C-61

Of course Canada is a digital ghetto!

by alec on November 28, 2008

When CBC’s Jesse Brown asked Is Canada becoming a digital ghetto, my answer was an immediate “Of course”. Canadians who don’t travel or do business outside of the country would never know this, but the wars being fought and won over consumer digital rights in other parts of the world are simply not news here. Canadians will pay more for phones and televisions because the CRTC has sided with carriers on the crucial issue of network neutrality. Because of our “Made in Canada” copyright reform, ordinary Canadians who buy and share music with family members will become criminals in their own homes.

My American friends speak glowingly of the convenience of being able to download and watch television using services like Hulu.com. They enjoy generous flat rate plans for telecom that give them virtually unlimited buckets of minutes and are driving a booming mobile telecom industry.

They have these innovative products and services because the regulator in the US favours the consumer and not the entrenched network interests.

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Squawk Box June 19 with Michael Geist

by alec on June 19, 2008

Image by yulbuzz via Flickr

The last few weeks have been terrible set backs for personal privacy, and the privileges ordinary people enjoy when they buy and use music, video and other forms of media.

Today’s guest was Dr. Michael Geist, an internationally recognized expert in these areas. We discussed Bill C-61 the Canadian copyright law tabled last week, as well as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement leaked in late May which seeks to enable border searches of computers and music players, and require ISPs to cooperate to provide information about suspected copyright infringers without a warrant.

Michael gave us a brief overview of what the legislation is and how close it is to the DMCA. Bill C-61, far from being a made in Canada solution, appears to be a clone of the worst parts of the DMCA, with all kinds of negative implications for consumers, and privacy. It has generated massive amounts of commentary here as a result.

We speculated that the reason for introducing the bill now was simply to let it lie over the summer and get it out of the public consciousness.

We also talked about ACTA, which is an international treaty designed to apply the same rules between countries. Affecting the European Community, Australia, New Zealand, and North America, ACTA purportedly will have far reaching implications, including an enforcement group. Michael cautioned, however, that the treaty is still not visible to the public, and counseled the government to engage in a more transparent process.

On the call: Michael Geist, Dan York, Jim Courtney, Craik Pyke, Dave Brown, Jeb Brilliant, James Body, Peter Childs, Randall Howard and Dale Gass.

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Canadian Copyright Reform would make me and my family into criminals.

June 16, 2008

Image via Wikipedia Friday, a day after the government tabled its bill on copyright reform, I got a call back from my MP, Pierre Poilievre. I had telephoned him earlier in the week to talk about the rumours I had heard about copyright. Pierre hadn’t read the bill, but asked what my concerns were anyway. [...]

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