paraka

So, if I didn't hate MP James Moore before:

Hello flisters,

I can't remember how much I've talked about this here on my journal (I always have great intentions to post about this but I know I don't follow through as much as I should) but today I want to talk about Canadian copyright laws.

Don't fall asleep yet! I promise to try keep this to the point. The thing is, we're all in fandom so whether we like it or not, we all have to deal with intellectual property laws/copyright laws. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about fandom and copyright going around. Groups like the OTW have done a great job shedding light on the legality of things like fandom, however they are an American based organization and Canadian laws are very different.

We've all heard about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), right? The American law that increased penalties for copyright infringements and criminalized circumvention measures.

We all know that it has not been great for the US. Included in this law are provisions making it illigal to access copyrighted materials, even if the reason you're accessing the copyrighted materials is legal (ex. Vidding is a transformative work under the American Fair Use laws, however ripping a DVD to get your hands on the copyrighted material is illegal if you had to break a Digital Rights Management (DRM) lock).
The DMCA has also opened the doors to a lot of abuse, the SFWA fiasco comes to mind.

Even though these laws are no where near perfect the US government has been pressuring other countries to adopt similar measures. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is primarily being driven by the US. Which, despite it's name is not actually about counterfeiting so much as it's about copyright. This agreement threatens to drastically change IP laws around the world and has negative impacts such as 3-strike rules and would prevent (currently legal) life saving medicines from reaching people in need in 3rd world countries.

The US government has really been pushing Canada to strengthen our IP/Copyright laws. Going so far as to put Canada on it's Special 301 Report (a list of countries whose IP laws they consider inadequate) despite the fact that, in many ways, Canadian copyright law is already stronger (and not in a good way) than American copyright law.

The Canadian government has tried a few times to change our laws in favour of rights holders but public outcry has held off those changes. Last year, when there was talk of revising Bill C-61 public outcry had the government hold off any changes while a public consultation was held. With over 8100 submissions, that consultation had more feedback from the public than any other consultation (most consultations get about 100 responses) (source).

Today it was announced, that despite the public outcry Prime Minister Harper and Heritage Minister James Moore have decided to put forward a DMCA-style bill on copyright.

This is not good news. When copyright was first invented it was intended to proved creators with a livlihood while still granting the general public a chance to interact with the works. Fandom is the very spirit of that idea. The media we consume, the art we see, the music we listen to, it all influences our culture. It defines who we are as people, as Canadians. Copyright is supposed to be a balance of creator's rights as well as consumers rights. The trends of the past century has been shifting that balance to the side of the creators. If Canada adopts stronger, DMCA-style laws, consumer rights will be deminished even further.

Yes, the bill hasn't been made public yet. It might not even have been written yet. Some say that it's too soon to react, I say this is the perfect time to get involved. Let the Conservative government know that we, as consumers, don't want our rights deminished. Let them know we don't want DMCA-type laws. There is a better way.

If you are Canadian and want to protect your rights as a consumer, please consider writing into your MP, to MP James Moore and to PM Stephen Harper. Remember, physical letters have more weight than emails and that you don't need to use a stamp when sending mail to a Member of Parliament.

Contact Information
Prime Minister Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2

email: pm@pm.gc.ca
fax: 613-941-6900

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Heritage Minister James Moore
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

email: Moore.J@parl.gc.ca
fax: 613-992-9868

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Please also contact your MP. You can find their contact information by searching under your postal code here.


If you would like further information on Canadian copyright, or if you'd like to follow updates on this matter, here are some great resources:
-Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa, he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law. He is an internationally recognized expert on copyright law and has been fighting for fair copyright for years. (I follow Michael Geist on Twitter)
If you're not Canadian but are interested in international copyright law, he has a lot of info on ACTA that's worth following and which has a lot of international links.

-Fair Copyright for Canada is a Facebook group 85,000+ members strong. I know there's a lot of indecision over whether or not Facebook groups hold any power but it's a number to point to and will also have relevant information on various local protests (if there are any).

-Explore Music is Alan Cross' website. As per the name, it's mostly about music however Alan also keeps on top of Canadian copyright laws and fights for fair copyright, which is something different coming from the music industry. (I follow Alan Cross on Twitter)


Please spread the word on this issue. Feel free to link to this post and ask any questions you may have in the comments. I may not have all the answers right away but between me and kronos999 we can generally find answers.
(sorry this got kind of long but it's something I feel passionate about)

Rick Mercer, I love you. From his rant:

And then it was the government's turn to respond and for this they chose that great parliamentarian John Baird. And did John Baird get up and say why they should survive? No. Instead John Baird stood up in the House of Commons and accused Michael Ignatieff, in front of all of Canada, of owning a condominium in Toronto that, wait for it, has a balcony. So if you're one of the two million Canadians that lives in a condo, with a balcony, be warned John Baird and the Conservative party do not condone your lifestyle.

