| Who we are | Organizations | Get Involved! | Helpdesk |
| Weblog | About FLORA | Server project | F.A.Q. |
|
|
|||||||
| ||||||||
Election 2006 (and beyond): Digital Copyright Canada
From: Russell McOrmond <russell_-at-_flora.ca>
To: Free/Open-Source Software Community Networking/Computing <comnet-www_-at-_flora.org>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 10:32:51 -0400 (EDT)
We need to join together to ensure that this doesn't happen. We have until September 15, 2001 to file our own submissions, and then October 5, 2001 to submit "correct" the misconceptions that will be submitted by the pro-monopolist/anti-freedom submissions. http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/rp01100e.html Ensure that you carbon-copy other public groups (EG: this one) on submissions sent in to help others solidify ideas for their own articles. You can read the original call to action (Forwarded below) at: http://www.teledyn.com/story.php?storyid=2001/7/24/102 If what was posted on the Industry Canada site is not enough, tie this in with the article "Canada, U.S. eye scrapping border `We should think of the border not as a frontier but a meeting place'" http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=996271752349&call_page=TS_Canada&call_pageid=968332188774&call_pagepath=News/Canada&col=968350116467 and we may find that some of the other draconian U.S. laws (such as treating cryptography as a munitions in relation to 'export' to the free world from the USSA) will be coming to Canada. It is interesting that some of this is coming to the foreground right after the <http://www.linuxsymposium.org> where two speakers on two evenings spoke about how the Linux/Free Software communities need to be more politically aware! Some organizational links: http://www.freeswan.org/ - Many Canadians in the FreeSWAN project, and hopefully their 'history/politics' page can be updated to help people find out more about ITAR/DMCA/etc http://www.linux.ca/ - Canadian Linux Users Exchange. http://insight.mcmaster.ca/org/efc/ - Electronic Frontier Canada (EFC) , theoretically the Canadian branch of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF - http://www.eff.org/ ) - The EFF was very helpful in opposition to the US's DMCA http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/ "DMCA Worldwide: Canada, New Zealand, USA" http://slashdot.org/yro/01/07/28/1658234.shtml Another older article on the topic (22 Jun 2001): http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/167203.html --- Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> RMS clarifies Freedom http://www.gnu.org/press/2001-05-04-GPL.html New Campaign for Fuel Subsidy Honesty! http://www.flora.org/taxpayer/ http://www.openconcept.ca/scams.phtml Watch out for Domain Registry Scams! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 14:20:39 -0700 From: Steve Kisby <skisby@web.net> Reply-To: gpc-general@conscoop.ottawa.on.ca To: gpc-general@conscoop.ottawa.on.ca, post-gpty-canada@greens.org Cc: Stephen Samuel <samuel@bcgreen.com> Subject: [GPC-GEN]: Fwd: New canadian copyright laws ----- Forwarded message ----- Delivered-To: skisby@web.net To: gpbc-forum@yahoogroups.com From: Stephen Samuel <samuel@bcgreen.com> Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 07:45:16 -0700 Subject: [gpbc-forum] New canadian copyright laws http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/rp01100e.html I'm putting this here because it's a clearly political issue. For those of you who don't know about the DMCA ([Canada's] Digital Millenium Copyright Act), it is an update to the US Copyright laws that gives copyright holders the ability, among other things to encrypt and otherwise hobble date, and makes it illegal to even talk about how the work is encrypted. Decrypting the code in any way form time that the copyright holder doesn't want you to is being held as a crime under the DMCA. People have been threatened with jail for trying to put together a program to view DVDs on computers that don't have DVD reading programs available. In the most recent case, Dmitry Skylerov is in jail for criticizing Adobe's 'protection' on their E-Books, and making a program available that allows people to read E-books on machines that don't have E-book readers (yet) -- but ONLY if you have a legitimate copy of the book. If something as stupid as the DMCA is enacted in Canada, it could stifle research in encryption technologies and theory, as well as limit our ability to access copyright materials which we own. As current technologies become obsolete (how many people can still read a 5.25" floppy disk?) old media formats could become unreadable, and it could be illegal for you to transfer your paid-for works to a format that you can still read. -------------------------- -------------------------- To: Canadian Linux Users Exchange From: Gary Lawrence Murphy Subject: Call for Action: No DMCA in MY backyard, please! Date: 24 Jul 2001 21:24:33 -0400 Dear Opensource Collegues, Industry Canada has just put out a Call for Comment over reforms to our Copyright Act to become our new digital copyright laws. These reforms have a the stated intent of "prevent[ing] the circumvention of technologies used to protect copyright material" ... among other purposes. That sounds like DMCA to me. http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/rp01100e.html I know Canadian activism may seem a contradiction in terms, but in this case, it _requires_ our characteristic politeness and protocol. We have our chance to make a difference, but only if we react in a seasoned and respectable way: But this does _not_ mean "contact your MP and whine"; it does not mean hang out on your favourite blog and bitch about it. It means "if we play by the rules, we can change the rules." To be effective in changing these proposals, it is imperative every Canadian reading this should visit the website, read the posted proposals (carefully), and submit the necessary documents to Industry Canada by Sept 15; if you are a student, ensure your professors/teachers voice their concerns; if you are an employee, prompt your employer to react. Non-Canadians reading this can help too. They can do what they can to ensure their Canadian collegues are aware of the Call for Comment, and ensure they have the best possible information regarding the implications of a DMCA-like restriction on reverse-engineering. Please forward this call to action to your collegues - there is very little time to prepare our response. With your assistance, we truly can ensure that the Copyright Act _remains_ among the most modern and progressive in the world, as was indeed promised in the January 2001 Speech from the Throne. Best regards, Gary Lawrence Murphy CEO TeleDynamics Communications Inc http://www.teledyn.com -- Stephen Samuel +1(604)876-0426 samuel@bcgreen.com http://www.bcgreen.com/~samuel/ Powerful committed communication, reaching through fear, uncertainty and doubt to touch the jewel within each person and bring it to life.
| Please read the FLORA.org Terms and Conditions before you submit information to FLORA.org | |
Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign(USA) (Canada) |
 FLORA Community Web
(FLORA.ORG) is sponsored by FLORA
Community Consulting (FLORA.CA).
|