Consumers May Get Temporary Reprieve As Canadian DMCA Is Delayed

from the for-now dept

A few weeks ago, Michael Geist began calling attention to plans in Canada to introduce a copyright reform bill that seemed to basically give Hollywood everything it wanted. This resulted in protests, phone calls, emails, letters, faxes and many other forms of communication as concerned Canadian citizens made it clear to their government that they did not appreciate being sold out while having copyright reform turned into the Entertainment Industry Welfare Act. While the Industry Minister Jim Prentice tried to weakly defend the forthcoming bill, it seems that the outpouring of protest has resulted in a temporary victory, as it appears that the introduction of the bill will be delayed. Hopefully, the delay is to actually spend some time understanding the issues, rather than trying to wait for those pesky citizens to quiet down so the bill can be introduced with less fanfare.

Filed Under: canada, copyright reform, dmca

So Why Did Canada Need A Special Extra Law For Camcording Movies?

from the remind-us-again dept

Back during the big debate over the need for new laws against "camcording" a movie in Canada, Michael Geist pointed out that existing laws were already perfectly fine in dealing with the problem. Of course, despite all of that, the power of the movie industry lobbyists was too strong and the bill still became law. So, isn't interesting to find out (via Geist again) that a recent arrest for camcording in a movie theater didn't even happen under the new law, but under the old copyright law. So, once again, can someone explain why the MPAA needed that new law and why Canadian politicians agreed to it?

Filed Under: camcording, canada, copyright, movies, mpaa

Canadian Passport Website Falls For Oldest Privacy Breach On The Web

from the that-one-again? dept

Back in the early days of the web, there were plenty of stories about a rather simple security breach on various sites. Basically, many sites would simply pass a user's account number through as a part of the URL. If a user simply changed the URL, her or she could see the account info of that other issue associated with the new number. After a few such cases came to light, most web app designers quickly realized to plug that hole, and it's been quite some time since we've heard of a site with such a security hole. However, it appears that there are still a few. The site for Passport Canada, where people can apply for a Canadian passport apparently had exactly that security vulnerability, allowing the guy who discovered it to see the passport application data of other applicants simply by adjusting the URL. It's never nice to hear about a security flaw (especially on a gov't website with all sorts of private info), but it actually induces a bit of nostalgia to hear of such a basic security flaw showing up in the wild yet again.

Filed Under: breach, canada, passports, security, url, websites

Did Canadian Politicans Give In To Hollywood's Demands On Copyright Reform?

from the the-hollywood-lobby-works dept

It looks like the Canadian battle over camcording in movie theaters was merely a prelude to the main show concerning copyright reform. If you don't remember, Hollywood lobbyists made a strong show earlier this year trying to convince Canadian politicians that camcording movies was a huge problem in Canada demanding much stricter laws. The problem was that the numbers that the lobbyists were tossing out (and which many in the press repeated without question) simply weren't true. Both the threat and the current condition of Canadian laws were exaggerated. Yet, it worked. Canada did, indeed, pass a much stricter law concerning camcording in theaters, despite little evidence that it would make the slightest difference or that it was even needed.

However, the bigger prize is a broad copyright reform act in Canada -- and having successfully walked politicians down the road before, it appears those same lobbyists may have done so again. Michael Geist reports that Canada is about to announce its latest copyright reform bill and it's a dreamlist of everything that the entertainment industry desires: DMCA-like anti-circumvention laws, retaining the private copying levy, no flexible fair use/fair dealing rules, no parody exception, no time-shifting exception (out, out, damn TiVo) and many others. The details aren't out yet, so it may be a bit premature to discuss this. However, Geist tends to have good sources on these things, and he's worried that this Hollywood dream bill will get fast tracked with little opportunity for people to speak up and complain that their rights are being taken away in favor of a number of big corporations and that the types of things that encourage new innovation and content creation are actually stifled by these types of draconian laws. Therefore, it makes sense for people to at least start making some noise now to get others aware of what is possibly in this bill and make it clear to the politicians that they won't stand for such a one-sided law.

