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Rogers Cable, like other cable companies, has in fact been implementing something it calls "traffic shaping," a technology that gives priority to certain on-line activities (such as e-mail, browsing, voice communication) and putting the brakes on other less time-sensitive stuff, such as swapping music files.In fact, the complaints I received have come from people who noticed the difference when they use peer-to-peer technology specifically to swap music files — and lest we forget, that activity is still legal in Canada, unless and until whichever government we elect next month passes a law banning the activity.
When I first approached Shaw they vehemently denied the use of the Ellacoya device.After I confronted them with proof in the form of a wave file with the Shaw president talking about the new Ellacoya devices they were using, they quickly changed the tune to: "We do not discuss the tools Shaw uses internally".after that time, I decided to no longer use any Shaw services
Online Rights Canada Launches with EFF, CIPPIC SupportToronto - Online Rights Canada (ORC) launched in Canada Friday, giving Canadians a new voice in critical technology and information policy issues. The grassroots organization is jointly supported by the Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)."Canadians are realizing in ever-greater numbers that the online world offers tremendous opportunities for learning, communicating, and innovating, but that those opportunities are at risk as a result of corporate practices, government policies and legal regimes that hinder online privacy and free speech," said Philippa Lawson, Executive Director and General Counsel of CIPPIC. "Online Rights Canada provides a home on the Internet for grassroots activism on digital issues that are important to ordinary Canadians.""With the Canadian government preparing for a January election, all of last year's legislation is back on the drawing board. Canadians now have another chance to present a public interest perspective on issues like copyright reform and increased government surveillance," said Ren Bucholz, EFF's Policy Coordinator, Americas. "We are happy to be launching ORC at such a critical time."One of ORC's first actions is a petition drive against unwarranted surveillance law. A bill proposed in Parliament last month would have allowed law enforcement agencies to obtain personal information without a warrant and forced communications providers to build surveillance backdoors into the hardware that routes phone calls and Internet traffic. The petition asks Canadian lawmakers to protect citizens' privacy rights when the new government convenes in 2006. Other important issues for ORC will include copyright law, access to information, and freedom from censorship."Today, ORC focuses on digital copyright and lawful access. But there is no reason to restrict the site to those two issues," said CIPPIC Staff Counsel David Fewer. "Our hope is that ORC will evolve into the first place to go for Canadians looking for opportunities to protect their online rights. Anyone can be an activist - Online Rights Canada will give you the tools you need."
Kapica emphasizes the U.S. focus of the hosts of the event and the absence of many from the Canadian cultural community. While I think that point is a good one, I think it misses the larger issue. The problem with the fundraiser is not that the President of CRIA is a host and that his partner is providing the entertainment. The problem is that the Parliamentary Secretary for Canadian Heritage, the former chair of the Canadian Heritage Standing Committee, the chair of the Ontario Liberal caucus, and the key player in the Bulte Report should not be having any fundraisers with any copyright stakeholders four days before a national election. The perception is that this is pure influence peddling, a perspective that is only fuelled by Bulte's appearance at the head table at CRIA's National Press Club event in the fall, of Bulte and Graham Henderson together in Washington, DC in September, etc.As one private emailer noted, if the CEO's of the major banks held a fundraiser for Finance Minister Ralph Goodale days before the election it would be a national scandal. So too if the CEO's of the major telecommunications companies held a fundraiser for Industry Minister David Emerson or the CEO's of the oil companies held one for Environment Minister Stephane Dion. Quite simply, no elected government official should be seen to be favouring one group of stakeholders by accepting large campaign contributions or hosted fundraisers.
Three lawsuits were launched in Canada. One in Quebec ((English translation by Google) in November 2005. Recently, there were complaints from Ontario and British Columbia. All the moves are aimed at Sony BMG's rootkit technology as well as the MediaMax "spyware". The technology is found in music albums, as authorized by Sony BMG. The lawsuits raise a number of issues concerning the DRM in the CD's. Complaints include: violation of the Canadian Privacy Act (since MediaMax gathers users' information, uses their internet connection and sends information about the user to a third party - Sony BMG), breach of contract (as the rootkit technology was not mentioned in the End User License Agreement), violation of the Competition Act, and a host of other claims against the technology in the albums.
