A rare appearance, and a chance for us to actually speak to him about Bill C-61, the controversial, corrupt, DMCA-style sellout of Canadian’s rights.

Minister Prentice has avoided public appearances like the plague because he either:

• a) realizes that he is committing a disgusting betrayal of his fellow citizens and knows that there is no way he could defend his actions, or
• b) is too ignorant to understand what he is doing and doesn’t want to have to again demonstrate his complete lack of knowledge about the consequences of this bill to the Canadian people.

I’m personally leaning more towards b), especially after hearing him parrot back mind-bogglingly stupid talking points whenever he actually is challenged about the real-world implications of C-61 (check out this CBC interview, where he flat-out lies, then hangs up on the interviewer).  When the only responses he can come up with are “The market will take care of it.” or “They probably won’t prosecute.”, you know he just doesn’t give a crap about the Canadian public.

From Kempton:

Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008
Time: 8:45am - 11:00am
Sign up: Facebook event (optional)
Location: Osteria de Medici parking lot
Street: corner of Kensington Road and 10th Street NW, Calgary
Map: see this Google Map

Please bring along a cash donation for the Children’s Cottage Society and make your voice heard.

*** Meeting place at 8:45 ***

Meeting at the Osteria de Medici parking lot at the corner of Kensington Road and 10th Street NW at 8:45am. We will have a short briefing. And take some group photos and group videos sharing our concerns re Bill C-61.

*** 9:00 - 11:00 Breakfasts & meet Minister Prentice ***

Get our Stampede breakfasts and have our chance to talk to Minister Prentice about our C-61 concerns. We may each only get a few seconds of Prentice’s time. So be concise. Speak on areas that we are passionate about and knowledgeably. Remember to speak politely, clearly and firmly.

*** Slogans and information sheets ***

A concise and brief information sheet on the various C-61 issues and concerns can be downloaded here.

Note: To save paper, there are three copies of the same information per sheet of paper. Please print a few pages and cut these sheets into three parts.

Please download & print the slogan you are most passionate about and knowledgeable about so you can speak with conviction. The PDF slogan files can be found under their respective directories here. There is a Read-me file if you need extra help.

*** Photos and Videos ***

Please shoot plenty of photos and videos throughout our peaceful protest to post on Facebook, YouTube, and our blogs, etc.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video may be a million. A picture, an audio clip, or a short video can sometimes change people’s minds and may be change the world for the better.

Lets get our message out.

I honestly would not be surprised to find out that Minister Prentice no-shows tomorrow, but I still encourage EVERYONE that can get to Calgary to please show up and say something!  Keep up the public pressure and they will back down!

My MP is James Rajotte.  He is from the same party as Minister Prentice, but I’m sincerely hoping that he is more inclined to keep the party’s promise to openly discuss and debate matters like Bill C-61.  Mr. Rajotte “…currently serves as the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Industry Science and Technology.  Since being elected Chair, the Committee has conducted studies and produced reports on the Counterfeiting and Piracy of Intellectual Property;”.  I hope this means that he is not ignorant of the potential impact of the new copyright bill on his constituents (like myself), and I really hope that he is of a higher ethical standard than Minister Prentice seems to represent.

Here’s what the letter from Copyright For Canadians looks like. It’s going in the mailbox right now.

June 13, 2008

Mr. James Rajotte
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Subject: Please Stand Against the New Copyright Bill

Dear Mr. Rajotte,

I’m a constituent who has been following recent developments in Canadian copyright law. I’m concerned that the Copyright bill presented by the government on June 12th goes too far in outlawing the lawful use of copyrighted material, and does not take into account the needs of consumers and Canada’s creative community who are exploiting the potential of digital technology. I’m disappointed that this bill adopts an American approach to digital copyright laws, instead of crafting a Canadian approach.