Filed Under: canada, copyright, reform

Staples Sued By Canadian Writers And Publishers For Photocopying Books

from the had-to-happen-at-some-point dept

Michael Geist points us to the news that Access Copyright, an organization representing approximately 9,000 Canadian publishers and writers has sued Staples/Business Depot for copyright infringement over photocopying done at the stores in Canada. They're asking for $10 million, which Geist notes is "the largest lawsuit ever launched over copyright infringement of published works in Canada." For photocopying books in stores? Are book publishers really worried about the photocopier menace? Hopefully there's more to this claim than just the fact that people can photocopy passages from a book at Staples. It's pretty difficult to believe that this practice is widespread enough to cause any serious harm to publishers or writers. If it's just about people copying an occasional passage, as Geist notes, a previous lawsuit against libraries had found that the libraries weren't responsible and that "fair dealing" (similar to fair use in the states) shouldn't be constrained. Sure, if Staples were somehow copying books and selling the photocopies out the back you could make an argument that it's an issue, but if people are just using the photocopier in the store to copy parts of a book for personal reasons, it's hard to see the rationale here.

Filed Under: canada, photocopying, publishers, writers
Companies: access copyright, staples

Canadian Public Domain Not Good Enough For German Publisher

from the this-is-not-the-public-domain-you-were-looking-for dept

It's no secret that different countries have different lengths for copyright. That's why there are constant debates over copyright extension, as countries with shorter terms for copyright are pressured by those with longer terms to extend (or, better yet, to leapfrog) copyright terms. Otherwise, you end up with the situation where content in one country is in the public domain, while it's still under copyright elsewhere. In the age of the internet, where borders are somewhat meaningless online, that's going to cause some problems. Witness the situation with the International Music Score Library Project, a wiki-based project in Canada, for publishing public domain music scores online. The site was careful about copyright, making sure that the only content published was in the public domain. Since the site is based in Canada, it focused on Canadian copyright law and what was in the public domain in that country. Apparently, that was seen as problematic to a German publisher, Universal Edition AG, who found that some of the musical scores that are in the public domain in Canada are still under copyright in Germany. Universal Edition then hired a Toronto law firm to send a cease and desist letter, that caused the entire site to be taken down. Yes, even though all of the content was perfectly legal under Canadian law, this German publisher was able to get it taken offline because some of the content was still under copyright in Europe. If this type of thing is allowed to stand, then we reach a point where all copyright online automatically is covered by the absolute most draconian and stringent levels of copyright law, no matter what the law is anywhere else. That doesn't seem either reasonable or fair.

Filed Under: canada, copyright, copyright extension, eu, international music score library project, public domain
Companies: universal edition ag

How Bogus Counterfeiting Stats Become Fact

from the watch-the-process-at-work dept

We've seen in the past how easily bogus stats from a biased industry can suddenly become "fact" as the press uses the stats without questioning the assumptions or even noting the inherent bias in the numbers. Michael Geist is examining exactly how that has happened in Canada in the debate over what to do concerning counterfeit goods. Apparently, many pushing for stronger anti-counterfeiting legislation in Canada point to the RCMP's supposed claim that counterfeiting is costing Canada $30 billion. The problem is that the number the RCMP is using wasn't based on a careful study or anything -- it was based on some random claims they found online, that were actually numbers thrown around by lobbyists paid to pump up the supposed threat to (yes, you guessed it) push for stronger protective laws. Yet, because the RCMP used those numbers without bothering to explain that they just plucked them off the internet with no effort to research the actual situation, many are now assuming that the numbers are accurate. In the meantime, two separate recent studies by neutral parties have shown that the claims over losses from counterfeiting have been grossly exaggerated. Unfortunately, no one seems to have paid that much attention to either study... not when the RCMP is showing the cost as $30 billion.