Various Canadian legacy intermediary industry associations, for example branch-plant versions of foreign industry associations such as the CRIA, CAAST, and CMPDA, often tell us how much of a decline in revenue they're observing.They then ask governments to "fix" this problem.I don't doubt the major labels and similar associations have seen a decline in revenue. I also don't doubt that there's been a decline in revenue with the distribution channels they control, such as the retail of mechanical media. Russell McOrmond But I strongly believe their plights shouldn't matter to anyone but themselves.The health of intermediaries such as the CRIA members has nothing at all to do with the health of the music industry. The relevant parts of the music industry are songwriters/authors, performers and their audiences/fans. The people are exploring a full spectrum of methods of production, distribution and funding, including some which skip these intermediaries.Anything they do to increase their revenue by skipping the middle-man is obviously going to show up as a decrease in revenue for that unnecessary middle-man
One of the biggest issues during the election for digital rights activists was the Sam Bulte Incident where various Copyright Stakeholders planned to host a fundraiser for her. She later denounced the idea of calling it a 'fundraiser' (and for those who read the invitation, it actually does say 'fundraiser' on it) and claimed that it was merely a celebration. Whatever one calls it, it came with a hefty price of 250 Canadian dollars (which today would be about 214.65 USD, 177.68 Euros or 122.19 Pounds) per plate. On top of this, Michael Geist also notes, "Her 2004 riding association return posted on the Elections Canada site shows contributions of $67,737 (the fifth largest total among Ontario Liberals). That amount breaks down as $38,789 from individuals (57 percent), 19,848 from corporations (29 percent), and $9,100 from trade unions (13 percent), which include several copyright collectives." This raised serious concerns for many Canadians. In response, Online Rights Canada decided to throw a bash of their own to counter the fundraiser and deliberately hosted it one hour before the Sam Bulte event near the same location. Of course, trying to sneak quietly in the background, Bev Oda, a Conservative MP was reported to have "accepted donations from the same groups." Perhaps it was wise of her not to be so vocal in an effort to detract attention. Later, Sam Bulte was captured on video (a video that has since spread) calling the EFF, Michael Geist and Canadians everywhere 'pro-user zealots'. A sentiment by the Copyright Stakeholders as they try and discredit boingboing by stating that "Its all crazy and false." They even go further by calling people like David Fewer "The piracy lobby." The notion Sam Bulte claimed to have was that she supports artists. It was a notion quickly slammed by Canadian musician Matthew Good.
The Canadian MP whom copyfighters loved to hate has lost her job and the election. Sam Bulte was the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Parkdale/High Park, my old riding, and she was embroiled in a scandal when it was revealed that she had financed her election campaigns at the entertainment industry's expense, and subsequently brought down proposal for extremist, US-style copyright laws. In last night's Canadian elections, Bulte lost to New Democratic Party opponent Peggy Nash by 2213 votes. Toward the end of her campaign, Bulte became increasingly desperate, but she really scraped the bottom of the barrel when she threatened to sue her critics and then published an editorial in the Toronto Star that lifted passages from Canadian Recording Industry Association speeches and literature nearly verbatim.
The lawsuit claims that Sony-BMG had breached the manufacturer’s warranty, the terms under the EULA (End User License Agreement), and the consumer protection legislation. If the defendants are found guilty, they could be paying 65 million dollars in damages and aggravated damages, exemplary damages and punitive damages totaling 25 million dollars. The lawsuit also states, "While Sony eventually recalled the CDs on November 30, 2005, in Canada, that contained XCP system, the web-based uninstaller by then developed was investigated by noted researchers Ed Felton and J. Alex Halderman, who discovered that the ActiveX component used for removing the software exposed users to far more significant security risks, including arbitrary code execution from any site on the internet." The lawsuit notes that since March of 2005, Sony distributed 52 music titles with XCP, shipping 5 million CDs and selling 2 million of them. In Canada in particular, "Sony BMG distributed at least 34 titles with XCP...Approximately 120 thousand CDs were sold..."
and if i had a penny for every million they've lost... i'd be bankrupt
If all that Mark Cripps wanted to do was download music for personal and private use, then the right to do so exists and is paid for by a levy on blank audio recording media such as blank CDs.These copies must be private copies, meaning they are never sold, loaned or shared. He could not share these files, meaning he could not use BitTorrent or other P2P tools which automatically share as files are received as the copy he would be making would no longer be a "private copy."There is also misinformation on the other side. There is a common mistake in believing that if unauthorized downloading is legal, then unauthorized file sharing sharing is also legal. All the misinformation that the past government and the major labels have been spreading claiming that there was a need to change the law to make unauthorized file sharing illegal didn't help.When the major labels sued to try to get the names of 29 people who had allegedly been sharing music, the reason that they lost was because of a lack of evidence. It is obvious that if you are going to claim unauthorized sharing that you are going to need to at least download a song and listen to it - something the labels failed to do.
