Digital Copyright Canada

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.

(Republishing -- while I don't agree with PWAC on what constitutes forward movement on knowledge economy issues, or even the likely shape of the knowledge economy, I agree with the sentiment).

For Immediate Release: August 28, 2008

The Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) encourages Canadian voters, media and politicians to ensure information economy issues are front and centre in any coming federal election, and into the next legislative session.

I am baffled in my latest submission to IT World Canada's BLOG by writers who are concerned that traditional media companies are abusing their stronger negotiating position to force bad deals on writers, but who then lobby the government to change the law to put far worse intermediaries in control of our media.

The following was submitted as a reply to Copyright protects writers' livelihoods, by John Degen.

John Degen is correct that any discussion of changes to Canadian copyright brings out the usual suspects. I am a software author who has spent much of my volunteer time since the 2001 copyright consultations talking with fellow independent creators about the direction of proposed legislative changes, and a very different direction that would be beneficial for creators.

John Degen blogs about Copyright (and I respond below):

A friend of mine, copyfighter Russell McOrmond, is fond of the analogy that copyright law is like water -- too little of it and we die of thirst; too much of it and we drown. As analogies go, this one is very tidy, but I prefer to think of my copyright as oxygen. For the professional practice of a working writer, copyright is not a too much/too little proposition. It's an either/or. Provided with my oxygen, I get to keep breathing and keep writing. Deprived of it, well...

The Hill Times had a letter to the editor and 2 articles on copyright in this week's hill times. Howard Knopf is the author of one and he has published it and a comment on the second article on his BLOG. There was a group of 12 incumbent copyright industry lobbiests who published their article on the CRIA website.

I wrote my own letter to the editor which may appear in next weeks issue which, among other things, refutes the IDC studies -- first the study that under-estimates the use of FLOSS, as well as the derivative study over-estimates the amount of software copyright infringement (The BSA commissioned study the Dire Dozen reference).

The following press release is from PWAC. My impression of the strike has been very different, suggesting that writers are trying to treat new media as if it was the same as old media (effectively disallowing programming on new media). I am wondering what other people think.

Is this a case where creators are wanting to receive their legitimate rewards and are being denied it by old-media intermediaries, or is this an extension of the "Internet on Cable --> Internet as Cable" debate?

The following is a PWAC press release:

The Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) is advising all Canadian freelance writers to resist recent contract changes involving uncompensated rights demands and undue pressure to sign before publication.

At the 2007 PWAC National Conference & AGM in Vancouver, PWAC presented the esteemed Dr. Vincent Mosco, Canada Research Chair in Communications and Society as one of our luncheon speakers. Dr. Mosco spoke to the gathered writers about how freelance work and organized labour have begun to come together in North America. (to audio on Archive.org).