Prevent Canada from Becoming a Copyright Police State
Written by Ernesto on August 12, 2009Canada is planning to reform its copyright law and if the entertainment industries have their way, the rights and privacy of consumers will be thrown overboard. It’s time for all Canadian BitTorrent users to stand up against the increasing power of the anti-piracy lobby, before it’s too late.
The Canadian government is conducting ongoing public consultations on copyright reform. Needless to say, the entertainment industries are deeply involved, pushing for harsher legislation in an attempt to get more control over what the public does on the Internet.
Instead of fostering creativity, they see copyright merely as a means to make money – the more restrictions the better is their credo. The interests of large corporations should come before the rights of individual Internet users, they try to convince the Government.
“With immense pressure from lobby groups, corporate interests and the US government calling for DMCA-style legislation including a three-strike system and warning letters from ISPs, every Canadian needs to be concerned,” Jason Crocker, Chairman of the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights told TorrentFreak.
This time around the pro-copyright lobbyists are even alienating their own people with their far-reaching proposals. In a recent roundtable discussion the Manitoba Music Industry Association said that they found themselves “more aligned with some of the creators coalitions and independent music groups and less aligned with CRIA and the RIAA.”
Everyone on the Internet, and BitTorrent users specifically, stand to be greatly impacted by changes to Canada’s copyright regime. To prevent this from happening Canadians should inform the Government that they are worried, or deal with the consequences.
“If we do not voice our concerns en masse we run the risk of having a draconian system of copyright rules imposed upon us. Imagine living in a country where corporations dictate how you consume information and media and utilize technology. Canadians need to speak out against such proposals and push for greater flexibility in the law to provide a balanced, fair approach on digital reforms,” Crocker told TorrentFreak.
The good news is that the government also wants to hear from individual Internet users, so that the interests of all Canadians can be taken into account. The public can participate in government consultations on copyright by registering for town hall meetings, webcasts or by sending in a submission via email.
There is also an easy solution for behind-the desk activists though. The Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights has created a quick and easy to use letter wizard for making submissions to the official consultations as well as the ministers responsible for the copyright file in Canada. The CCER will also physically mail a copy of every submission to the appropriate ministers.
Previously: Movie Studios Want Own Version of Justice For 3 Strikes
Next: I’d Rather Be Raped By Pirate Bay Than Go With Spotify
115 Responses
What’s next? Wake up all
they won’t stop until they run out of money or they have executed us all, these guys are freaks pirate on dont pay a cent
Canada is New Scotland! the people will decide
great article
http://www.h33t.com says MOBILISE!
It is amazing how fast we are loosing all our liberties…
Corporate interests command the government lobbies and the individual is just a “number” in the system, with no voice at all, no power, no RIGHTS.
World needs a massive revolution to stop the rising of copy”right” surveillance states…
wake up everyone… wake up…
Oh dear. So it apparently isn’t enough now that Canadians pay a levy to the entertainment industry whenever they buy blank media, whether it is for storing pirated media or for storing your wedding photos. It isn’t enough that they get money out of people that may not even like music or films.
These bastards are getting greedier by the day.
Even if you don’t live in Canada, this still applies to you. if this passes and becomes successful, YOUR country might introduce something similar, its called the domino effect and it has happened hundreds of times throughout history. The more countries **AA corrupts, the more powerful and reckless they get. They have gone too far and convincing just 1 country to ignore them will send them a message that says that we do not approve of their bullshit. We cannot let this pass, keep sending the letters and when your done, go grab some torrents. CP out.
“The Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights has created a quick and easy to use letter wizard for making submissions to the official consultations as well as the ministers responsible for the copyright file in Canada. The CCER will also physically mail a copy of every submission to the appropriate ministers.” – WOW! That’s what i call good news… :)
@5 by Sendaii
You got it right there! Here in Finland we also have a levy system on media storage products, but despite this the copyright lobbyists are doing all they can to squeeze even more money out of the public.
I have done my part and sent a letter, now you do yours. And BTW, Am I the only non-Canadian doing this?
Letter sent! Do the same everyone! Just use the wizard linked in the article.
If your not from Canada, just google some address there or something :P
Most bittorrent sites are hosted in Canada, so this is epic loose for everyone!
Bring it on. Pass all the draconian laws you can think up. Go ahead and make file sharing punishable by death even. It won’t make a lick of difference. History is full of examples showing how much power the common folk truly have when they stand together united. Each step these bastards take to spite us only strengthens our cause. In the end they’re insatiable greed will be their undoing. I’ll fight them even as I take my last breath. I wonder, are they willing to do the same?
Thanks for the heads up, TF, for all concerned…
I’m Canadian if you didn’t know already, and have already been to a (poorly :) -recorded town hall meeting at our local public library where wireless mesh networks was mentioned and where a Google spokesperson appeared as an audience guest member and who (excitedly) addressed open spectrum reform vis-a-vis meshes.
Ultimately, I think wireless p2p meshes coupled with better/open spectrum frequencies (that telcos are already trying to block!) are the way to go in the long run for better freedom, so yes, I’ll definitely be proactive up here for some time to come.
Please lets stand up together for a better canada !
http://stopthecap.com/2009/08/12/canadas-crtc-throws-consumers-independent-isps-under-the-bus-rubber-stamps-yes-on-bells-usage-based-billing/
COPYRIGHT GROUPS ARE CRIMINALS!
Corporations running the state? It’s all going a bit Mussolini isn’t it?
/Off Topic
Before I start, people
PLEASE – http://loseloose.com/
Talk right at least.
/On topic
Seriously the Greediness of these people. They are spending a hell of alot of money to do all this for what? Oh, to get more money out of us. I don’t think so, and I believe alot more people agree?
i sent my letter in.
There is a minority government in Canada which could fall at anytime, then legislation will have to be put on hold, and/or if a new party forms a government, that would set new legislation even further back. Maybe by that time, other circumstances will have changed, like the MPAA and CRIA waking up to internet reality.
sorry for the double post but
thanks to the ccer for drafting that for me.
added a line saying that the cbc uses/used torrents too.
#19 lol they just barely prevented a potential summer election. most likely it’ll be another election this fall as conservatives try to push there way to a majority gov’t. I don’t know if conservatives will make it this time, what with the coalition fiasco the government had over the budget and the bailout situation.