Canada’s copyright laws need to advance Canada’s interests. This means copyright laws that respect ordinary consumer practices, such as unlocking cell phones and copying the contents of purchased DVDs for use in video iPods. The current bill outlaws these practices. This means copyright that facilitates the work of Canadian creators, such as documentary filmmakers, who instead find that this bill outlaws the use DVDs as source materials for their films. This means we find made-in-Canada solutions to the challenges of file-sharing, such as consideration of the P2P proposal of the Songwriters Association of Canada. Instead, this bill paves the road to importing the consumer file-sharing lawsuit strategy that has failed so spectacularly in the United States. Canada deserves better.

Please ensure that this bill really is made for Canadians by allowing all Canadian stakeholders a say in its final contents. That means meaningful consultation in the coming months, and opening up Canada’s copyright policy to more than just the special interests that lobbied behind the scenes for this law. As my MP, I urge you to represent my interests in the copyright debate.

Sincerely,

Michael Lawton

I know it seems like I’m bitching a lot about this copyright stuff… but GAH!  You have no idea just how bad this is and how much it will affect you.  Directly.  We can’t wait until everyone’s getting sued and we’ve lost so many of the things we used to enjoy.

Here’s your 5-minute civic duty:

Copyright For Canadians has a very simple tool that makes it easy to email your MP about Bill C-61.  After you send the email, print it out, put it in an envelope and send a physical copy (tends to get a lot more notice).  It doesn’t even cost you postage.  Here’s the address:

Last December Minister Prentice tried to sneak this garbage through, and we managed to stop him.  Fortunately, he made the classic mistake of the corrupt puppet politician: he severely underestimated the intelligence and will of an educated public.  Now he’s hoping to force this through while everyone’s “checked out” for the summer.  A massive public outcry is our only chance of stopping this and saving the rights and money of millions of Canadians.

By Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing:

Canadians: write to your MPs about Canada’s disastrous new copyright bill

If you’re a Canadian and you care about the future of culture, art, free speech and the Internet, you need to do something about the Canadian version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced yesterday. This bill was prepared without any consultation with Canadian stakeholders: there was no input from industry, libraries, education, artists’ groups, Canadian record labels, technology developers or citizens’ groups. Instead, the bill was written to specs handed down by the US trade rep and ambassador (who kept on telling the press about the “assurances” they’d had from the Minister on the bill’s features).

The bill makes it flatly illegal to break any kind of digital lock, or to violate terms in one of those absurd end-user license agreements that make you promise to agree to let the record industry kick your teeth in and drink all your beer, just for the dubious privilege of paying for a song at iTunes or watching a video on Viacom’s website. This amounts to private law: under Prentice’s plan, Parliament would get out of the business of making copyright law, simply enforcing whatever copyright law the entertainment industry itself dreamed up.

This is even worse than the approach the US DMCA took ten years ago, and look where that’s got them. Tens of thousands of Americans have been sued, key innovative technology companies have been destroyed, computer scientists have been jailed, and what did it get them? Certainly not an end to infringement — file-sharing is up in every country in the world. And for all the money the record industry has harvested from tech startups and music fans, not one dime has been paid to an artist.

Arrived in my inbox about an hour ago:

The Government of Canada has introduced Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. The proposed legislation is a made-in-Canada approach that balances the needs of Canadian consumers and copyright owners, promoting culture, innovation and competition in the digital age.

What does Bill C-61 mean to Canadians?

Specifically, it includes measures that would:

• expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own; and limit the “statutory damages” a court could award for all private use copyright infringements;

• implement new rights and protections for copyright holders, tailored to the Internet, to encourage participation in the online economy, as well as stronger legal remedies to address Internet piracy;

• clarify the roles and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers related to the copyright content flowing over their network facilities; and

• provide photographers with the same rights as other creators.

What Bill C-61 does not do:

• it would not empower border agents to seize your iPod or laptop at border crossings, contrary to recent public speculation

What this Bill is not:

• it is not a mirror image of U.S. copyright laws. Our Bill is made-in-Canada with different exceptions for educators, consumers and others and brings us into line with more than 60 countries including Japan, France, Germany and Australia

Bill C-61 was introduced in the Commons on June 12, 2008 by Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner.

