Digital Copyright Canada

(Also on p2pnet)
As a music fan and someone who believes in my right to make my own software choices on hardware I own, I decided to try out eMusic. This music service is the second most popular online music store, with Apple's iTunes being the top. Unlike Apples iTunes, music purchased through eMusic is made available in vendor-neutral file formats, unlike Apple's iTunes which are encrypted such that they are only interoperable with hardware/software combinations that are approved by Apple.

Note: Apple claims that their FairPlay system is used to stop people from copyright infringement, but basic cryptographic theory documents how this is not possible. The intended recipient of the files and the alleged "attacker" are the same person, and thus the encrypted files and the decryption keys are both available to them.

Hilary (Hillarious) Rosen, past Chairman and CEO of the Recording Indsutry Assciation of America (RIAA), posts an article on the Huffington Post indicating how she believes that "lawsuits have outlived most of their usefulness". She also states that "The iPod is still too small a part of the overall potential of the market and its proprietary DRM just bugs me." Since DRM is the controversial tie of encrypted content to specific brands of access devices which are under the control of the manufacturer rather than the owner, and thus there is no such thing as non-proprietary DRM, this effectively means that she is opposed to DRM.

If she was a Canadian and believed in Factor funding, she just might be a member of the CMCC.

A Globe and Mail article by Guy Dixon includes:

New copyright legislation isn't likely to come until the fall, say Ottawa insiders, despite the publicity blitz by a coalition of musicians opposing certain restrictions.

In just two weeks, the new Canadian Music Creators Coalition has shifted public attention sharply away from what the major record companies want out of the coming legislation: tighter legal controls and the ratification of the World Intellectual Property Organization treaties.

A Canadian Press article (distributed by CTV) includes a discussion of a press event including Charlie Angus, as well as the following:

The Canadian Recording Industry Association has been pressing for tighter controls on how music is distributed, saying the industry has lost close to $6 million in retail sales since the advent of online music trading.

Association president Graham Henderson scoffed Monday at the idea of bringing in more levies on blank media, noting how unpopular the existing tax is. He said legal downloading is available now that gives music lovers the songs they want and pays artists for their work.

This is typical Henderson double-speak. The current blank media levy is not the same as a proposed levy to share, which would much closer to what legalizes and monetizes radio and cable television. There are many problems with the blank media levy that would not apply to a levy for the online distribution of entertainment.

The so-called "legal download" sites Henderson speaks about bring up many questions about the legality of these service, such as the tied selling (Section 77 of the Competition act) of DRM'd content with DRM'd access devices which circumvent the property, privacy and other rights of the owners of these devices.