V for Vendetta!!!
Where is Guy Fawkes when you need him?
hers a tip for you kiddies as its getting difficult to read your posts.
plauge= plague
loose/looser=lose/loser
no wonder these copyright orgs. dont respect us…most of us cant spell let alone string a coherent sentence together to make a point.
proof read please…makes it easier for the rest of us.
Dear DeadmanAmerican,
This is not english 101, it is a place where people of all nationalities and creed can voice their respective opinion.
By the way here is a clue. English is not the primary language of most people who posts on here.
Comprende Gringo?
it’s not that dramatic, unlike the US the government and recording agencies have never attempted against bittorrent users at all, they are pretty chill about it, so stop being sensationalists please
@24
I like seeing you teach about spelling, when yourself can’t even spell right lol
Sorry it was @23 not 24.
@canadian What are you talking about? Do you know what these copyright laws will do?
@25 Torrentfreak is known for its sensationalist writing and its censoring of speech (funny how they talk about liberties here, when they might censor this)
anyhow, it is indeed time for Canada too stand up and fight these corporate greedy bastards. If you guys dont mobilize and act now you basically becoming America.,…and america is full of fat overweight, overprivileged bastards…trust me I’ve lived here all my life… these assholes dont protest or fight corporations in any manner unless its dingin there pockets or they are some fringe group like the republican party constituents.
“11 Aug 13, 2009 at 00:10 by Anonymous
Bring it on. Pass all the draconian laws you can think up. Go ahead and make file sharing punishable by death even. It won’t make a lick of difference. History is full of examples showing how much power the common folk truly have when they stand together united. Each step these bastards take to spite us only strengthens our cause. In the end they’re insatiable greed will be their undoing. I’ll fight them even as I take my last breath. I wonder, are they willing to do the same?”
You are a fuking idiot. Let the adults do the talking and stfu and go back too your room.
12 year old armchair Activists with an IQ of 45 and less isnt what the world needs dumb@ss.
Where to begin…
Uhm, since canada’s current laws have clearly turned canada into an enormous conduit for losses, it can be concluded that they are inadaquete and need to be changed. It seems like TF things that if the entertaiment industry (they are the ones who give us the things we enjoy) look out their their own interests it somehow makes them evil. Please try and put yourself in the position of those who are losing money to due to so called “sharing.” Stop disassociating yourself.
Next off, calling new copyright laws a police state is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as all the ensuing melodramatic comparisons to v for vendetta. I mean, come on guys, are you serious? They violated your right to have not pay for things and now you’re going to what, become some sort of masled vigilante and fight for your entitlement to free things? What’s next, money is a government conspiracy too, and pirates are freedom fighters? LOL.
Trying to curtail piracy is no different than the rest of the laws that curtail other crimes like robbery and money laundering.
Uhm, when the entertainment industry makes the money IT DESERVES (jesus, what is it about the concept of people profiting from their own work that is so complicated?), it does foster creaticity. Those two are NOT mutually exclusive.
Uhm, yeah, people will be greatly affected, but so what? Aren’t people who want to shoplift affected by anti shoplifting laws?
Draconian? You think having to pay for things is cruel and unusual? Welcome to the real life. This is no different than any other law that has been designed with the intent of preventing crime. People have just gottten comfortably used to not being accountable for anything they do on the internet. They’ve become drunk off of their anonymity. I guess they can’t handle the fact that that’s going to change.
It’s not like they want to send people to labor camps or try drugs out on them. When millions of people become so incensed when they are told that they have to pay for things, im sorry, but it just makes you look incredibly spoiled and lazy.
How can you honestly call hollywood and the RIAA greedy when YOU are the ones who go all nuts when you are told to pay things?
They tried giving you your freedom, you blew it.
@11 : You are an idiot. It’s not your god given right to take anything you want. Get a job.
Sent my letter.
As far as the war over Kopism*, as soon as Anonymous stops circle jerking all over co$’s face, we’ll receive reinforcements! It’ll be terrible publicity, but at least it’ll be fun to watch :P
Sent it in, with a personalization as long as the initial post.
Spread it, I don’t care what IM, Social Networking Site, Program, etc. you use, just spread the word of this (I used this article, and the link to the email form’s site)
Get as many people to voice their opinions as you can.
Here’s hoping Canada will stay “Strong and Free”
If corporations had there way we would have to repay for everything every time we use something look at something even think about something… Fair use and public domain have been decimated in some countries do to their own ignorance of failure to stand up to the corpocracy system that now has control over sovereign democratic nations.
The USA may have sold off their right/laws to highest bidders but that can not/should not be the standard of democracy… even if it is a massive fail like the 2 party system of the USA which allows you to choose between corrupt hypocritical hate mongers(Republicans)
and massively useless wussys like the democrats who can’t get shit done ever, heck they allow bill Clinton to be impeached over lieing about something that is nowons business but his/his familys business well allowing a war criminal like bush to get away with destroying their nation. Sorry but we Canadians separated from the USA for a reason, we do not need our nation sovereignty to be controlled by their corporations and lobbyists…
Fair use and public domain don’t make everything free for the taking. What the hell is public domain anyhow? Just because you can steal doesn’t mean that you should. You have no conscience at all.
You insist on making everything look like a giant conspiracy, but the reality is that when you steal from the recording industry, they aren’t just going to just sit there and let you do it.
@Gargamel
Way to mash the Pointless Ad Hominem button.
Don’t you know that that button is linked to the Make Me Look Stupid Because I’m Posting Personal Attacks In An Effort To Look L33t function?
Wow, downright scary ain’t it?
RT
http://www.anon-web-tools.net.tc
Wow. Incredible. Suppression of information. What’s next for O’Canada?
@.neo.styles|nvDX
So that justifies them financially ruining 20 something kids for the rest of thier lives?
If you know & agree with that I thing you’re probably the one lacking a conscience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOBWhVe68os
Captures the essence of all the ridiculous legislation…its a reflection of the predominant idiocracy.
@34 MMx
When Canada seperated from the U.S.? Are you sure you’re Canadian? If so, are you from a parallel universe? The Canada I live in has never been part of the USA.
@4nd
There was a reason all the smurfs hated Gargamel.
