Digital Copyright Canada

For those who did not know, Access Copyright, which represents a limited subset set of Canadian creators and publishers, has proposed (and will likely be granted) a yearly per-student fee for the use of photocopiers by schools. This increase will set the rate to $45 for Universities, and $35 for other educational institution, multiplied by the full time equivalents (FTE). (For details, read this PDF)

I have some sympathy for the economic situation these organizations find themselves in.
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While I have this sympathy, I don't see what this has to do with Copyright.

Read Full article on IT World Canada's blog...

I had a conversation last night with a friend who is on our towns library board. The board had their final meeting before the summer break, and the issue of copyright never came up. [sigh] Aside from this all being part of the government's plan to keep this legislation as low key as possible, this library board is woefully ignorant of copyright issues. To help rectify that I am doing a little bit of research into copyright from the libraries perspective which we can hopefully provide to the board in time for them to make their own statement.

No matter what I feel about the Private Copying regime for recorded music, it is clear that the music industry wants this. When I say music industry I mean composers and performers who have come out strongly in favor of the regime. It has become clear that the recording industry can no longer be said to represent musicians or the overall music industry.

I can live with this regime being expanded to devices as I consider it the lesser of two evils: a levy on devices, or non-owner locks on devices. In order for the regime to have any resemblance of fairness it should be obvious that we can't allow both.

Read full article on IT World Canada's blog >>>

April 23'rd is World Book and Copyright Day, organized by UNESCO and celebrated since 1995. This is a good day to become aware of the threats to Copyright so that we can better protect Copyright from them.

Read full article on IT World Canada's blog >>>

See Michael Geist's Law Bytes article for more on the motion and private members bill tabled by Charlie Angus.

While the iPod levy proposal garnered the lion's share of attention, Angus's fair-dealing motion may ultimately have a bigger impact.

Also in the news today: CRTC to rule on 'TV tax' dispute.

Collective societies are practically defined in legislation as being legalised cartels. The only legitimate purpose for these legalised cartels is to collect money from specific uses of copyrighted works in the extreme situations where they apply, and distribute to relevant copyright holders. While a tiny cut can be justified for administrative purposes, these legalised cartels should not be lobbying the government, nor should they be administering or creating what are effectively government programs.

An article last month in Quill & Quire details a new Access Copyright Cultural Fund (see PDF of July newsletter from Access Copyright) that seems far more like a government program than something legitimately involving a collective society. "It is being launched with a one-time contribution of $3 million from Access Copyright, and will be augmented in the future by an annual contribution of 1.5% of copyright licensing revenues (about $600,000)."

If authors individually wish to donate their personal money to a non-profit association, then that is their choice. It should clearly not be legal for collective societies to abuse their legalized cartel status this way.

In yesterday's article, as well as my submission to the consultation, I suggested that the recording industry is like the tail trying to wag the dog in the copyright consultation. The recording industry represents one of three copyright holding groups in a larger music industry made up of composers, performers, and "makers" of sound recordings. While this group dominated the music industry in the past, modern technology will inevitably cause a restructuring of the music industry such that they will be the smallest of the three.

Contrary to recording industry claims, it is my belief that even if there wasn't a single unauthorized music file shared that the recording industry would be seeing a nearly identical decline.

>>> Read full article on ITWorldCanada's blog.

When Michael Ignatieff re-joined the Writers Union of Canada during the Copyright consultation I thought: Great, another misinformed politician who thinks that what the Writers Union is asking for in the Copyright debate will actually help Canadian writers. I finally listened to the August 10'th episode of TVO's Search Engine where 11 minutes and 50 seconds in Jesse Brown offers his own commentary on why Mr. Ignatieff is more of a counter-example to what the union is saying.

My first draft of the op-ed for Georgia Straight was far too long, and included not only discussion of digital locks but also commentary about government imposing royalty-based business models. It also used Georgia Straight articles by Bill Henderson and Marian Hebb as illustrations. I'm including here that last part that needed to be cut out of the op-ed.

The Canadian Private Copying collective has sent out a press release (PDF from CPCC, covered by FYI music) where they asked the Bloc, Liberal, Conservative, Green and NDP their position on the Private Copying Regime. While the Conservatives did not respond to the survey, I believe it is fair to accept Bill C-61 as their response given they have promised to re-introduce it if elected.

Before the responses from the parties, I would like to offer what I consider to be a fair and historically consistent reform of the private copying regime.

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