Canadian Copyright Bill

[Porygon-X]

It will be easier for recording companies and film studios to go after those who share files illegally, if a new copyright law introduced Wednesday in the House of Commons is passed.

The new law would require Internet service providers to notify their users if they receive a notice that a copyright has been infringed. The ISPs would then be required to hold on to the personal information of the infringing member, and to turn it over to officials if a court orders them to do so.

Under the current law, ISPs only notify copyright infringers on a voluntary basis.

That is one of many sweeping changes introduced to the outdated law — last updated in 1997.

Among other changes, the law legitimizes activities that most Canadians already do, such as transferring music from a legally purchased CD to an MP3 player, or recording a television show, which goes against current copyright rules, universally seen as outdated.

The legislation, however, makes it illegal to circumvent digital locks, even for personal or educational purposes. This means that someone who backs up a DVD movie has likely committed an infringement, since most DVDs already contain digital locks. This also means altering a DVD bought in Europe, or one of five other regions, to enable it to be played on a North American DVD would also constitute a copyright infringement — a practice that is currently legal.

Source

So, whatcha think?

 

[gameboy13]

All of you Canadian pirates should move to America. I really feel sorry for all of you.

 

[Skyline969]

Total double-edged sword. However, I'm all against it. Regardless if the bill becomes law, I'm not gonna obey their bullshit. If I want backups of my stuff, or if I want to modify something to do more than what it does out of the box, who are they to stop me?

 

[Vidboy10]

To be honest, I'm 75% buyer and 25% Pirate. So this doesn't really affect me...

inb4butthurtfaggotswhiningaboutbuyinggames.

 

[Davess]

This is never good

 

[gameboy13]

Total double-edged sword. However, I'm all against it. Regardless if the bill becomes law, I'm not gonna obey their bullshit. If I want backups of my stuff, or if I want to modify something to do more than what it does out of the box, who are they to stop me?

This.

 

[Scott-105]

So, if my ISP finds out I download copyrighted material, I can be charged? I don't get this law...

 

[Joe88]

All of you Canadian pirates should move to America. I really feel sorry for all of you.

why

its really no different here if that law goes into affect
of course not alot of people enforce it here

 

[gameboy13]

All of you Canadian pirates should move to America. I really feel sorry for all of you.

why

its really no different here if that law goes into affect
of course not alot of people enforce it here

That's why.

 

[DeadLocked]

I personally think the UK has it worse, although the ISPs don't enforce it unless the government gets on their case evidently.

Everyone in the UK I know that pirates still does it even though a new bill was passed which effectively says ISPs must shut off your connection immediately if you download a file illegally. Chances are the Canadian ISPs will still not do this they would lose way too many customers if they go shutting them off. Don't draw a lot of attention to yourself and you should be OK.

 

[DSGamer64]

Fucking abysmal joke. Who wants to go lock Stephen Harper in his house and burn it down if this bill gets passed? This is an insult to internet and computer users in general, not being able to rip a CD to your computer to put it on an iPod is a joke. I guess they can compensate for all the albums I am going to have to buy off iTunes again if they really think we shouldn't be allowed to rip CD's.

 

[Cablephish]

OMG NOW I HAVE TO BUY ALL MY GAMES!!

 

[Canonbeat234]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I KNEW THIS DAY WAS COMING!!! Hahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

 

[Infinite Zero]

Uh-oh...
Good thing I dont live in Canada! WOOT!

 

[TM2-Megatron]

So, if my ISP finds out I download copyrighted material, I can be charged? I don't get this law...

I don't think that's how it works... in a way this bill is a bit better than what's done in the US. It's going with a "notice & notice" system for ISPs, which isn't nearly as bad as the "notice and takedown" system used in the US.

Also, I'm pretty sure it only applies to P2P "downloading", because you're uploading at the same time... and it's the uploading that gets you into trouble. Download stuff from websites, or other non-P2P sources, and you're fine.

QUOTE(gameboy13 @ Jun 2 2010, 07:58 PM) All of you Canadian pirates should move to America. I really feel sorry for all of you.

why

its really no different here if that law goes into affect
of course not alot of people enforce it here

That's why.

What makes you think it would be enforced here? Laws like this are almost impossible to enforce on everyday users, and if this manages to pass (though it's failed twice before, so I don't see why it would now) it will be no different in Canada than the US.

According to Michael Geist, an expert on copyright law and a law professor at the University of Ottawa, this recent bill is "Flawed, but fixable":

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5080/125/

By far the greatest flaw in this is that all of the consumer rights it grants are automatically renderend void if the product uses any kind of DRM. So while consumers are legally allowed to make backups of their purchased CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, etc... if the producer uses any kind of DRM at all then those rights are taken away. That's what really needs to be fixed with this bill. Of course even if it's not, and by some disaster this bill passes, it will still be impossible to actually enforce these rules on the public. This is basically a law that turns at least 50% of the population into criminals, and they're not going to care one bit.

 

[Sceptile95]

If I download retro roms and emulators like snes, nes, etc, will I get billed for this?

I'm Canadian.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

If I download retro roms and emulators like snes, nes, etc, will I get billed for this?

I'm Canadian.

The law hasn't passed yet, and hopefully it won't. But no, probably not... not if they were from websites. As I mentioned before, it's P2P that the ISPs target with the "notice & notice" system, because technically it's illegal to upload copyrighted material, not download it.

 

[Sceptile95]

How about sharing sites like rapidshare and mediafire?

EDIT: How about streaming copyrighted videos? Would that be illegal?

 

[Scott-105]

So, if my ISP finds out I download copyrighted material, I can be charged? I don't get this law...

I don't think that's how it works... in a way this bill is a bit better than what's done in the US. It's going with a "notice & notice" system for ISPs, which isn't nearly as bad as the "notice and takedown" system used in the US.

Thanks, I was really worried for a sec. I only P2P download if i can't find something on a site. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Canonbeat234]

Yes, I want this bill to be passed in Canada. So I can sing 'Oh Canada...The land of anti-piracy and copyright bill...'