Corporatization is the bain of all freedom of existence. There is now no distinction between governments and corporate elites.
Umm, Neostyles? Don’t you even know that Canadians already pay a tax on blank media that is supposed to go toward artists and such? Canada already has a system in place so that people aren’t just “stealing” music… at least know what you’re talking about before going on an uninformed spiel about “u guiz r steelin everything, u so bad,” okay?
People in Canada would just rather keep a system that has been working for a while instead of adopting a system that goes against their ideals.
COME TO THE DARK SIDE CANADA.
IT IS YOUR DESTINY.
I would like to see the government create an independent body to keep track of and investigate the activities of the CRIA and all other corporations that are attempting to undermine and take advantage of our culture.
I’d like to see someone track all the monies that are collected by the levies on blank media, and I’d also like someone to investigate their activities and to fact check on the lies that they feed to the media.
And all findings should be made public, and violations should result in strict fines against these corporations where the monies received should go to support unsigned artist organizations.
This is what we need too.
Troll writes:
Uhm, since canada’s current laws have clearly turned canada into an enormous conduit for losses, it can be concluded that they are inadaquete and need to be changed. It seems like TF things that if the entertaiment industry (they are the ones who give us the things we enjoy) look out their their own interests it somehow makes them evil. Please try and put yourself in the position of those who are losing money to due to so called “sharing.” Stop disassociating yourself.
-Wheres your proof neotroll? We have a levy system to deal with any losses that you can think of.. Our laws are completly adequate as they stand now buddy.. You state the entertainment industry gives us everything we enjoy which is BS.. Only 1% of the artists in the world are actually known..
Neotroll refers to police state..
-By reforming our copyright laws to something within the realm of the US.. We are essentially giving power to the corporations to setup a police state..
Neotroll refers to entertainment industry making money..
-They make plenty off of us Canadians already.. Unfortunately the artists don’t.. This is why the CCMA was formed..
neotroll writes:
Draconian? You think having to pay for things is cruel and unusual? Welcome to the real life. This is no different than any other law that has been designed with the intent of preventing crime. People have just gottten comfortably used to not being accountable for anything they do on the internet. They’ve become drunk off of their anonymity. I guess they can’t handle the fact that that’s going to change.
-I am not comfortable with paying the music\movie industry twice or three times (for different formats etc or backups etc) actually when i’ve already paid them in tariffs and levies..
Troll writes:
How can you honestly call hollywood and the RIAA greedy when YOU are the ones who go all nuts when you are told to pay things?
-Because we have to pay them three or four times here in Canada for the same media.. If they had it their way we would live under a blanket of DMCA with no fair use to be heard of.. Have you ever read anything about C-61.. Fortunately our laws in this country prevent the industries from reeking havoc on Canadians without an ACTUAL reason… This is why they are pissed off.. This is why they accuse Canada off being a piracy hotspot which is proven BS..
If the industries have it their way this will change for the worse.. We will be a DMCA country with no power in the hands of the consumer meaning open to lawsuits etc..
Troll Writes:
They tried giving you your freedom and you blew it..
Wow thats arrogant.. The music\movie industry have never once stepped up to the plate and provided an alternative method of business for the tech enthusiasts etc.. Apple itunes forced the industry to pull drm out of their stores.. It was either this or they don’t get to use itunes anymore.. As you saw.. They pulled drm obviously..
I see many people here who talk about the power of the people to change things. In fact this is a highly overrated concept. If u look through history, change achieves a critical mass only when powerful people within the system that has to be changed, become unsatisfied with their power and profits and turn against the system itself. In the war on copyright the people will achieve nothing. The problem is to convince companies that torrent is the more profitabile future. When enough companies are convinced, through economic pressure and lobby these companies will shift the pressure to our side and we will win. We can;t win by sending letters. The way to win is to turn companies inside the “system” against the system. These companies will lobby against the RIAA and will have influence on the political power of the government.
http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/generalarticlesynopsfullart.aspx?csid1=134&csid2=844&fid1=39981
Government Talks Resume to Make More Lenient Copyright Laws in Canada
7/21/2009 By Jason Schreurs
the key word there being lenient!!!
either way…. sent in your comment.
I did. Tell them you want private use legalized.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFgGS0V1r9A
awesome. I must admit I didn’t expect to see this on torrentfreak. My own personal feeling is the automatic forms are not adequate to address all the core issues being discussed. Im in the middle of composing an essay debunking every argument put forward by the CRIA, ESA “of canada”, and the BSA, unions etc. These lobbies and politicians will not be given the opportunity to introduce draconian legislation if I have any say in the matter. If the conservatives ignore the submissions of Canadians to the consultation you can expect mass ridicule and ultimately a law that will neither be followed nor respected. At the moment it appears extremely difficult for the govt to reintroduce bill C61 under the disguise of being “made in canada” when Canadians for the most part so far appear to disagree with protecting DRM at all. I will not allow restrictions to be placed on my ability to create, innovate, review, format shift, share or copy with any medium.
Like most I thought that after the anti-camcording law passed they would leave us alone.. apparently not.
@NeoStyle:
When I use my internet connection (I live in Belgium, heavely overpriced here) to download something and burn it on a media (for which I also pay extra taxes for the big corporations), I think I paid enough to watch a movie once. I don’t need to have it on DVD to watch it again, I just wanna see it once and throw it out. 1$ should be more than enough for that.
What I don’t get is how you can be so blind that you don’t see that these pigs have money enough to solve all the hunger in the world for years to come and still they think they are being treated unfairly. It has been proven time and again that the artists, writers and so forth don’t see all the money, most of it disappears in the pockets of big moguls.
When one of those guys quits his job, they get a golden handshake of millions of dollars and for what? Taking cash for other people’s work?
I don’t wanna work all my life to earn the same as this guy does in a day. Every artist wants his work to be known, a poor nigerian farmer shouldn’t pay a month’s pay to see S1 of The Sopranos. Entertainment companies got greedy, they wanted too much, the people responded with P2P. They created this mess, not us. Don’t act all high and mighty cuz you don’t download your music/progs/movies, it just shows what an ignorant and naive retard you are.
@31
“Please try and put yourself in the position of those who are losing money to due to so called “sharing.” Stop disassociating yourself.”
