Super+rough+draft

Canadian copyright laws are too restrictive. They make simple everyday activities illegal, make it hard for beginning artists to get into the industry, and make it difficult for schools to acquire the necessary materials to educate students.

//Some people argue that the laws are too liberal. They let people get away with downloading material, and not paying the artist/author. This means they do not get paid for their work. The current laws also do not prevent people from making low quality remixes.//

__Copyright Law__

Bill C-60 (now dead) outlined the copyright laws for Canadians in fair dealings, technological protection, rights Management Information protection, ISPs, search engines, peer to peer (P2P), and photography protection.  However there are concerns that the law would fail to meet the interests of Canadians, and instead favor the private sector of businesses and special interest groups.

 At present in Canada our copyright laws are being challenged. In a bench mark case, Robertson vs Thomson Corporation (2001), a precedent was set in Canadian law showing the ongoing efforts by publishers, creators, and users to find solutions to complex issues of electronic content.(Source : Canadian Court Rules...)  "The ruling is a positive outcome, especially for freelancers, because Justice Cumming has ruled that copyright exists with the creator. As for compensation for past use, we hope to work with the publications to arrive at mutually acceptable agreements to cover compensation for past use."

 There are issues that copyright laws can not deal with. They are unclear in some areas, they are impractical in others, and very difficult to enforce.

 Copyright laws are meant to promote originality, but can stifle creativity by heavily restricting re-use, even with attribution, providing no practical way to compensate the original artist when a work is derived or “mashed-up”. Artists should be able to create remixes and mash-ups, and compensate the artist of the “original” or source media for use of their material.

//People make plenty of new stuff anyway. Media is still sometimes derived from (many) other sources. These sources may be mostly original, or even have very little original content themselves.//

 If we really think about it, there are only so many note patterns and beats that can be used, after they have all been used, variations on those are not really original. This is already happening. There are 38 songs you would probably consider original, but are strangely similar as demonstrated by “The Axis of Awesome” in the following video. []

// Copyright laws are supposed to increase income to artists by stopping piracy. //  A problem is that artists can not publish material if they can not get into the system, and it is expensive to get into the industry, and record labels will not always take the risk of spending time and resources and money on getting a new artist into the industry.  Many new artists will actually follow the paths originally made by pirates to publish their media. They can easily spread it to many people, and then just accept donations, and by eliminating the middleman, and making it available to everybody, they could make lots of money.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Pirates are going to continue pirating whether it is against the law or not.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__Access to materials__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Access to materials is supposed to be increased by copyright laws, by making them more easily publicly available. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> However, material can be (and is) publicly available by other means such as file sharing where material is posted for public access.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Increased access to materials is also provided by the public domain.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You would think this means anything available to the public. This is not true. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Material in the public domain is available to the public for free.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> However, items published by authors today are not in the public domain unless the author directly puts it there. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Items in the public domain are not copyrighted.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is usually because the copyright ran out, and sometimes because the author or artist chose not to copyright. Creative Commons licenses are a good way for artists to publish their creations, and share them, and choose exactly what people can do with their work.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__Piracy__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pirates are always one step ahead, so laws will not stop them, and counter piracy will not catch them. They are buying lots of media so they can share it, and there is no proof they would buy it if it were not possible to download it.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__Pirates, Peers and Popular Music__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Martin Laba of Simon Fraser University writes: "Consumers have little compunction about file sharing because they have little affection or concern for an industry that pulls in very handsome profits globally and that engages in 'demonizing the record-buying public and online community' and threatens litigation as its response to peer-to-peer practices." Currently, Laba points out, those kids who are technologically adept do not even recognize they are doing anything wrong when sharing with friends.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Millions of Canadians have tens or hundreds of TV shows and movies on VHS or DVDs on their shelves at home that they recorded from their TV, and are keeping to watch again later. If laws change, these people could be turned into criminals because this is classified as stealing. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (Source Copyright would turn millions into criminals)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> This process is not comparable to piracy, because people pay for their subscription to the television service. So they are paying to watch the television programs, and movies. There is no reason they should not be allowed to save the shows and movies to watch again later. After all, they did pay for them.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__Downloading concerns in the music industry__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//One area of debate exists in the music industry. According to Henderson, music downloading has “devastated the industry” (Cite source Numbers D. Crunch)//