The Copyright Board of Canada last week released its proposed tariff for 2007 for the private copying levy. The numbers remain unchanged: 21 cents per CD-R. As prices have dropped, however, the levy now frequently comprises a significant percentage of the retail price. Consider the purchase of 100 blank Maxell CDs. Future Shop retails the 100 CDs for $69.99. The breakdown of this sale is $48.99 for the CDs and $21.00 for the levy (even worse is a current Future Shop deal of 200 blank CD-Rs from HP, which retails for $59.99. The levy alone on this sale is $42.00 (200 CDs x 21 cents/CD) which leaves the consumers paying $17.99 for the CDs and $42.00 for the levy). This results in a huge distortion in retail pricing when compared to the U.S. market which does not have a levy system.
The CRTC’s last review of Canadian commercial radio was in 1998, when the quota of domestic music for English-language stations was increased from 30% to 35%. The CRTC stated then that a future review of the quota would take place after five years, when a further increase might be implemented.Speculation of an increase to 40% CanCon—which insiders expect the Canadian Independent Record Production Assn. to seek—angers many broadcasters. But one source notes that some 40 of the 60 new stations that have signed on since 1998 have been licensed by the CRTC with a CanCon quota of 40%.“CIRPA cannot ask for less than 40% when so many broadcasters at [license] hearings have said that 40% is no problem,” the source says. “At the same time, broadcasters are behind the eight ball with 40% being usually promised.”Slaight agrees. “Anyone trying to get a license in a market knows someone else will put 40% in. Usually, it’s a new player in the market who figures if they don’t put 40% in, they aren’t going to get in the game.”CIRPA executive director Cori Ferguson downplays talk of a 40% quota, but admits, “We are supportive of more Canadian content rather than less.”Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada general counsel Paul Spurgeon says the authors’ rights society will file a submission March 15 seeking even higher CanCon quotas.“The Broadcasting Act states that radio broadcasters have to make predominant use of Canadian creative resources in programming. Our view is the Canadian content requirement should be 51%.”French-language radio stations have a quota of 65% French-language music—international or domestic—alongside the 35% CanCon requirement. As a result, Montreal-based Union des Artistes and ADISQ director general Solange Drouin says an increased domestic quota is not a priority for the trade body.“Our concern is [lack of format] diversity on-air,” Drouin says. “We hear all the same tunes on radio. We want the CRTC to look at that problem.”
Music Sales Fall 4% in '05, International Body calls for Copyright Reform The downward spiral of music sales in Canadaresumed in 2005 as illegal file swapping exacted a high toll on the country's artists and music industry.New figures released today came with a warning from the head of the recording industry's international trade body that Canada is being left behindin the fast-growing digital music business that last year topped US$1 billion worldwide.Net music sales in Canada declined by $23 million, or 4 percent, to $608.7 million in 2005, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA)reported today. The decline resumes an almost decade-long spiral paralleling the rise of music file swapping on the Internet, and follows a brief respitein 2004, when sales briefly stabilized."It's astonishing that a sophisticated nation like Canada has dragged its feet for so long while the rest of the world has adapted its copyright laws tothe digital age," says John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). "The digital music world is moving on - Canada must move with it, or its whole music culture will suffer."Illegal file swapping continues unabated in Canada - with an estimated 1.6 billion music files swapped online annually, according to Pollara - in theface of outdated copyright laws that fail to properly safeguard intellectual property in the digital age.In contrast with Canada's situation, worldwide music sales via the Internet and mobile phones tripled year-over-year to US$1.1 billion in 2005and are expected to continue climbing rapidly, according to a recently released report from IFPI. Digital revenues have leapt from zero to 6 percentof record company revenues globally in the last two years - far greater than in Canada, where digital revenue comprises less than 1 percent of total sales.IFPI's Digital Music Report 2006 shows that Canada is losing out by not updating its copyright laws to protect intellectual property in the digitalenvironment, as have its major trading partners. The report reveals that in the United Kingdom and Germany, which have implemented digital copyrightreform, legal buyers using sites like iTunes and MSN now exceed illegal file-swappers.By contrast, illegitimate downloads outnumber legal sales by hundreds of times in Canada, which is cited by the OECD as having the largest online piracy rate per capita in the world. The IFPI report further finds that half the people who have cut down on file-swapping in Europe, where most countrieshave enacted digital copyright laws, have done so out of concern for the legal consequences."As legal downloading surges ahead in other parts of the world, Canada is marooned on the sidelines," says CRIA President Graham Henderson. "The goal ofa vibrant digital marketplace in Canada will remain beyond reach until our legal environment encourages people to buy music instead of passively accepting theft on the Web."Canada's failing digital music marketplace is illustrated by online sales of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." The hit release recently became the first single to achieve online sales of 