Since when is the government there to protect profits and not rights? I couldn’t give a rats ass about their money. If they can not make money without violating others rights they deserve to go bankrupt and rot in hell.
Why are some people falling for this brainwashing propaganda about “losing money”. It’s complete bullocks, you can outright protect mafia because if you don’t the poor guys are going to loose money. Get a clue!
fuck ! i arrived in canada this year for uni.
well i tought it was the place of liberty. In reality its just a place where “people” are put in a system to become consumer whores and be able to pay tax so the governement can afford to manage its people.
i am looking forward for change guys.
its or we get fucked or we fucked them. chose your side
Stupid article…
It was greed and corruption that drove the media industries into this behavior to begin with. Calling to arms to steal other peoples property over some digital medium loophole is utterly pathetic at best.
So apparently the people want to the right take whatever they want without consequence eh? In another world perhaps but in this one, discipline remains a necessary requirement of society.
Also… the whine on taxing recording media is a load of trash. I just bought 100 DVD’s from Staples for less than 20.00, so it really begs the question… wtf are you on about anyways?
Whatever the case, the entire we “have the right” to take other peoples property message is nothing but mindless bullshit.
It’s not “we have the right”, it’s “we don’t have an alternative”.
10$ for a movie ticket, 15$ for a CD, 50$ for a tv-serie, 20$ for a movie DVD, who can pay all that?
Too late you lost the battle. The war in Canada was long ago waged and won by the teleco cartels.
Canada is a lot different than America, in america there are watchdog groups and people who won’t sit idly by and make noise. In Canada there’s just Michael Geist and no one pays attention to him or gives him the respect he should have.
Canada’s doomed because people are too ignorant about these facts, and my fellow Canadians don’t want to learn. So few know what net neutrality is, even young people have no clue. City TV one of the biggest channels in Canada recently got bought by Bell, which now owns the top 2 of 3 major Canadian stations (CTV,City TV). They also bought out the rights with city tv to the Chum group which owns the majority share of radio stations and subsidary tv channels dotted along north america making them have a majority stake in Media and Publications in Canada.
Corporate Conglomerations are so unregulated in Canada, that companies like Rogers are able to easily buy major landmarks and institutions paid for by tax dollars like the Skydome, which was built with tax money and easily handed over to the Rogers Company where it was renamed to the Rogers Centre (no one calls it that though).
If left unchecked Canada will become a haven for Teleco which will set up shop there and launch all sorts of lawsuits against Canadians and Americans. They can exploit NAFTA to make the US take more serious attention to their claims of piracy and profit loss, because being within the US they have to adhere to FCC regulations whereas in Canada they call the shots even more so and the CRTC does little to protect the public consumers.
These cunts need to be stopped.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/07/30/f-copyright-roundup.html
here’s another link… it lists the individual wants of various groups of Canadians in terms of changes to copyright laws…
as a side note… just take up researching and teaching. save you the hassle of getting courted off to jail or paying a fine.
just sent out email to everyone i know about this
title: STOP THOSE BASTERDS!!
and sent my letter in too ;)
@55: How many times do we have to say it before these trolls get it through their thick skull? We are NOT stealing anything or taking anybody’s property. When we download a song or movie, we are using our OWN resources (i.e bandwidth) to obtain that media and there is absolutely no expense made on the industry’s part (nor any inventory lost). This is the equivalent to if we read the blueprints of somebody else’s house and built an identical replica using our own wood, brick, manual labour, etc.
The losses the industry claims at the hands of piracy are completely hypothetical because they still believe one download equals one lost sale (which has been proven false several times in the past).
Also, as far as I know, the levy is currently on Blank CD’s only. You bought blank DVD’s which probably does not have that levy on them as of yet. If it does, it’s probably so small you hardly notice it (maybe a couple pennies per disc).
@trollboye
you have no soul do you?
The Canadian recording industry is like the mafia. Always expecting a piece of the action even if they did squat to deserve it.
The company I work for burns legal documents to CD’s. Every time we burn a CD of DOCUMENTS the Canadian recording industry charges us a hidden tax of about $0.25 per CD.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86819/australian-law-proposal-to-turn-isps-into-copyright-cops/
“Whatever the case, the entire we “have the right” to take other peoples property message is nothing but mindless bullshit.”
We HAVE the right to communicate and share information freely. The idea that information is “property” is bullshit. Referring to tunes as property is silly, no one is stolen anything when it’s copied, no one is hurt, no one is worse off. It’s not our fault that those morons can’t earn money morally without violating this inalienable right.
many artist can, why these fascist idiots can’t?
http://www.jamendo.com/en/ – over 23,000 unrestricted albums, those artists have to be magicians.
So what’s bullshit my friend? Go die in a fire ;)
I live in the USA and I have always admired Canada’s approach.
DON’T let Canada get bullied like we have!!
Stand up and say NO! Hang onto your rights!
You think you’ll never get sued for millions for downloading a couple MP3’s, well if it can happen here it can happen anywhere…
I don’t understand this anyways if you buy something and want to share it on the internet should you not be allowed you paid for it. As soon as you pay for a DVD or CD doesn’t it become your property as you paid out money for the film or music. Most shows songs and movies are played on tv so is copying them to a hard drive illegal no but to share them to a friend is. What if that friend comes over and then you watch the movie same thing isn’t it, your still sharing the media what the hell is the difference how you do it. They make a big deal out of this because they are not getting all of our money if they could take it they would. What about all those people who can’t afford to buy every cd or every dvd are they not as important to this world. I just don’t think that it is fair they make millions a year and then complain the whole time stfu make your money and leave the rest alone. I understand yes downloading is considered a breach of copyright but their will always be people who will buy and who will go see the movie in theater so why not leave well enough alone save the money your using to fight this and use if for something that will bring some good to the world.
@31 The neolithic Troll
‘They tried giving you your freedom, you blew it.’
Oh, really. Funny that since what the media organizations have done since the 70’s, again and again, is to restrict the consumers freedom. One can easily se that if one bother to actually read the copyright legislations, since the history of the legislations actually is recorded.
But I can see that you believe it’s the other way around, what with your constant rationalization of the media industries extreme corporatism for the sole purpose of retaining the control, over the products and the market, they have accumulated over the decades, on the expense of artists and consumers alike. Neither artists nor consumers really need the big ten any more, and hasn’t for a long time, which is why the big ten really have become multi-media-companies, i.e. conglomerates. Which is, also, why the biggest record labels craved to be stock holder in Spotify, they didn’t want another Apple-situation.
