[Eug]

globeandmail.com: Ottawa gets tough with illegal downloaders

Critics say the new legislation too closely resembles the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has been criticized as too stacked against consumers in favour of rights holders such as the movie and recording industries. They fear it could force ordinary Canadians to pay thousands of dollars in penalties for copying their own legally purchased music to CDs or uploading videos to sharing sites such as YouTube.

Under the new legislation, the maximum amount of statutory damages a court could enforce would be $500 for all infringements contained in a lawsuit, although a judge could still award other penalties.

What has some critics especially concerned about the bill is that uploaders and anyone caught hacking "digital locks" — such as copy controls or digital rights management (DRM) technology — could face damages of up to $20,000. The digital lock provisions could lead to thousands of dollars in penalties for average Canadians, said University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist.

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As I understand it, if you have an illegal MP3 on your iPod or computer, that could be a $500 hit to your wallet, so no biggie. If you rip your own CDs though, that's fine. However, if you rip CDs or DVDs and upload them to usenet or put them up on P2P or whatever, you could get hit with a $20000 fine.

It will be interesting to see how this is enforced. My guess is the movie and music companies are going to be doing the enforcing, which will now be easier since I believe the ISPs will have to log all the user information when requested by the industry. That is the part that I have trouble with. If the RCMP or local police ask, then sure, the ISP should provide that information. I don't think some record company should be provided that information though or even have to log it unless the authorities are involved.

Also, if anything like this law is actually passed, then they should simply remove the levy that now exists on recordable media.

[Dork.]

Beauty, eh?

The way things are going, they should just cut out the middleman and start up a Corporate Police force, with all the rights and privileges of the government-run police force, but run by large companies, to serve and protect the interests of their shareholders.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by Eug 

If you rip your own CDs though, that's fine.

It's fine, as long as you don't circumvent any DRM or copy protection to do so. If you do, you'll be breaking the law and could be fined $20,000.

[lpkmckenna]

So am I obligated to destroy all my ripped DVDs?

I have no intention of obeying this law. I buy DVDs and rip them so they are more portable. Also, my PowerBook's DVD drive is loud as hell.

The purpose of this law is to obligate consumers to pay more for the privilege of moving their content from DVDs to iPods or computers. Screw that.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Dork. 

Beauty, eh?

Did you do that on purpose?

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

So am I obligated to destroy all my ripped DVDs?

I have no intention of obeying this law. I buy DVDs and rip them so they are more portable. Also, my PowerBook's DVD drive is loud as hell.

The purpose of this law is to obligate consumers to pay more for the privilege of moving their content from DVDs to iPods or computers. Screw that.

Don't you know? When you bought your DVDs, you only purchased the license to view them on a DVD player. To view them on an iPod you'll need to purchase an iPod license.

The only thing I'm curious about is how much of a royalty the Canadian government receives for selling of our rights ...

[Luca Rescigno]

Originally Posted by Dork. 

Beauty, eh?

The way things are going, they should just cut out the middleman and start up a Corporate Police force, with all the rights and privileges of the government-run police force, but run by large companies, to serve and protect the interests of their shareholders.

Hell, don't even bother giving them any orders, just get them all real pissed off and send them into the streets to randomly murder people. Ideally they could work toward the creation of a new world order in which you must join the RIAA's forces or be killed, and eventually all who oppose them will be exterminated.

Fewer people = fewer illegal downloads.

[11011001]

Michael Geist is leading the following Facebook group (40,000+ members so far):
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6315846683

He's a Canadian Law Professor opposed to this thing.