For more information, please visit the Copyright Reform Process website at www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/home

Thank you for sharing your views on this important matter.
The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P.
Minister of Industry

The Honourable Josée Verner, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women
and Official Languages and Minister for
La Francophonie

While it is nice to (finally) see some communication to the public about this bill, I’m afraid I have to call bull$#!t on the talking points. Allow me to address a few of the more egregious:

…expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own; and limit the “statutory damages” a court could award for all private use copyright infringements;

To minimize the impact of my own ignorance, I offer this response from one far more qualified than I:

[None] of these provisions come close to meeting the concerns of the many groups that have spoken out on copyright over the past six months. Moreover, the Prentice Canadian DMCA is still likely to render Canadians infringers where they seek to use these new exceptions in the digital realm. For example, last week there were reports that NBC inserted copy-controls into some of their television programming that rendered Windows Vista Media Center users unable to record television shows. Under the Prentice plan, users that seek to circumvent the digital lock to record the television show (as he will claim they can) will still violate the law. The same is true for copy-controlled CDs - try circumventing the copy-controls to shift the music onto your iPod and you’re violating the law even with a device-shifting provision.

That’s Dr. Michael Geist, Law Professor at the University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law, and one of the most outspoken critics of Bill C-61 and other industry-biased legislation. What I read into this is that even though Minister Prentice is paying lip service to the concerns of us “everyday” Canadians (whom I assume he is depending on being too lazy and/or stupid to realize what he’s doing), we are still having our rights sold off to foreign commercial interests. In essence, this bill simply promises to enforce whatever rules the major US studios feel like inflicting upon us.

it would not empower border agents to seize your iPod or laptop at border crossings, contrary to recent public speculation

Of course not… that’s the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, the other US-led, rights-trampling, behind-closed-doors, bought-and-paid-for legislation that Prentice is shilling. Only ACTA operates on a global scale. Frankly, it frightens me even more than C-61.

The rest of that email is an exercise in vague double-speak and attempted spin. I’ve seen a few comments online from people saying this bill is dead in the water already, and only being thrown out on the table as a PR move for Minister Prentice to show his supporters/puppeteers that he’s trying to do their bidding, if only he didn’t keep running into that annoying inconvenience of “the people” (why can’t they just shut up and let him do whatever he wants so he can make lots of money for his friends at Warner Brothers??).

God I hope so.

It’s happening.

Right now.

Industry Minister Jim Prentice and his if-there’s-any-justice-in-the-world-future-co-defendant Josée Verner are tabling their new copyright legislation this morning in Ottawa.

There is nothing in this farce that remotely fosters innovation, promotes Canadian arts, or defends the rights of Canadian citizens.  It is a 100% sellout to a narrow group US media industry titans.  Big business doesn’t want it, artists don’t want it, universities and libraries don’t want it, international treaties don’t need it; Prentice’s own party promised public consultation which has been refused every step of the way.

I guarantee you, if this goes through, within days you will see the first of many, many abusive, overreaching lawsuits against average Canadians by foreign corporations.  And Jim’s the one that opened the door, rolled out the carpet, and invited them in to rape and pillage.

I promise here and now, if this goes through, not only will I NEVER again vote for a member of this party, but I will actively campaign against them at every opportunity.

If anyone reading this has the slightest level of influence over anyone in the political arena, please contact them ASAP and beg them to stop this.  I’ll take a step back here, whether you agree with me or not, I can’t imagine anyone that thinks it is a good idea for laws that affect this many people so directly should be developed in secret, under direct foreign influence, without any input or discussion from the public it claims to serve.  All I’m asking for is this bill to be openly debated and the inputs from those it will most directly affect be permitted and considered.  If I don’t agree with the end result, so be it.  As long as the majority of us in this democratic nation feel that they are best served, I’ll keep my mouth shut.

