Just wanted to share this fantastic short documentary about the recent shifts in copyright law from Ben Cato Clough and Luke Upchurch.
The film features Fred Von Lohmann, Michael Geist, and others, and discusses the problem of physical-age copyright law in our digital age.
The following is a handy list of a few of the things that I’ve been keeping an eye on lately.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement:
If you haven’t been reading slashdot lately, you might not know that representatives from the governments of most of the developed world have recently been participating in some top-secret meetings aimed at establishing something called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA for short. Now, according to Michael Geist, the proposed agreement actually has very little to do with counterfeiting, and an awful lot to do with copyright protections for big content – the same guys who influenced the USA’s Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Based on leaked information, Geist has pieced together a very good explanation of the proposed agreement as an online slide show that I snagged from TVO’s Search Engine blog:
Now as you might expect, quite a few people got uppity when they found out that the government was participating in secret meetings with the aim of establishing a global copyright treaty that would bypass the house of commons and fly in the face of last summer’s copyright consultations. So many people in fact, that NDP MP Charlie Angus questioned Industry Minister Tony Clement about it during yesterday’s question period. Thanks to the work of Fair Copyright for Canada, a video of their exchange is available on YouTube:
I too am pretty incensed at the government for keeping this all as hush-hush as they have. As I understand, copyright isn’t even a law in Canada – it is in fact a right, and one that must be exercised by the right holder. In my opinion, it is not the business of the government or of the Internet at large to take care of exercising this right for the holder. Further, much of the leaked information about this law points to it having a clause that bans internet access to any person who has been accused (read: not convicted) of breaking copyright three times. If implemented, this clause would be open to abuse, and far too wide-ranging for my comfort.
Can Software Be Patented?
On a related note, the Supreme Court in the United States is apparently deciding something or other about the legitimacy of software patents this week. While I admit that I haven’t really kept up with the issue enough to appreciate its gravity, the resulting press has lead me to this incredible article on Groklaw that provides a beautiful explanation of Computation Theory and its implications on Patent law.
Of course, I learned all of the stuff in the article in school, but have never seen it explained as simply or applied as practically as the author does in the article. For those who are looking for a printed copy that will persist link rot, a PDF of the article is available here on my server. It’s a lengthy read, but most certainly worth your time if you are at all interested in computers, their history, and its implications on modern law.
Praise is a Strange Thing:
Another lengthy read, this article from New York magazine really got me thinking. It deals with the types of praise that parents give their children, and the implications of that praise throughout their lives. Essentially, there are two kinds of praise: Telling your child that he accomplished his goals because he is smart, and telling your child that she accomplished her goals because she worked hard at doing so. The former gives a false sense of achievement that doesn’t provide a framework for what to do in cases of failure. As a result, children praised in this manner tend to avoid things that they do not naturally do well at, even though they may be accomplished in other areas of life. A related article that I found over on Pixel Poppers considers the implications of this kind of research on video games. Specifically, the author discusses the ‘fake achievement’ that RPGs provide players when their characters level up in lieu of actual skills, and asks if this alone could be responsible for problems encountered in other areas of life.
Back to Studying:
Well, that’s about it for me. I’m back to procrastinating studying for finals.
Cheers,
Jon
With the October 14th Canadian federal election quickly approaching, I think it’s a good time to bring forth an important issue that isn’t getting enough spotlight in our media.
Anybody who is tech-oriented or reads the news should be familiar with the American DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). Put into law in October of 1998, the law works to strengthen copyright protection in the USA, and includes an anti-circumvention clause that makes it illegal to break any digital security system placed on your files. This law applies to any kind of Digital Rights Management (DRM) system placed on your otherwise legitimately purchased digital property.
Under the DMCA, it is illegal to convert Apple iTunes downloads to the more open Mp3 format, rip DVD movies to your computer to watch them on a network, a portable device, or otherwise back them up, rip certain CD’s (the ones that have copy protection warnings all over them) so that you can listen to them on your iPod, and a whole host of other should-be legitimate activities.
In the past, copyright law was only broken if you took somebody else’s work and illegally distributed it to others via the internet, a CD-R, or USB thumbdrive. With the DMCA in place however, it is illegal to do all sorts previously legal activities that fall under the realm of fair use of a product legitimately purchased.
Which brings me to my point – previous to taking their summer recess, Stephen Harper’s minority conservative government was once again attempting to champion bill C-61 through the House of Commons in an effort to put a similar law into effect here in Canada. Most experts in the United States argue that their DMCA has actually hindered the tech sector there, while security experts cringe at the idea of being legally bound to not test the security of various systems, including electronic election equipment (on which maker Diebold has handily installed DRM so that it is illegal to check over their source code).
As a tech-oriented citizen entrepreneur in Canada, I feel that this law needs to be struck down immediately. Details regarding the law can be found here, while information about how to help defeat the proposal can be found at boingboing, copyrightforcanadians, this youtube video from Canadian law proffessor Michael Geist, and this segment of CBC’s the Hour, also featuring Michael Geist.
For those seeking more information regarding DRM, the DMCA, and the effect both have had on tech and liberty in the USA, check out this essay (*.pdf) that I wrote last term for an Ethics course I took at Laurier. It’s about 16 pages, but a solid read, and full of links to other important resources.
Contact your local MP, and get their opinion on the law as part of your voting research.
Cheers,
Jon
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