When It comes to politicians taking a stand against ‘anti-piracy bills’, such as the three-strikes legislation that’s being backdoored in Europe at the moment, the mind generally goes Swedish, to Rick Falkvinge for example. The mind doesn’t tend to think of North American politicians, but there is an exception, in Canada’s Charlie Angus.
Canada, one of the shining lights in the copyright and intellectual property world, has a shadow approaching that may dim that for all. The name of that shadow? Bill c-61, which was formally introduced by Industry minister Jim Prentice an hour or two ago. One of the ‘highlights’ is the abolition of court’s flexibility in statutory damages, fixing it at $500 (CAD)
A new paper from the University of Washington department of Computer Science and Engineering, has investigated a problem with current DMCA notices and the methods used in dealing with them. It puts further pressure on anti-p2p groups like BayTSP to validate their claims.
Whilst America is often considered by many to be the home of overreaching and overprotective copyright laws, the Swiss government has decided that it can do better, and so quietly passed a bill in an attempt to catch the US. However, the Swiss won’t accept such a law without a fight.
Research on the behavior of fake RIAA and MPAA trackers shows that these organizations have no proof that you actually tried to share infringing content. Even worse, it is extremely easy for someone to make it look like you shared an infringing file, even if you’ve never used a filesharing application.
Canada may be facing its own DMCA according to Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. And, “given the strength of the copyright lobby, we may need protection from the next copyright bill,” he says.
With that in mind, tomorrow Giest launches 30 Days of DRM page and [...]