The more I read about this stuff, the worse it gets…

As if the national (ie: Canadian) laws weren’t getting screwed up enough, now there’s a proposed international treaty that’s even more rife with abuse and blatantly biased bull$#!t.

From the Sydney Morning Herald - Digital copyright: it’s all wrong:

The ACTA draft is a scary document. If a treaty based on its provisions were adopted, it would enable any border guard, in any treaty country, to check any electronic device for any content that they suspect infringes copyright laws. They need no proof, only suspicion.

They would be able to seize any device - laptop, iPod, DVD recorder, mobile phone, etc - and confiscate it or destroy anything on it, merely on suspicion. On the spot, no lawyers, no right of appeal, no nothing.

The draft contains other draconian measures. It proposes a governing body for copyright protection that would operate outside organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the UN. In short, it proposes a global police force, answerable to no one, with intrusive powers that vastly exceed those currently available to adherents of the concept of intellectual property.

The proposed treaty is being sponsored by a small group of US Congress members, all of whom Wikileaks says have received significant contributions from major record companies and film studios. As they say, “follow the money”.

Read the rest here.

I have a hard enough time just keeping my mouth shut with the security theater nonsense we have to put up with at the airport as it is (”Thank God they made Grandma take her shoes off, now we’re all safe from terrorists!”).  Now I have to worry about some underpaid uneducated bully with a plastic badge rooting around in my laptop looking for pictures of my girlfriend he can download for “personal use” later!?  Of course I can protest all I want… in a windowless room with a latex-covered finger up my @$$ while my plane takes off without me… or I can just comply like a good little citizen.

I have a pretty decent size music collection, just over 12.000 tracks on my iPod right now.  I used to DJ in University, but more importantly I download a LOT of independent music put out by undiscovered bands because I love looking for a new sound and I love the passion that goes into the tracks that these guys put out, hoping and praying for their one shot.  I do things like grabbing the fully legal and authorized torrent put out each year by the SXSW music festival containing around 600-900 songs, one song from each band playing in the festival.  How exactly am I supposed to alleviate the “suspicions” of some airport security goon who decides to screw with me by confiscating my iPod??

If this thing goes through, I’m going to end up in jail somewhere, I know it.  There’s just no way I’m going to be able to keep my mouth shut.

Dear friends and fellows, lend me your gears, for I would present myself upon this simulacrum soapbox and beg for a moment’s consideration.

I honestly, truly want to believe that our elected representatives honestly, truly want to do what they believe to be best for the people under their responsibility. Sometimes, though, it is very difficult.

People can be influenced in many ways, not all of them overtly immoral. Perhaps Industry Minister Prentice is simply reacting to what he has been told by those close to him. Perhaps he doesn’t realize just how damaging to the public good this proposed legislation of his is. The major US media companies have a great deal of resources to put towards convincing people of power and authority, like Minister Prentice, that there really is a vast, horrifying cabal of super-powerful hackers dedicated to nothing less than the complete annihilation of our economy, our nations, and our very way of life. And that the only way to stop these terrorists is to hand over total control of all media, art, entertainment, and communication to the unquestioned and unchallenged corporate domain.

Prentice’s DMCA Deception

Maybe that’s why he won’t talk to anyone in the public about a legislation that directly affects nearly every Canadian (you know, just those of us that listen to music, watch TV or movies, use a computer, read, etc.).

Search Engine | CBC Radio | Jim Prentice says no

Ten More Questions for Industry Minister Prentice

This isn’t about bashing Conservatives, or any other bi-partisan party crap. I’m all over the map when it comes to politics. This is about some very basic consumer rights, so basic that we take them for granted, and can’t logically conceive of them not being there. Like taking a CD (that you paid for), putting it in a computer (that you paid for), and loading the music onto an iPod (that you paid for). Would you like to guess how many laws you just broke? Or how much that will cost you in fines? (I think the going rate in the US is somewhere around $9,000 per song…) To be fair, after the public outcry the last time Minister Prentice tried to sneak this bill through, he was magnanimous enough to let us use our iPods… though the double-speak in the rest of the bill basically makes it illegal again anyway.

