CRTC Will Not Regulate Online Film Rentals
The CRTC will not regulate online film rental companies and broadcasters.
These online broadcaster will not be forced to subsidize Canadian TV content, the CRTC having found no evidence that their activities hurt conventional broadcasters.
Bill C-11’s Digital Locks Provisions – Why ?
The digital lock provisions included in Bill C-11 are meant to curb the circumvention of “technological protection measures“, to halt piracy. But unfortunately many consumers currently circumvent digital locks to perform private copies of music recordings or to view films that are unavailable in their region.
At the moment Canadians are able to purchase music on iTunes and use this
program to convert their legally purchased ACC files to the mp3 format.
These consumers can also purchase region free DVD or blu-ray players from Amazon.com
Neither of the above acts result in the unauthorized, uncompensated distribution of copyrighted works to third parties yet these acts could technically be forbidden by Section 41 of the Copyright Act if Bill C-11 passes.
Private Copying, as defined in Part VIII of our Copyright Act, is not exempt in Bill C-11. And Section 41 explicitly forbids the manufacturing, importation, sale or rental of technologies, devices or componants whose primary function is the circumvention of copy protection.
It appearently doesn’t matter that the copyright owners were compensated when the recordings were legally purchased from legitimate vendors and that if it weren’t for copy protection that these acts would be considered private copying in law.
The authors of Bill C-11 insist on labeling these acts “piracy”, even when consent is implied by the sale of these recordings to law abiding Canadian consumers.
The American entertainment industry has yet to specify what losses are incured in the private copying of copy protected works. They also failed to specify how they are loosing funds on legally purchased foreign recordings they refuse to sell in Canada.
Why are we allowing this undue, unjustified foreign influence on our Parlamentary processes ?
Lawful Access Missing For Latest Proposals
It appears the Conservative Government has omited lawfull access from their latest crime reform bill, named the “Safe Streets and Communities Act“, which was tabled today.
Lawful access may be introduced later. But it appears that the 70,000+ signature Openmedia.ca petition may have caused this delay and may result in a more indepth review of this proposal.
Motion Tabled Against HST/GST on Books
A motion was filled by Irene Mathyssen, the Member of Parliament for London-Fanshawe, asking the Minister of Finance to “introduce legislation to eliminate the GST and the HST on all reading materials“.
This motion was seconded by another NDP member, Alex Atamanenko, Member of Parliament for BC Southern Interior.
Click here to contact your local Member of Parliament in regards to this issue.
New Parliamentary Session Starts Today
Parliament will be in session today and many bills are scheduled to be introduced by the last scheduled sitting day in December, including two re-introduced bills that consumers should be made aware of.
Both should be of concern to Canadian consumers as they are scheduled to be re-introduced with little to no changes, possibly resulting in a loss in the ability to make private copies from copy protected recordings, loss of privacy when it comes to the internet and higher subscription fees for internet access.