“Imagine living in a country where corporations dictate how you consume information and media and utilize technology.”
Uh, it’s their information and their media, Ernesto. You BET they have the right to schedule and timing, regional availability, pricing, every aspect of how you can consume their merchandise according to their marketing plans or you can boycott and simply do without.
The automaker tells you what colors the new cars come in, and when you can have them. The Doctor operates from a specific hospital and no, he won’t actually work in your preference of facility. The mechanic will fix your car but only if you bring it to him, he won’t fix it in your personal garage. And on and on, through all of history.
Everyone has the right to control the price, distribution and conditions on their product or service, and we’ve been “living in that country” for a thousand years.
They will also tell you EXACTLY what you cannot do with technology regarding their products and that is also fair. You may use technology as you see fit with open source stuff or the stuff you create yourself.
Pirates will gain political share and influence and the respect they say they want and deserve……..when they set the bong down and stop with the pointless, anarchic complaining. Better arguments will produce better results.
@23 Aug 13, 2009 at 02:04 by deadmanamerican
Just FYI “hers” should be “here’s” and “cant” should be “can’t”, not to mention that in the English language a sentence starts with a capital letter. Please try learning your own native language first before attempting to criticize others.
Thanks in advance.
“There is also an easy solution for behind-the desk activists though. The Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights has created a quick and easy to use letter wizard for making submissions to the official consultations as well as the ministers responsible for the copyright file in Canada. The CCER will also physically mail a copy of every submission to the appropriate ministers.”
While this is better than nothing, it would be much more effective for all involved if you wrote your own response in your own words. If I worked there, I would read the letter once, and then pile all of those submissions (which, according to Google, are about half of all submissions) and set them aside.
It also makes it really annoying for me (who likes to read other people`s opinions) to find interesting opinions, when half of the time all that you see is the same form letter.
Reasoned Mind,
I’ve seen a few of your posts on here, and I have to say I appreciate that you make a consistent effort to provide thoughtful and reasonable opinions. However, while I agree that media corporations have a right to profit off their “products”, I do have to take issue with the concept of “owning” an idea.
You talk about mechanics, among other things. If I visit a mechanic, it’s not feasible for me to give away his service to someone else: even if I myself am a mechanic, I can only provide someone else with my own services.
The same isn’t true for media: media is, for the most part, infinitely redistributable. This (in my opinion) rather startling and fundamental difference makes me wonder why we apply the same set of criteria to both types of products.
Now, recall I said that I do agree that media producers deserve to make money. However, if they wish to do so in the same fashion that a service does, they should provide a service. There is example after example of people using content to derive revenue, frequently by providing a service which includes advertising. I think what Hulu is doing for video entertainment is a huge step forward and one that should be emulated by those wishing to remain profitable in today’s changing world.
USA-Canada Anschluss? 0___o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschluss
The RIAA/MPAA and their affiliates are a lumbering dinosaur. They can’t seem to figure out a way to adapt to the reality of the internet and file sharing, so their only option seems to be to sue, sue sue.
Suing people has become their new revenue stream.
It can’t last forever, RIAA/MPAA. Either find a way to move with the times, or use your short term solution of lawsuits, but either way, everyone is coming to the realization that you are not needed anymore, and we would all be better off without you.
This is garbage. Torrent users are a pathetic breed of computer users who feel they have a sense of entitlement to things that are not theirs. Digital copies, though at times pale in comparison in quality to the originals, are still copies, illegal copies of original material. The Internet was made by large companies and government funding of infrastructure, just like roads, so those lines of information are going to be governed. You didn’t pay to build the pipelines, Torrent users instead use them to smuggle their goods as a transport driver does with black market goods. Think about it, people pirate digital content because it’s easier than smuggling goods on the local highways, but guess what, it’s going to be easier to get caught. So get your hands out of the cookie jar and stop behaving like indignant, petulant, and spoiled children. Perhaps if you had your work stolen due to copyright infringement you’d be more understanding, especially when you see some moron at a flea market selling copies of your material at discounted prices. If you can’t afford to buy a can of pop do you simply go and take one or whine about how the police state in which you live won’t let you have one for free? It doesn’t matter what corporations or government bodies fund digital media, there are still people behind it’s creation and it’s them you’re pissing all over in your prehistoric pissing contest.
lol…you guys will be brought down, eventually. GO CANADA
Hey CANADAFILMSUPPORTER!!
I hear what you’re saying and I totally agree, just a selfish generation who think artists shouldn’t make money for their art.
totally bs.
go anti!
First of all, this consultation is going in all directions. It’s not only the industry who’s playing a part in this, but also the citizens. In fact, most of the responses received by the consultation support the lessening of copyright laws. (Well, most of them were from a generic template, but the earlier ones were more personal.)
@75 (Canadian Film Supporter):
Are you a copyright holder? Is that why you’re so mad?
@31 (.neo.styles|nvDX):
Well, since I impersonated you on another thread, I’ll respond properly once.
Unlike the United States? Since when did the copyright laws in the United States turn it into an enormous conduit for prosperity? Besides the few copyright stakeholders, of course.
Okay, now I’m starting to doubt your genuinity. You had at least three spelling mistakes in that last passage alone,all of which I corrected in the quote. ^_^
Sure, the entertainment industry can look out for their own interests. That’s not what bothers us. It’s the way they approach them that pisses people off and makes them think that the industry is a bunch of evil snotheads.
We don’t consider copyright laws to be a police state. We consider the copyright laws outlined specifically in Bill C-61 to be a “police state”, due to the extreme measures it would take to actually enforce this law.
I mean, come on, copyright holders, are you serious? They violated your right to screw artists over to inflate the rest of the industry’s budgets, and now you’re going to what, become some sort of masked vigilante and fight for your entitlement to disproportionate profits? What’s next, the Internet is evil and should be shut down? LOL.
I cannot describe all the things that are wrong with both those statements, even my ironic one.
Except that all the examples you gave of actual laws are physical laws. Those physical acts will directly affect the victim. Who’s to say whether piracy will directly affect anything?
