Petition for Users' Rights

After the SOPA protests, what is our message to returning Canadian politicians?

The protests in the USA over SOPA seem to have got the attention of the US politicians. While I don't think the war against these harmful job-killing legislative proposals are over, it is good to see a few won battles. Canadians federal MPs are returning to the House of Commons on January 30'th, and it is expected that Bill C-11 will go to committee soon. We need to ensure that Canadian MPs don't remain oblivious to the harm contained in these proposals, including the harm to Canadian creators.

'Tis the season... to sign better petitions

Mike De Souza blogged about a petition from Bloc Québécois heritage critic Carole Lavallée. While I haven't seen the exact text of the petition, I can speculate that it is against the compromise position on fair dealings (between those like myself who wanted US Fair Use style and those who are opposed to any limitations or exceptions in Copyright), and in favour of an expansion of the failed private copying regime.

Tabling petitions: Copyright Act

MP Charlie Angus tabled another batch of petitions relating to the Copyright Act.

Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP):

Madam Speaker, I have a petition signed by people from across Canada, from Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and Waterloo, calling on parliamentarians to maintain the balance in the upcoming Copyright Act, the balance between the rights of creators and the general public, the people who are using the cultural products. Specifically, they are concerned about the use of technological protection measures, software that overrides the rights that Parliament will give to citizens to ensure there is a full balance in copyright and to ensure that when we have the Copyright Act come before us that it is done with full consultation and involvement of the general Canadian public.

Tabling petitions: Copyright Act

Mr Angus tabled two groups of petition signatures on September 23'rd.

Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I am rising today to present two petitions, both of which have to do with the issues of anti-circumvention measures and technological protection measures that are applied to copyrighted works, and the concern of how the implementation of those by corporate entities would interfere with format shifting, particularly for librarians, in the use of works that citizens have paid for, to ensure that when anti-circumvention measures are applied to works, they do not unfairly impede the rights of consumers and creators.

I would like to present these two petitions from people across Ontario who are concerned with the update of the Copyright Act and the need to find a balance among the rights of creators, the rights of educators, the rights of students, and the rights of consumers.

Counting petitions: WSIC petition.

I am in the process of organising an MP to table the petition signatures I have collected so far. While counting I noticed a custom petition that I didn't realise I had signatures for.

Copyright petitions were filed in December

When I met James Rajotte on October 18, I dropped off signatures to our two petitions. I have been waiting to hear them tabled, but noticed today that they were instead just filed with the Clerk of Petitions on December 10, 2007.

Pursuant to Standing Order 36, petitions certified correct by the Clerk of Petitions were filed as follows:

- by Mr. Rajotte (Edmonton—Leduc), two concerning the Copyright Act (Nos. 392-0187 and 392-0188).

I will be holding onto other signatures I have received given we are very likely heading into a spring election. I want to have some ready to be tabled early in the next session.

Welcome to this site!

The new Copyright bill expected to be tabled for first reading in December is getting a lot of attention. Michael Geist posted an update to his 30 Days of DRM: 30 Things You Can Do which included reference to the petitions on this site. This article was referenced by many other sites, including SlashDot.

This may be the first time some people visit this site.

Petition for Users Rights

Petitions

We have a number of petitions we are sending to the Canadian parliament. Please print and sign all of them. They are on paper rather than electronic so that they can be tabled in Parliament. It is best if you try to get the signed petitions to us so we can coordinate getting them to members of parliament, as signatures have been lost by members of parliament.

These petitions are generic in their wording, and not specific to any bill being tabled. They were as relevant to the historical Bill C-60 and C-61 as they are for Bill C-32 (June 2, 2010) which was re-tabled as Bill C-11 (September 29, 2011).

If you have any questions, please ask.

Art Hanger (Conservative, Calgary Northeast) tables signatures for Petition for Users' Rights

Art Hanger, the Member of Canadian parliament for Calgary Northeast, today tabled a batch of 87 signatures for the Petition for Users' Rights. The signatures were colleced in Calgary by Brett Wuth at a talk by Richard Stallman in Calgary on May 18th, 2005 : The Danger of Software Patents.

UK Government thus far rejects calls for DRM ban

An article by Graeme Wearden of UK ZDNet includes:

The UK government has rejected a call for digital rights management to be banned in the UK, but has acknowledged that the technology could undermine consumer rights.

A total of 1,414 people signed an online petition calling for digital rights management (DRM) — which places restrictions on how people can use media such as software or music — to be outlawed.

The government response contained marketing material from the pro-DRM camp, suggesting they are still relying on broshures rather than science for their analysis.

While our Canadian DRM-specific petition to protect ICT property rights have not received as many signatures, our petition for Users' Rights received more with 2,540 physical signatures so far. This larger petition included a call for the Canadian government "to recognise the right of citizens to personally control their own communication devices", which along with anti-interoperability technology is the core of DRM.

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