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Most recently, a Supreme Court of Canada decision ruled that Internet Service Providers are mere conduits for information and they are not directly responsible for the actions of their subscribers.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> It is unclear what the actual financial impact of music downloading is. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//In August 2003, the Canadian Recording Industry Association// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__claimed__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> //that over the last 3 years they suffered $250 million in losses. Three months later, the CRIA declared $425 million in losses. Later, CRIA general counsel Richard Pfohl announced to a group of university students that losses were really $450 million every year since 1999, adding up to about $2 billion over the last five years.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These estimates remain unclear and unsupported. These statistics are based on declining CD sales and don’t take into account the change in how people acquire music through other legitimate sources such as PureTracks (http://www.puretracks.com) and iTunes. We must also consider that some downloads are of music that is no longer for sale; some are covered by the Canadian copyright levy; some are of music that is available with permission of the copyright holder or is in the public domain; and some are just to sample the music before buying, because some people do not want to go buy that new CD, and get home and listen to it, and end up not liking it. (Cite source Piercing p2p myths)

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> They are buying lots of media so they can share it, they are actually paying for the media they share. There is no proof they would buy it if it were not possible to download it. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//But stealing is still wrong. It is still stealing.// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">However, information is not like a bicycle, which when stolen deprives the owner of transportation, but my copy of the book does not take YOUR copy of the book. (Richard Stallman) Quite the contrary. It means we both get a copy. And it is actually better for the environment, because if I buy a movie, and share it with 5 friends, they do not need to buy it, so that is 4 fewer DVDs the industry needs to stamp out, thus saving the environment a little bit at a time. Another idea would be to sell cheap copies of the movie to people who just saw it in the theatre, or giving them coupons for $15 off the DVD. Because they have already paid to see it, it should not cost much more to be able to have a copy on DVD.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__Impact on personal privacy__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Trying to fight piracy has a large impact on privacy.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> To catch pirates, ISPs would have to disclose information about subscribers whose IP address had been found to be illegally accessing copyrighted materials. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> "privacy concerns outweigh the public interest concerns in favor of disclosure." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Plus, "downloading a song for personal use does not amount to [copyright] infringement" <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> -- Judge of case: CRIA v Jane Doe and others (2) (March 31, 2004) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Even if the ISP was willing to disclose the information, it would be very difficult if not impossible to find out who was actually committing the infringement.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Private IPs are dynamically assigned, meaning, an IP that corresponds to one subscriber this week, may belong to another next week. The ISP would have to do a search to figure out which MAC address was using which IP at the time. This information is only kept for a short period of time, and is not always reliable. In addition, the MAC could belong to a LAN router, making it impossible to discover which computer on the network was infringing, and then also impossible to discover who was using the computer to access the material. Many people do not secure their Wi-Fi enabled routers (or access points) (or they think they are, but they are using WEP, which is easily broken in mere minutes) meaning someone within range of the access point can easily connect and download copyrighted material. The person does not even need to be in the same house, they could be sitting in a car across the street. In addition to this, with the right software, MACs can be spoofed, so the MAC they have on record may not even exist, and will never be found.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> There are at least 3-4 points where catching the infringer can and probably will fail.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Copyright laws are always a decade or two behind technology. They are also unclear, frequently unenforceable, and confusing. For example Why should it be okay to download a song, or share music, but not be able to rip a CD that you <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__bought__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> so that you can put the music on your portable media player? Schools need the proper material to educate students, and currently, originality is not a devastating issue. Canada needs to relax, or at least update our copyright laws to support the public interest.

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