Trying to curtail piracy is like trying to curtail gossip.
BAD all-caps. BAD.
Sure the entertainment industry is making the money it deserves. And more. And more. And disproportionately more.
Sure those two aren’t mutually exclusive, but correlation does not imply causation. Screw that, they’re not even correlated.
See Piracy is not theft.
No doubt you’ve become drunk off yours, given your response.
The point is not that laws are being passed to prevent file-sharing, it’s that file-sharing is being seen as something to prevent in the first place.
I guess the industry people can’t handle the fact that the Web’s going to change people’s perception of “intellectual property”.
Give me one case where the RIAA or MPAA or CRIA or whatever it was has sent one person to a labour camp to try out drugs on them.
As you said, it’s not like they want to sue people who shared 30 songs for over $600,000 which they won’t even get back because of legal costs. After all, it is a serious offense…
Because we do pay for things. We just don’t appreciate having to pay for the same not-even-costly, easily reproducible item over and over and over again, like it’s a service or something.
Really? When did they try giving us our freedom? (That’s not a rhetorical question, by the way. I actually want an answer.)
@72, Dominator
“fundamental difference makes me wonder why we apply the same set of criteria to both types of products.”
Fair question. The short answer is we have little choice at this juncture.
It’s true that digital products can be infinitely reproduced with little cost by technical means but so what? Just because something can be done and is currently being done illegally in a cowardly way while hiding behind privacy laws doesn’t make it fair and is no justification to do it. I can think of dozens of things on the network that “can be done.” A just society won’t tolerate any of that behavior either. Punishment will become a large part of the deterrent, and the Jammies and Joels will become examples within a system of taking without paying that always had clear consequences. I have very little sympathy for either of them.
(I still love that Jammie tried to blame her own kids and Joel, his own sister. Nice folks. lol)
More and more creative merchandise will move to digital format and will be placed on the network for legal, monetized digital distribution. This is inevitable, but much is waiting until piracy is curtailed to reasonable losses, like shoplifting. Whole industries, like fragrances, are still waiting.
The pathetic “argument” “you can’t stop us” is the very reason why government and industry must and will, If an entire industries valuable merchandise is not to be rendered inherently valueless, (thereby removing the incentive and even the means to create and sell) then even the most modest living standard will no longer be achieved. “Make art for free or get another job if you don’t like my piracy” is just cheap thought from crass people. Every culture has them, alas.
If everything digital becomes “free” because of rampant online lawlessness— indeed if the internet is rendered basically useless for every form of digital product, the seed money is lost and the production ceases. We’ll be left with weekend amateurs posting on YouTube.
So filtering at this point is growing inevitable. Is there anyone here who cannot see that? As VPN’s and encryption become the means for piracy and pedophiles, government will take whatever steps they must. As thumbdrives and portable HD’s are shown over and over to be full of pirated material, the scales will tip so that mere possession will be “reasonable cause” for a stop and search by law enforcement, just as we have similar stop and searches for weapons, fraudulent papers, other forms of contraband already in use today. Surveillance online will establish much. I wonder why pirates don’t see this coming and the damage they are doing. My own theory is the hardest core pirates, the pirates who will NEVER return to paying, at base, are just damaged and have no real sense of right or wrong and just don’t care. Every culture has those, too, and we tend to incarcerate them eventually.
So it’s the pirates who are doing this. The government will push back taking more and more freedom away until there is none. And eventually, the creation of digital product will be protected to it can be sold or traded in the marketplace just as a service or an analog product might, the rough equivalency you asked about. If this paradigm is not achieved, “digital” becomes an avenue left to the hobbiests where there is no monetary value and that just ain’t gonna happen.
Not when it is industry who brings the network in the first place and all governments regulate and administer to it.
Piracy will destroy the free communication promise and the original intent of the internet by refusing to respect property rights. And that’s why the good fight is not for online stealing but rather for the general respect of property in all realms; simply not taking that which is supposed to be purchased if you wish a possession. That market fairness doctrine has been in place for all time. Pirates can’t win this, they can only ruin our internet. So that’s what they are doing.
“Nice folks.”
here a good link http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4227/196/
They just don’t understand, so therefore they won’t embrace pirating, instead of making trillions globally by changing laws and adapting to “free” downloading
They just don’t understand, so therefore they won’t embrace pirating, instead of making trillions globally by changing laws and adapting to “free” downloading
People are corporations; people are governments. People govern themselves via their governments and create things– like corporations– for themselves that suit them.
Yet, some seem to think and speak of governments and corporations as though they were entities somehow beyond them or divorced from their communities and local contexts, etc., (and maybe in a sense they are) and this can be very problematic, such as when they creep into other (sociopolitical etc.) ecosystems (they weren’t made for).
There’s a growing consensus that laws, etc., that govern and describe corporations and their statuses and operations, etc., need to be changed. For example, many countries have already rejected the WTO and IMF, and claim them as being illegitimate and socioculturally-destructive. (I’ve read a little about that and am inclined to agree.)
When governments and corporations get out of hand, like the terminators of the movies, and go against the very people that created them– then they need to be fixed and/or destroyed– and fast!
@ CanadianFilmSupporter:
People pay for their infrastructure!
You are right in the sense that government and special interests will work hard to pass arbitrary laws that will benefit only one side but that is when people revolt and things change, till this day in America there is laws that make “squatting” legal you have to be able to protect your physical property and show you can maintain it, it is no different for copyright eventually it will become so cumbersome that it will null itself there is no “market” granted that can be possibly enforced on the internet, there is a market for people willing to respect the people, meaning there is a piece of the pie not the whole pie. Copyright encroach on the civil liberties, freedoms and rights of any society and are tolerated but some think they can demand something well the internet just showed to those people how wrong they are LoL
About the pie, Madonna is making millions, cable that compete with free is doing ok!, radio that is free is doing ok! even opensource beer, cars, housing are starting to appear and this is just more proof that you don’t need all that power to create a vibrant market that can get people paid.
And some questions to all.
- What do we gain buying music?
Seriously why do we pay for sound or images? will bring us more money? it gives me nothing in return why should I pay for it?
- Should the entire market and I mean all of it be granted to a monopoly with no exceptions to IP laws? and knowing that that entails loosing privacy, freedoms, rights and civil liberties? should we allow that?