That totally made me laugh. And really what else is Canadian politics good for these days except for a laugh.

In other news, I'm catching a cold. This is crap. :(

So, fellow Canadians: Have you seen the official Vancouver 2010 Olympic outfits yet? No?

( You may not want to )

Oh look, you too can have a fugly cardigan too, only $100

So, for reasons that don't need exploring at this point, I decided to spend my evening looking up all the various federal political parties of Canada. I found a list here and have been working my way up.

Some of the parties have been pretty hit or miss (I find the Work Less Party of Canada intriguing) and some of them have horrible webpages or none at all, I feel that the Progressive Nationalist Party of Canada deserves a special mention. If you choose to click on that link, be prepared to be serenaded with "Age of Aquarius." Not only do they fail for having music embedded in their website, they also have the lyrics scrolling. In case, you know, you feel the need for sudden at home karaoke. *headdesk*

ETA: God, updating this post, because otherwise I'm totally going to be spamming my flist.

( The People's Political Power Party of Canada )
-Oh, and look, The racist Nationalist Party of Canada (their membership/support button actually says "Get your constitutional racist state citizenship card" *headdesk*)

Ok, I'm not sure how many of you heard about that *huge-ass* storm that swept through the North Eastern US and South Central Canada, but Ottawa, where I live, was right in the middle of it, and we're still digging out. Last week, we got about 80cm of snow (that's 31.5" for the Americans on my flist), which is crazy. Worse yet, we've already had a huge amount of snow this winter, and it's not going away. So far this winter, we've had more than 4m (over 13 feet) of snow. We're something like a foot away from breaking the record for most snow.

( pictures, for those interested )

These pics were from the weekend, we got more today, and none of it seems to have melted. It's really scary driving around corners, because you just have to go slow, and hope that no one's coming; there's no way you can see around the snow banks.


Also, you know how sometimes Canadians and Americans have different words for the same thing? This is the reason why Canadians have March Breaks, and not Spring Breaks, because chances are, it's not spring when we have our week long breaks from school in March.

God. It's so cold out. Today it was -30 with the wind chill. I've really got to get over myself and get a hat, because it *hurt* my *face* to be outside today.

Anyways, as some of you know, I'm currently making an SGA vid. The beginning kind of sucks at the moment, but I'm hoping the ending will kick ass. I know I'm getting to the hard part, since I've been working on it for an hour or two already tonight and haven't even gotten 10s done. *head desk* But! They're an awesome almost 10 seconds, and the clips were hard to find.

I've been finding the clip searching aspect of things really depressing, because every time I see Carson, it makes me really sad. Also, my next vid is totally going to be about Weir. *shakes fist at TPTB* Why are you ruining my show!

While we're on the topic of SGA, did anyone on my flist manage to get their hands on Midway early? Anyone want to share? *waggles eyebrows*

And lastly ( My sister sent me this, and I just found it too true not to share )

I can't count how many times in the past week or so I've stated that I'm not a writer. That I'm horrible at writing, that no one would want to read what I have to write, etc. So I find it kind of amusing that I choose this week to actually try writing a fanfic.

I've been thinking lately about what, in fic, annoys me personally, and one of the answers was writers who get Canada really wrong. It really shouldn't bother me, since for the most part, author's do a great job of writing about Canada. What gets me more is when people think Canada is a lot more foreign (in respect to the US) than it really is. Like sometimes they'll have Rodney say things that I've *never* heard another Canadian say. It sounds more British, or Australian, or sometimes even make believe than like a Canadian accent. Or when people assume he speaks French. I recently went on a vacation to Florida, and when my sister told our tour guide that she was a French teacher, he said something like "Well isn't that your main language up there?" Unless you live in Quebec, New Brunswick, or just tried really hard in school, chances are you don't speak more than a little bit of French. I mean I grew up in *Ottawa* and I don't speak French passably.

Anyways these thoughts somehow turned into ( fic thoughts. )

I don't know if I'll ever finish writing this, or if I'll ever post it if I *do*, but I'm having far too much fun thinking about it. Can anyone else think of some stereotypes I'm missing that should be added? Or that will make me smile as I think about this :)
Oh, I think I might *have* to add something about Stephen Harper's hair, just for sunshineandrage even though she's not in the SGA fandom (although she totally *should* be, although I think everyone should be :P) Also, I need an "I love Canada" icon or something.