Canadian Government: Copyright bill to clamp down on digital lock-pickers

[PeterT]

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/...108/story.html

OTTAWA —The Conservative government closed the door Tuesday to loosening the digital-lock rules in its copyright bill so consumers could make a backup copy of content they've already purchased.

The government's Copyright Modernization Act will now be sent to the House of Commons for a final vote after a special parliamentary committee adopted a handful of government amendments to the bill. Tory MPs, who outnumber the opposition side, voted down all opposition proposals.

The NDP and Liberals unsuccessfully pressed for an amendment to allow people to get around a digital lock for personal use, so they can view a DVD purchased overseas, to transfer a purchased e-book to read on another personal device, or to create a backup copy of a purchased online game. They wanted to link circumvention to copyright infringement, to distinguish between such lawful, non copyright-infringing activities and a person picking a lock on a DVD in order to burn and sell thousands of pirated copies.

[sabredog]

Sigh......

This will just make casual piracy far more popular as DRM free ebooks or music/movies are downloaded.

Very, very short sighted.

[Xanthe]

And they continue to wonder why people "pirate" (using their definition of the term)....

Then they should mandate that every ebook reader MUST be designed to handle ALL possible ebook formats, and that any ereaders that don't currently do so, MUST have a firmware update to bring the up to spec.

If they want to promote an economic system where the free market drives the economy, then if a Kindle book is priced cheaper than one I can buy from the Sony Bookstore, I should be able to buy that Kindle book and have my Sony T1 natively read it - if I'm not to be allowed to convert the Kindle ebook that I purchased into a format that my T1 can read automatically.

Only fair, right?

[FizzyWater]

How will the enforce this? Unless the government can scan your hard drive to search for liberated books, how will they know you did it?

[Apache]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

How will the enforce this? Unless the government can scan your hard drive to search for liberated books, how will they know you did it?

Don't give them ideas.
Apache

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

How will the enforce this? Unless the government can scan your hard drive to search for liberated books, how will they know you did it?

They'll build more prisons. Think of all the jobs it will create.

The reality is that it's unenforceable. It's a poorly thought out law and this has been pointed out to the government many times by many different groups but they aren't listening. Removal of DRM could have been legal if there was no copyright violation.

Although the new law gives consumers the right to backup and format shift content that they've purchased, this right is removed if the content is protected by DRM. This in effect gives the companies the ability to write their own copyright.

We will be in the ludicrous position that it will be illegal to watch a legally purchased DVD on a LINUX computer.

My real problem with laws like this is that it builds a contempt for law. For the majority of the people it doesn't change behaviour. You can't explain to someone that what they are doing is wrong or in anyway is hurting anyone other then that it's "illegal" because the government wrote a bad piece of legislation.

[howyoudoin]

This is what happens when technologically uninformed politicians frame laws on subjects they do not comprehend.

[nogle]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

This is what happens when technologically uninformed politicians frame laws on subjects they do not comprehend.

And opposed by equally uninformed politicians. The problem lies in letting politicians do anything

[teh603]

Originally Posted by nogle

And opposed by equally uninformed politicians. The problem lies in letting politicians do anything

Without government, the life of man in a state of nature is nasty, brutish and short.

tl;dr: There are better ways to solve problems with government than simply abolishing it.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by nogle

And opposed by equally uninformed politicians. The problem lies in letting politicians do anything

Haha, reminds me of that old quip about American democracy. What if the Democrats and Republicans were really just one single party, and only contest outwardly to provide the illusion of choice?

What good is democracy if you can't vote for someone other than a politician?

[nogle]

Originally Posted by teh603

Without government, the life of man in a state of nature is nasty, brutish and short.

tl;dr: There are better ways to solve problems with government than simply abolishing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=5P2jJdrz9bY

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by nogle

And opposed by equally uninformed politicians. The problem lies in letting politicians do anything

It beats every alternative ever invented.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Stephen's a moron and a dangerous one with a majority government. I suggest we start the scanning with his hard drives.

[Wasgo]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Stephen's a moron and a dangerous one with a majority government. I suggest we start the scanning with his hard drives.

You may not like his policies (I know I don't), but it doesn't add anything to a debate by calling Mr. Harper a moron. The man has a Masters of Economics degree and successfully became Canada's Prime Minister. Any time you use inflammatory language like that, the debate turns into whether or not the use of insulting language is justified, rather than the issue at hand.

While I'm disappointed in the inclusion of the circumvention legislation, the overall bill seems to be quite reasonable.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by Wasgo

While I'm disappointed in the inclusion of the circumvention legislation, the overall bill seems to be quite reasonable.

+1 for this.