- Why the pirates listening to radio don’t pay?
- Why is that spotify make songs available for free and their listeners are not pirates did they paid for it? The company pays but do the listeners?
- Why pirates that get free TV and pirate all kinds of movie out of the air are not being prosecuted to the full extend of the law?
About incentives look no further then services like SellABand or SliceThePie that make fans pay for the distribution in physical or digital for and had already launched dozens of artists and it just started. Behold people made arts well before copyright even master pieces were made before the worst that could happen is that those who really love the trade would have to get a second job is that bad?
This conservative government has a proud tradition of pretending to listen then doing what ever the fuck they want anyway. I would like to think that everyone voicing their concern would hold some sway with the decision making, but i can say with some degree of certainty that the laws will change regardless of what anyone says.
All canadians are good at is bitching on message boards. Its why we just let our governments get away with so much and don’t even blink, also why we had a 26% voting turnout for the last election. But saying that, the Industry people still haven’t learnt there lesson? I say ban torrents, they will be replaced by something faster and better. Everytime they try to hold us down, we advance another step. they are pushing the technology along while the fight it and hang themselves.
@1, what’s next? Fucking revolution my friend.
“All canadians are good at is bitching on message boards. Its why we just let our governments get away with so much and don’t even blink, also why we had a 26% voting turnout for the last election”
Yeah, imagine if we just had 69 or 80 or hell, 100% voter turnout… imagine. Between the uninspiring, backstabbing, self serving clowns of tight knit cronies in the pockets of Bush or Obama or equiv.
Things would be so radically different, wouldn’t they.
“Although it’s clear that Ralph is never going to be invited to any presidential debate, his mere presence in the 2008 race is a benefit to all Americans. His tenacious pursuit of democracy is not only inspiring, it’s heroic. By hurling his body against the corporate wall of politics Ralph [Ralph] Nader has created a crack in the fortress, an opening for the rest of us – if we ever wake up – to march through and reclaim our democracy.”
http://waterburyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/10/importance-of-ralph-nader.html
Film Recommends:
‘An Unreasonable Man’ (about Nader)
‘The Corporation’
‘The Fog of War’
‘The Weather Underground’
One possible way to use bit torrent for positive social change is to seed certain torrents extra-long. :)
Oh wow my arse got an extra hard serving of strap on dildo right after the tatoos when my husband read how I got pwned so badly by these competent accurate responses to the garbage spewing from my splurge filled mouth.
I think I am bleeding internally.. I wonder if Ill ever get the bawls to reply to the pwnage the CodeBreakers form laid on me for spewing splurge all over their walls.. This is why I come here so much because I can’t play operation Flashpoint anymore.. Which Ofcourse I torrented.
http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5429035
I just can’t put a solid fact based post together.. It’s too bad.. I wonder if I’ll get a warm enema this time..
.neo.style$|nvDX
Even if you are not in Canada, PLEASE HELP FIGHT THIS. I can’t even begin to count how many times a country has extended/tightened copyright law ‘TO BRING IT IN LINE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES’. It’s like a virus, or a domino effect if you will.
@88, 89 (.neo.styles|nvDX):
Please stop impersonating neostyles, you’re only ruining your own reputation.
@82 (Reasoned Mind):
No when it is the Internet industry who brings us the network. The ISP’s have absolutely nothing to do with the music industry. Same with the government. To them, the music/movie/digital product industry (RIAA, MPAA, BSA, etc.) are just another company. It’s obviously okay for the government to listen to their demands, but they don’t deserve any preferential treatment.
So, if even the Internet industry goes against the wishes of the music industry, what happens then?
Wow there are some seriously flawed views here supporting file-sharing.
First of all, the biggest thing, is that you’re missing the point. File sharing, by and large, uses files that have been “ripped”, as in someone goes and buys a CD with an audio quality of 44.1KHz sample frequency at 16bit bit depth. This is the format that the artist has approved their material at. Then someone takes that full quality set of songs and downgrades it into poorly encoded MP3’s. You have now violated the artists’ desire to have their music distributed at a nominal level of quality. As an engineer/mixer and producer I shudder when I go to a club, for example, and hear a DJ throw on a poorly encoded MP3. You are ruining the music at this point. (For those of you who claim you can’t tell the difference between an MP3 and a CD quality track it is because you have acclimatized your hearing to a lesser quality, to me the difference is as obvious as night and day and I will stand by that test any time, even at rips of up to 320kbps). As a sound-designer I create my work for theatre playback, not PSP or MP3 embedded DivX or Xvid files. You have now taken the full quality version of the film and attempted to encoded it into a version that is or was not the intended format. It’s like buying the Coles or Cliff notes for a book. You can read the notes, but you haven’t really read the book. On top of that, add the CAMs or TS torrent files burned onto a DVD and sold at a flea market at quality so bad you can’t even make out the characters on screen and now you’re supporting someone, paying someone to downgrade an artist’s, director’s, engineer’s, producer’s hard work. And these people are profiting off downloading and burning, ooh, such hard work! Regardless of how much money CRIAA, RIAA, ASCAP, or the record companies make on the production of the content to begin with, file sharing reduces the overall value of the “art”, it’s like precious metals, when everyone in the world owns a pound of gold it suddenly becomes worthless and you can’t pay the people, the entry level workers, as much to procure it. When the record companies and film companies make less so do the entry level employees and those who are trying to make a living in the industry. Seriously, stop whining about “rights” when really a PRIVILEGE is at risk. You haven’t earned the right to freely distribute other people’s material or make money off it through duplication or downgrade it through ripping. Our rights and freedoms are tantamount of our existence as humans, but seriously, lets not get rights and freedoms mixed up with privileges. Right to file sharing is one thing, right to freely distribute someone else’s material without their consent and make money off it is completely different.
“hen someone takes that full quality set of songs and downgrades it into poorly encoded MP3’s. You have now violated the artists’ desire to have their music distributed at a nominal level of quality.”
And you have now violated my desire to read meaningful comments. Criminal! Get him!
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!
Interesting thing; that the main countries who are suffering the persistent harassment from the USA entertainment cartels which have underpayed to the artists for decades and scammed to its customers; are the same countries who succumbed to the pressure of establishing an unjustified levy regime for digital blank media, big mistake.