That fancy digital tv box you bought so you could watch NHL games in a different time zone? Nope.

Recording your favourite show on your DVR so you can watch it later? Gone.

Playing a DVD on your computer if you don’t run Windows or Mac OS? Forget it.

Complaining about Air Canada on your blog? Your site’s history.

You know how we love to point and laugh at the Americans and their insane litigious culture? Grandmas and 6 year olds being sued by major corporations, Sony infecting thousands of computers with spyware, Internet service providers handing over personal records of their customers without legal cause, warrant, or notice? This is the legislation that makes it possible for these abuses to take place. The US DMCA was passed without discussion, without public input, and without concern for the effects it would have on the American culture. It has failed miserably, resulted in lawsuits against thousands of citizens, driven many people to illegal file-sharing over the frustration of simply trying to enjoy the property they had purchased, and not put one extra dollar in the pockets of any artists.

I wish I was exaggerating, I really do. I wish I was just kidding around with more goofy conspiracy theories and tongue-in-cheek government paranoia. But I’m not. This is serious, this will affect you directly, this has to be stopped. Poor decisions by government officials pressured and cajoled by industry lobby groups have screwed the public over in the past (don’t forget about that extra little fine we get to pay every time we buy a recordable CD or MP3 Player… name me one artist who benefited from that).

I need you to help me. I need you to take action. Don’t be apathetic, don’t hope that someone else will take up the fight for you, there are far too few people willing to stand up for our rights as it is. Don’t let decisions be made for you by people who won’t talk to you!

Talk to them first.

That link will send you to a page that will let you contact your MP (help you find out who he/she is if you don’t know) and send them a letter explaining your concerns about having your rights packaged up and sold to corporate interests (they have a template letter available, or you can write your own). It’s the bare minimum you can do, please, take 2 minutes.

Finally, I beseech you to educate yourself. There is absolutely no benefit to the Canadian citizen in this proposal, and I firmly believe that anyone who learns of this legislation and how it is being formed will be furious. This painfully biased, corrupt, and unfair sort of politics can only be stopped in it’s early stages. Once it becomes law, it becomes the norm, and people forget what they’ve lost.

Online Rights Canada

Digital Copyright Canada

Michael Geist:

• The Canadian DMCA: What You Can Do
• Copyright Choices and Voices
• The Unofficial Canadian DMCA Background Document

This stuff scares me. Laws are being written by politicians with no clue under the “advice” of corporations with no concern beyond short-term profit maximization/loss minimization, at the expense of long-term industry sustainability, artistic creativity, and most importantly the protection of the public interest.

I honestly believe that if someone was able to effectively communicate to the average consumer (Canadian, American, anywhere!) what was being done to our rights, the sort of common sense, “of course I can do that” stuff that we all take for granted… I dunno. I’m pissed about it, anyone I talk to is either a) also pissed, or b) totally unaware of what’s going on.

Does Joe Public care that he can’t see some of the most amazing movies from around the world, because DVD manufacturers and movie studios have put regional locks on their players in order to manipulate prices on a market-wide scale?

Or that billion-dollar corporations, built from the ground by “re-imagining” classic stories, are trying to make sure that they continue to make money off of the work of artists that have been dead for decades, while also ensuring that no one can ever use their stories to draw inspiration for a new generation?

I am by no means a “burn-the-rich” anarchist. I’m writing this in my office, wearing a suit and tie, all corporate. I believe in business and profit and people getting paid for what they do. However, I do believe that the government is supposed to be there for the service and protection of it’s citizens, to offer a balance against those forces that may reach a tipping point at which they become a detriment to the public good.

I haven’t really thought of doing a podcast of my own, too many other little projects on the side right now. But it’s always good to keep up to date on the current copyright playground, if for no other reason than to feel smarter than 95% of our media and politicians!