Filed Under: bogus stats, canada, counterfeiting

Canadian Newspaper Gives Away Free Music Downloads

from the that's-the-spirit dept

Earlier this year, there was a huge fuss over the UK's Daily Mail newspaper's promotion giving away the new Prince CD for free with a copy of the newspaper. It seemed like a pretty good way of dealing with the troubles facing both the newspaper industry and the recording industry -- offering a new way of financing music combined with a new way to promote and distribute music, all the while helping give people a reason to actually buy a newspaper. It was so reasonable that it freaked out the recording industry, music stores and even other newspapers. However, it appears that some newspapers have decided to go even further. Michael Geist lets us know that over the weekend, the Vancouver Sun put up a freely downloadable compilation of songs from Nettwerk Music. You may recall Nettwerk as being the Canadian record label that seems to actually understand that the trick isn't in fighting against consumers (or in suing them), but in giving them what they want. Thus, it's not really a huge surprise that it would be this label that took part -- allowing well known acts like Sarah McLachlan and the Barenaked Ladies to take part in this promotion. What's a little strange is that the promotion only lasted for one day. However, it is good to see more newspapers (and bands) at least experimenting with this type of model. It has a long way to go, but through this experimenting the next generation of music business models are going to be discovered.

Filed Under: canada, downloads, music, newspapers
Companies: nettwerk, vancouver sun

Canadian Supreme Court Tosses Out Politician's Libel Lawsuit Against Yahoo

from the a-small-victory-for-the-wrong-reasons dept

Earlier this year, we pointed out that a member of the Green Party up in Canada was apparently suing a ton of websites just for allowing comments about him that he did not like or find to be true. There were some really bizarre aspects to the case -- which seemed to highlight those of us in the US should be happy about section 230 of the CDA protecting service providers from the actions of their users. Canada doesn't have similar protections, and this guy sued Yahoo, Wikipedia, MySpace and many others, not because of anything those sites did, but because he didn't like messages posted by users of those sites. In fact, the guy seemed rather quick on the lawsuit trigger, leading many to accuse him of doing this to hide criticism, rather than to fend off actually libelous statements.

While many of those cases are still in process, Michael Geist (who is apparently also being sued by this guy) lets us know that the British Columbia Supreme Court dismissed (with costs) the libel lawsuit the guy had filed against Yahoo, noting that it was not at all clear that it had jurisdiction over the case, since Yahoo was in the US and the guy had presented no evidence that the supposedly defamatory postings were "accessed, downloaded, and read by someone in British Columbia." Of course, there appear to be plenty of other reasons why this case should have been thrown out, but the court didn't even bother to get into them in dismissing the case for no evidence that it was the proper jurisdiction. There are still plenty of other such cases to go through, though -- so I'm sure we'll be hearing more.

Filed Under: canada, jurisdiction, laws, libel

Canada One Step Closer To Adding The 'You're A Criminal Tax' To iPods

from the automatically-guilty dept

Remember two years ago when Canada's Supreme Court said that iPods shouldn't be subject to the blank media levy that the entertainment industry had convinced Canada to put on blank media like recordable CDs? Well, apparently the Supreme Court isn't the last word on the matter. Earlier this year, we noted that the Canadian Private Copying Collective, the group that administers this "you must be a criminal" tax on media was pushing to get the levy included on iPods anyway. Now, the Copyright Board of Canada appears to be supporting that position, saying that it's clearly within the law to tax iPods and other such devices. As Michael Geist notes, the ruling could also apply to such things as personal computers as well, as the entertainment industry may now start to claim that it needs a tax on anything that can store recordable content, even as it continues to fight piracy in Canada. So, at what point do people realize that the entertainment industry is getting paid twice here? First when they get the "you must be a criminal" tax and then again when people buy legitimately purchased content.

Filed Under: canada, copyright, ipods
Companies: apple