ACTA-Gate

On Friday wikkileaks leaked a very secret copyright deal in which the US, Canada, EU Governments and a handful of other countries are trying to negotiate without any public consultations. Mostly this is the product of the Bush Administration in the US that's in charge of the wording on this one. Apparently this “trade agreement” would give border security guards and custom agents uncontested privileges to shift through your media devices (even your nice homemade porno from your honeymoon) determining if any found media is copy infringed material. They can then fine you, and confiscate your device, even destroy it.

This is of upmost importance to a lot of DJ’s in my end of the industry that travel the globe performing with burned CD’s, and expensive equipment and software used to play gigs. How are they going to tell if you purchased the music, the music was given to you by the composer, or if you downloaded it. You have no legal recourse or argument you can make to contest the decisions made by these “public servants” under this agreement, and you may one day find yourself heading to a gig without music, or your equipment. It’s best that you get a hold of your public representative about how you feel about this.

Our Ottawa Citizen has provided a bit more in depth coverage on this story, running it as “Front Page” news this past weekend. Michael Geist also provides additional coverage and links to this story as well.

Weekly Buzz Volume #4

Copyright Bill Expected Within Weeks!

Reports have been circulating that the new copyright bill is to be expected within weeks prior to the Parliamentary summer break. Will it be a balanced approach which will cradle and help develop new media productions and new distribution channels? Will it be a Canadian made solution for Canadian Industries? Or will it be a complete US style DMCA which inhibits new media production, online distribution and puts horns and pitch forks in the hands of creators in the eyes of the internet community and it's users?

Whatever the case may be, laws that are not developed towards the “reality” of the changes we have seen and are continuing especially in the music industry, these laws will generally be ineffective. There is enough research and evidence presented that can hold up in our Canadian courts that the whole dynamic of copyright and reasoning thereof has changed. One would expect that our Government leaders recognize this change and present a solution towards enhancing, not inhibiting, innovation through the laws which is the overall reasoning behind copyright in the first place. The protection for new media producers to produce in a new digital paradigm where new rules and regulations must be drawn out in a very fair and balanced way, must NOT include models based on a copyright realm from a different era that doesn’t exist today.

Content Creators must understand that if the right balance is not reached and our court systems have to decide the fate of our laws, that this could throw everyone back into limbo and all progress made by both sides of this debate will disappear. This will end up being a very costly mistake. A mistake that in these economic times these industries cannot afford.

As Zeljka Kozul-Wright once put it:

“Owing to diffusion of technical change, it is far cheaper, as it reduces the costs of intermediation and allows consumers greater choice over listening patterns; facilitating the growth of demand-driven patterns of consumption thereby enabling greater consumer participation, and more interactive modes of consumption.”

Those that have refused to follow technical change (within media) are about to find out how costly legislative change will become at a time that legislative change is not needed to ensure growth in this industry, and not welcomed in this economic state. We are currently on the boundaries of healing in this industry, and are enjoying the return of the consumer to the market in the digital realm. The last thing this industry will need is to be set back 10 years, and have to deal with yet another decade long consumer revolt because our legislative body is too busy rolling out the red carpet for lobbyists who are falsifying facts, and protecting monopolies. I guess we’re about to find out.

For my interests as well as my peers in the new media industry, I hope, no, I pray our Government brings an understanding of the changes in my industry, and has in fact brought a very real and balanced Canadian approach to copyright reform.