the locked door, but to somehow restrict what you do once you are inside. Locked doors cannot accomplish this goal, and any attempt to use locks to accomplish this goal will obviously fail."
I am available to discuss these issues further. I hope that unlike past revisions of copyright that more than just the legacy content industry and other intermediaries will be invited to committee to speak to the bill.
The NDP made a positive influence on the budget which provides some short-term change in direction. My hope is that the NDP will be able to influence this bill which will have far longer-term implications on the lives of Canadians.
Russell McOrmond
305 Southcrest Private,
Ottawa, ON
K1V 2B7
Phone: (613) 733-5836
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Response from Shannon Lee Mannion
Date: June 16
Hi Russell, thank-you for bringing Lawrence Lessig's trenchant article to our attention.
Copyright is a fascinating area and one that needs our immediate attention. What is transpiring in Brazil is not that much different from what many media and communications workers face here in North America. Witness JonathanTasini taking on the New York Times and Heather Robertson's $100,000,000 class action suit against Thomson Corporation. Writers want to be in the position to choose whether or not their work is reproduced, whether verbatim or in derivative form, and they certainly want fair remuneration.
At their AGM in Ottawa a month ago, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) resolved to work toward organizing freelance media and communications workers across Canada. This is an onerous undertaking but one well-worth doing as representing this disparate group to their employers will make a tremendous difference in their lives. Please check http://www.cepmedia.ca for more information on this initiative.
Thank-you, again, for bringing up this important discussion.
Best wishes, Shannon Lee Mannion
http://www.slmannion.com
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More notes from Russell McOrmond
Once you go below the surface I believe you will find that what is transpiring in Brazil is nearly opposite to what is happening in North America.
The type of control offered by copyright is to creativity like water is to humans: too little and you dehydrate and die, too much and you drown and die.
When you look at submissions to the copyright reform process from organizations such as the Writers Union, Periodical Writers Association of Canada, and the Creators Rights Alliance (to name a few that share views with CEP, etc) you can clearly get the impression that they believe us creators are dehydrating and what we need is "more water". When you talk to my community and those in Brazil we will indicate that we are currently drowning and need "less water".
As a creator I am clearly not suggesting that we get less reward for our work. I believe, however, that governments need to support a full spectrum of models of production, distribution and funding of creativity. The models that I use are peer-production http://www.flora.ca/floss.shtml , peer-distribution and pre-payment (not post-payment royalties) -- a model which allows me to "skip the intermediaries" and protect me from any negative control from the legacy mega-merging-media companies and "software manufacturing" sub-sector. I create software, but create software in an entirely different sub-sector of the economy from "software manufacturing" which is the model promoted by the self-called Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft ( CAAST.org ). Microsoft is the most successful "software manufacturer", with CAAST members predominantly being US based and not Canadian at all.
There are more ways to get rewarded than by small amount of "remuneration" granted to creators by powerful centralized media companies that currently control many creative industries. The type of "more water" that these creator groups have been asking for only grants more power to the very organizations which they claim to believe are harming their interests.
I believe that CEP will fall prey to the same problem that PWAC did with their Canwest Global contract, where they continue to lobby for the very political climate that Canwest then used against them. The "more water" governments give "copyright holders" (currently primarily media companies, not creators), the easier it is for Canwest to drown them.
Here were my letters to PWAC at that time.
PWAC Condemns New CanWest Global Contract
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/3969
Writers outraged by new CanWest free-lancers' contract.
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/3945
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Response from Tiffani Murray
Date: June 20
Good morning, Mr. McOrmond,
Thank you for your question on the Copyright Act. You may post my response.
Copyright issues are important, since they carry with them economic and cultural components. Balancing the rights of creators with the rights of users is vital.
As I understand it, the changes proposed to the Copyright Act are to allow Canada to ratify two World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Treaties. I believe Canada signed these WIPO Treaties in 1996. Ratification has been slow.
Citizens' input was invited on this issue during the government's web site consultation on digital issues related to copyright, and during cross country consultations which included meeting with the public in Ottawa.
The lessons learned from these consultations have informed the current bill. For example, the government became aware that in many cases, people are both creators of works and users of works. Thus, the Copyright Act seeks a balanced approach for creators and users.
Thank you for bringing the issue to my attention. I will be watching with some interest to ensure that there is an appropriate balance in the Copyright Act between creators and users.
All the best,
Tiffani Murray
NDP Nomination Candidate, Ottawa-Centre
http://www.tiffani.ca