1 million songs in the United States. In Canada, by comparison, Hollaback Girl has barely surpassed 20,000 legal downloads. Based on population size and factoring in Canada's relatively high broadband penetration rate, Canadian sales should have been in the 150,000-download range."Aided and abetted by a vocal fringe group that embraces a Wild West Internet culture, the minority of Canadian consumers who steal large amountsof music are unlikely to stop until our country's copyright laws are modernized," Henderson remarks. "Until that happens, young Canadian artistsstruggling to build their careers face the bleak prospect of further declines in the legal market."According to a Pollara survey conducted during Canada's recent federal election, the vast majority of Canadians want copyright reform. The studyfound that 91 percent of Canadians want the work of musicians, artists, composers, authors and others to be protected by copyright to ensure they getpaid for copies of their work, while 74 percent believe the country's laws should be made to conform to international standards and treaties oncopyright.Canada's failure to modernize its copyright laws has come at considerable cost to the economy. A recent study conducted for the Canadian AllianceAgainst Software Theft (CAAST), an industry alliance of software publishers, found that software piracy rates in Canada are significantly higher(36 percent) than those of major trading partners such as the United States (21 percent) and the United Kingdom (27 percent) that have enacted digitalcopyright reforms. As a result, Canada has lost more than 14,000 jobs and suffers $7 billion in annual economic losses in the software industry alone.For Canada's music industry, the rise of file-swapping coincided with a 41 percent - or $541 million -- decrease in retail sales of pre-recorded CDs and cassettes between 1999 and 2005 and a 20 percent loss in employment.
Drop in music sales signals that lawsuits are likely Kevin Restivo, The Financial PostPublished: Thursday, March 02, 2006 Canadian music sales fell 4% last year, a drop that likely means the Canadian recording industry will initiate a fresh round of lawsuits against illegal file sharers this year. The Canadian Recording Industry Association said music sales dropped to $608.7-million, down from $631.7-million in 2004 as more people obtained music from rogue Internet sources such as Limewire and Kazaa. Sales fell again last year after stabilizing in 2004.CRIA president Graham Henderson said the lawsuits are necessary to stop falling sales in Canada."We have the right to do it," he said. "We know how to do it." Illegal music sharing in Canada has led to $541-million in lost music sales since 1999 when Napster popularized Internet file trading. "I am not rubbing hands with excitement so that I can sue people but we will do it out of necessity but you have to attach consequences to actions," he said. "It will happen if we don’t see any progress. We cannot allow Canada to be a haven for this activity. People are becoming increasingly blasé about [file trading]."Mr. Henderson didn’t say when the group will start suing Canadians. "You are not going to wake up tomorrow to a wave of lawsuits."CRIA, he said, may wait for the federal government to make amendments to the country’s Copyright Act. In June, the Liberals introduced the bill to stop copyright infringement that has become pervasive with the rise of peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa. CRIA still needs the names of illegal file sharers to initiate the lawsuits. The Federal Court of Appeal last year upheld a ruling that said the country’s Internet service providers didn’t have to give up the names of 29 people CRIA said were trading large amounts of music illegally over the Internet. The Toronto-based organization needs the names because people’s identities are often hidden by pseudonyms, such as geekboy@kazaa.The court, however, laid out a road map for the industry for the music industry to legally obtain the names of active downloaders. Phil Leigh, an analyst with Inside Digital Media in Tampa, Fla., said music companies could potentially solve their problems by selling music that works with all digital music players. For example, Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes store only sells music that works with its popular iPod device."The biggest problem is no one is going to buy music, that cannot be played on the iPod. If everyone offered files in multiple format, everyone’s sales would go up," he said. "They have not lost a generation of people or anything. People don’t love music less than they did in the past."John Kennedy, head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said lawsuits have helped stem the problem in other countries such as the United States. The Recording Industry Association of America has sued 16,350 individuals since December, 2003. Financial Postkrestivo@nationalpost.com© The Financial Post
Two Canadian copyright groups have announced they will co-operate to create an on-line database of published works that have entered the public domain.In what they describe as a "ground-breaking project," Access Copyright and Creative Commons Canada say they will create the "most comprehensive" searchable catalogue of published works that are no longer protected by copyright law.The aim of the registry is to determine whether a published work is in the public domain. The registry will also link to digital versions of the work, and provide information about where a paper copy of the work can be purchased.The project will develop in two stages, organizers said. First they will create a comprehensive registry of works; then eventually, the registry will expand to include the published works of creators from other countries.The public-domain registry will be a non-profit project and freely accessible to the public on-line.
