So, Canada's Conservative government has just tabled an ambiguous new bill (Bill C-61) on copyright legislation, and I was more or less curious what your thoughts are on it and whether or not you think it will pass?

Among the provisions are issues regarding time shifting (watching TV at a time it isn't supposed to be watched at), private copying of files (possibly even on TiVo and the like), the locking of cellphones, and changing formats by bypassing DRM or locks of that sort (even changing formats where the creator did not want you to do so, as in a copyprotected CD to an MP3). One of the attention grabbers is a $500 fine for each copyrighted file downloaded, and $20,000 for each file uploaded - even if it's on YouTube.

Is this merely a Canadian version of the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)? Will it beget the police state that people are worrying about? Is this going too far? If it becomes a law, how enforceable is it? Where does fair use fit into this?

There's also the whole concern over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a proposed treaty that may be adopted at the next G8 meeting. It would make it so that border officers could search one's laptop, mp3 player and cellphones. In addition to that, it would requires ISPs to notify authorities about copyright violators without warrants, as well as establish its own supranational organization outside of the UN and WIPO to deal with such infringements. Is Bill C-61 a way to placate this, or is it just the beginning? Should we be concerned?

That's preposterous. Stealing a CD out of a store could cost you around $250 if you get caught (in the US, anyway), and a CD obviously has way more songs than just one. Plus, it's actually costing the store something. Pirating only costs companies theoretical dollars, and if the "perpetrator" is downloading only for personal use rather than free distribution or illegal sale, I believe the fine should fit the crime.

That's hilarious, in so many ways. Because its easier to smuggle movies and music on your person than to just upload a copy somewhere and download it after you cross the border? And are they going to triple the amount of border personnel to search everyone's laptops and iPods?

If this is all true, then the next time I go to Niagara Falls or Ontario I'm fucked. :O

RegularK showed me an article about this today. All I can say is: Canada needs to stop trying to be America.

Excellent point.

Not just Canada, but Americans as well. Most intellectual property laws are beyond absurdity.

These types of laws are absurd, unenforceable, and ineffective. Are they really going to go searching people's homes to make sure he isn't keeping a collection of TV shows on VHS? Are they going to search everyone's Ipod for evidence that the mp3's were not ripped from a CD or legally downloaded, but gotten off of a P2P service?

It's just a scare tactic, and I'm sure there will be a handful of widely publicized arrests used to make examples. For 99.99% of all Canadian pirates, though, it will be business as usual.

I actually heard that they were also making it illegal to have ripped CD's/DVD's on your laptop/MP3 Player/Cell phone. So, unless you download everything from the iTunes store, then you're fucked.

Will it be illegal to play them in your stereo, too? Or keep them in a CD binder? Stereos are negatively impacting sales, as are CD binders. I'll explain why: when consumers listen to CD's on stereos, they realize what asinine crap record labels are putting out today. They won't want to buy a CD ever again. When a consumer puts the CD in a binder, they discard the booklet, cover, back cover, etc.-in other words, the image. Without the image, the consumer has no reason to come back to the product, or the industry. We have to think of the artists in this situation-music is hurting their sales. They need to eat off solid gold plates too.

If you read the OP carefully, you'll see its not just about Canada:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Count ... _Agreement

"...the United States, the European Commission, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Canada, and Mexico."

So, if I'm reading this correctly, it will be completely illegal for me to rip any CDs I have ALREADY PAYED FOR onto my computer? I can't listen to music on here anymore even though I've payed for it?

Insanity.

It's not unreasonable for people to want to protect intellectual property and I'm sure those that have written the legislation know that in order to deter there has to be severe punishment. Unfortunately it's pretty evident that this legislation has been drawn up by people who don't live in the real world, rather the well off elite. Pretty much everyone trades copyrighted music, it's so widespread and those that do it don't regard it as morally wrong due to the extortionate prices of CDs and so on. You can't destroy people's lives with such ridiculously large fines over something so petty.

I'm sure we all saw that video where Bush was showing off his iPod a few months back. He had non- iTunes material on there including the Beatles. Did he even realize he was breaking the law? That's how out of touch politicians are.

Rather, the law seems drawn up as if it were targeting people who are illegally downloading files for further illegal distribution for profit, i.e. bootlegging, in which case there would be some justification for the high fines. However, pirating for personal use is a much, much, much less serious crime. The fine should be something like $1 a song.

That's still a few grand for most of us.

They could only charge you for stuff you theoretically stole from them. No Canadian record company has the copyright on that eastern european black metal demo band you downloaded fifty songs of.

Well I do hope that this gets defeated in the House of Commons. From the CBC report it sounds as if there is enough opposition to it. Is anyone going to bother writing to their local MPs?

Exactly. I dare labels such as No Colours or Deathlike Silence Productions to come after me for pirating Nargaroth or Burzum.

Hell, I dare Quorthon's daddy to come after me for not asking for permission to record 13 Candles and sell it for profit!

Its unfeasible to attempt to enforce this anyway against personal users. Agree with FSM about the fines too. Way too excessive. If this law goes through however and more countries jump on board, the law could retain the significance of a "global copyright law" in which case, those bands from other countries who get caught downloading music produced in other countries and under other country's copyright laws might be able to be persecuted wherever they are in the world. A law like this could lead to such things. Frightening.

Putting your OWN cds into your OWN computer library being illegal? Fuck, thats most ridiculous thing I ever heard.

Thank god this didn't pass. I hate Stephen Harper.

This shouldn't turn into a Canadian political thread, but I really don't understand how he got elected.

Did anything happen with this?

The latest I've heard on it was that from July until 13 September/09, the government opened up a public consultation on copyright laws and how they affect society. There were "town hall meetings" across the country & Canadians were able to submit comments and concerns about the bill.

As far as I remember, Tony Clement said the original projected date for implementing the bill was December 11 of this year, but it will likely be next year. As of last month, it hadn't even been properly drafted.

The bill died with the election.