Ironically, while you more succumb to the unjustified demands of these foreign corporative delinquents, they demand more and more, even the point of saying that the opinions of the citizens are not valid at all, as a proper fascist regime, that’s a fact.
Many people thought that doing agreements with these USA delinquents could calm them, but this caused exactly all the opposite; creating a bad precedent of weakness and control for demanding more and more bizarre and illegal things in detrimental of the citizens.
The common sense and history tell us that agreements with fascists delinquents are not possible at all, the unique and sane alternative for treating with these individuals who don’t respect anybody is simply ignoring them and rejecting all their proposals, that’s all… It’s the only way, and the citizens are responsible of pressuring to their governments for making this total rejection to foreign corporative delinquents and their illegal demands possible.
they already tried this in canada…and it failed…
canadian ppl joined together on facebook and made a petition so the canadian govt. caved and only made a 500 dollar MAX fine for file sharing…
i DOUBT they will try this again…lulz
How long these stupit Pro Copyright people will lie?
Copyright laws are made not for protection of theit pockets they are not for lting them earm money, but thiey always had only single purpose:
to motivate artists make more art, write more books and make movies.
these laws were not made to imrove life of content creators, they are made to EXPLOIT them
and that must be left in that way.
only thing what can be adjusted is some optimizations of that law.
Intelectual properety is NOT PROPERETY at all. it is just reward for making it in form of distribution monopoly for some time.
Out goal is to reduce content creator profits to the bare minimum while maximising content production.
and currently their profits are far bigger that they should be.
@98 Bill C-61 did not pass.
You fail.
@100
…ok Canadian law FREAK
…u fail for being a FREAK
I’m a Canadian and I’m sick and tired of greedy corporations pushing their sales loss agenda into forcing a police state! The bottomline is your losing money because your sales like everyone else’s is flat!
These greedy corporations have now bribed enough U.S. politicians to allow U.S. customs to search peoples’ laptop computers! It’s not an issue of national security, custom agents are mainly looking for movies and music that aren’t legal!
It’s enough already! Regardless of country, it must be made illegal for politicians to pass legislation that is biased towards a particular business sector of the economy! Especially where that legislation would interfere with the rights, privileges and freedoms granted to the citizens and foreigners visiting the country!
Fellow Fans of Torrentfreak. I read a lot of your comments, laughed with some, at others and then I wrote some replies; agreeing and some in disagreement but couldn’t hit “Respond”. Why? Ok, fine, I’ll tell you why and out of the respect I have for you all I’ll be honest. First, Pay is entitled to the hireling, hopefully they’ve worked hard as well as honestly. 2nd-ish whether it’s the economy or the fact that I’m just too broke to pay so much for a little entertainment when we (my family) are struggling with living i.e the mortgage, regular bills that 4 the 1st time are grossly unmanageable. Food especially is, for the first time in my life, it’s hard to keep putting it on the table. I work for a defense contractor that’s made a killing in the BILLIONS off the war in Iraq but while I’ve been passed up for any raise, COL included, for the past 5 years the executive mgt has made millions collectively in bonuses. Regardless I just can’t afford to take my family out as they would like and the downloads have been helpful. I’m sorry if that offends but that’s just the way it is for me. Cheers to all!
@ 2persons:
Morpheus: “Ironically, this is not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?”
Neo: “No.”
Morpheus: “Why not?”…
2persons wrote:
“Food especially is, for the first time in my life, it’s hard to keep putting it on the table.”
Ever heard of a corporate farm?
Imagine all the land being gobbled up by corporations and the rich. (It isn’t hard to do, because it’s closer to truth than you might realize.)
…How do we live?
…Neo: “‘Cause I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.”
Ah this bloody country. I wished I’d never moved here. Canada is just full of overbearing do-gooders. It’s like a really strict school from which you never graduate and one in which the rules are increased. Who the hell do these people think they are
When will someone stand up for the rights of consumers of electronic goods? In particular software, companies can make all kinds of claims about its suitability but most don’t allow any kind of trial. If you buy it and it’s not fit for purpose, then you have no right to get a refund in most cases. Yet you could only know this after having bought it in good faith. Why does the paranoia of the producers give them more rights than the consumers? Ask me, and I’ll tell you that file sharing is a better way of trading electronic files. The few times I’ve found software that is of value to me, and it’s not prohibitively priced, I’ve gone out and bought it. Without P2P technology this wouldn’t have happened. So why do these companies put themselves in as victims when the truth is there’s millions of people, paying way over the odds, who are deprived their statutory rights, not least seeing what they’re buying, and having the right to change their mind if it subsequently turns out to be unsuitable?!
BitTorrent? Let it go!
God you people are dumb!
Who in their right minds would cling to a device that identifies you as guilty? When are you all going to realise that it’s dead already? IP and Mac sent out with with your searches and downloads….and you continue to use this shit? Man, why don’t you all just get a parrot and an eye patch! Dumb, sad-ass looney losers!
This is fuckin unbelievable! The MPAA is shovin a pole up EVERY COUNTRY”S ASS.
My religion doesn’t believe in material things SO I DOWNLOAD ALL DAY EVERY DAY 24/7/365!
damn.
my town hall’s meeting is already over!
NEED TO MOBILIZE MY TORONTONIAN FRIENDS!
CanadianFilmSupporter:
“Seriously, stop whining about “rights” when really a PRIVILEGE is at risk. You haven’t earned the right to freely distribute other people’s material or make money off it through duplication or downgrade it through ripping.”
No you are wrong. There is a right to free speech – meaning that you can freely spread information and no one can prevent you from doing so.
On the other side, copyright is not a right – no one has a right to prevent another from doing with their property as their please, including sharing it. It is a privilege of temporary monopoly on distribution to encourage creation of content.
delete 110 pls
@109 (Odin): Wait, WTF?
@103 (2persons): Shhh, don’t tell them, they’re going to target you if they find out you’re as poor as you say you are.
Constitutional rights and consumer protection cannot be compromised for corporate profit. Letter sent.
http://www.ccer.ca/copyright-consultation/submissions-to-copyright-consultations-via-ccer-skyrocket/
Submissions To Copyright Consultations Via CCER Skyrocket
If they dont add this then its safe to say I can move all my sites from the netherlands to canada :D
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