US threatens Canadap2p news / p2pnet: Hollywood and the Bush administration have drawn even closer together.US "lawmakers" have named six countries including China and Russia and, wait for it, Canada, as targets in their new Keep the Big Six Studios' Bottom Lines Healthy campaign.With Mexico, India and Malaysia, the countries will be monitored, "for continuing copyright piracy problems," says CNET News.Canada is on the Hollywood shit list because of "lax border measures" that let in pirated products from East Asia, Pakistan and Russia, the lawmakers said, according to the story.With Hollywood mouthpiece China Dan Glickman of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) jetting back and forth to Beijing, and with various above and under-the-table accords in place, China is slowly falling in line, although Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney are keeping up the pressure with US trade rep Rob Portman up front.Russia, however, is still proving difficult, and China Dan appeared there, waving a big stick, just as the US was closing bilateral negotiations with Russia on its possible inclusion in the World Trade Organization.Will Canada's new prime minister, Stephen Harper, now have Glickman on his case? And will the country soon announce a joint US/Canada 'trade' association aimed at bringing Canada into the fold as another tightly and strictly controlled Hollywood sales division?The release of the watch list update, "comes as the US government plans a round of trade talks with China starting Tuesday," says CNET, adding:"Russia is working hard to fix copyright privacy problems, and the Russian parliament has worked on combating piracy in hearings this year, said a spokesman for the Russian embassy."There was no reported comment from Ottawa.
Simon Doyle at the Hill Times managed to catch Minister Oda right after the throne speech. To her credit, she was gracious enough to give him a brief interview.Simon Doyle: "Copyright is something that you'll probably be looking at sometime down the road and today they mentioned in the Throne Speech that major treaties will go through Parliament. The copyright treaties, is that something that you might vote on in Parliament?"Bev Oda: "The three pieces of legislation that were in the Throne Speech were put in the Throne Speech because they will be bills of existing legislation that will be reviewed. Copyright legislation has to be amended to make our copyright laws and ratify the international treaties."Simon Doyle: Does that mean you would vote on the treaties as well as the..."Bev Oda: "No, you would have to introduce amendments to the existing copyright legislation. The copyright legislation that was introduced by the previous government, once it was tabled, it did die on the order paper, but once it was tabled created a lot of dissension. There were different views on many elements of that bill. Consequently we are working and we will be introducing a new copyright bill that will expedite meeting our international obligations but also making sure that we have a copyright regime and a copyright framework that's appropriate."
Conservative government to introduce copyright bill: Bev OdaThe Conservative government intends to amend the Copyright Act and ratify two internet treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Heritage Minister Bev Oda told the Hill Times last week after the Speech from the Throne. "Copyright legislation has to be amended to make [compliant] our copyright laws and ratify the international treaties," Ms. Oda (Durham, Ont.) said. "We will be introducing a new copyright bill that will expedite meeting our international obligations but also making sure that we have a copyright regime and a copyright framework that's appropriate." The WIPO Internet treaties have been a source of some controversy because they give owners of copyrighted works more control over the use and distribution of music, movies, and other content in the digital age. The treaties, adopted in Geneva in 1996, would clarify file-sharing as copyright infringement in Canada, for example, making it easier for the recording industry to sue file-sharers. They would also make it an infringement to crack the technological copy and access controls on digital content. While the major recording companies, book publishers and other copyright owners support ratifying the treaties, their critics point out that Canada is not under any international obligation to implement their requirements, and should rethink their ratification. The Liberal government had introduced a bill at the end of the 38th Parliament that, if passed, would have made Canada compliant with the treaties, but it died on the order paper. Ms. Oda did not say when the legislation would be introduced, but since copyright is not one of the government's much talked-about five priorities, it is not expected to be introduced in the spring session. The Throne Speech also said that major international treaties would be voted on in Parliament, leading some to wonder whether the ratification of the WIPO Internet treaties would come to a vote. "Let's hope that this Government has not made up its mind already on the WIPO treaties," Ottawa copyright lawyer Howard Knopf, a critic of the treaties, wrote on his blog last week. "Many would consider that to be a less than funny trick."--by Simon Doyle
