access to the excess

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Hey – this is a post I’ve been putting off for a week and a half. I have meant to post my 2 hour Pacific Front Sessions mix for May but I haven’t been able to get ahold of the version with voiceovers yet – hopefully soon as I’ve got the mix post ready to go along with mix art etc.
In other news .. Have you heard about Bill C-61? Do you know what it is? If not – see Michael Geist’s C-61 breakdown. If you want to do something about it, write to your MP, write to Jim Prentice – you can see a sample letter here:
www.copyrightforcanadians.ca
This will also show you who you need to contact for your area of the country as well as the ability to email the letter. They encourage you to also print off the letter and send it to Ottawa, free of charge, which I will be doing.
Make sure you have a good look at the sample letter and understand everything it is saying. I didn’t agree with some of the things in it, such as alternatively supporting the ISP levy for P2P sharing, as I have previously mentioned.
You might be thinking that this all sounds too complicated and it doesn’t really matter, but I’d urge you to think a bit more about the subject despite that. Yes, it is complicated. The internet is a complex environment that allows you to do many things in many different ways. That is part of why we enjoy it so much. That also allows for many interpretations of how it should be used, as is so with our computers and devices that we connect to them.
Basically this bill will make it illegal for you to back up your DRM protected DVDs or CDs, or transfer one of your DVDs or copy protected CDs to your iPod. It will also make the software that allows you to do this illegal. There are monetary penalties for violations.
You might be wondering what the deal is with the CDr levy that we’ve been paying $10 million into for the last several years – the levy which was planned to compensate artists for the music that Canadians download. Does this new bill make the CDr levy illegal or out of date? It is a bit unclear how that interrelates. Our government has vilified us for years with the CDr levy, while simultaneously charging for it and suggesting (in the process) that it is even fine to download copyrighted music since they’re collecting a levy on the assumed behavior. The messaging is extremely conflicted. What is our government trying tell us?
Update: The Times Colonist has written an editorial (who is the editor?) on C-61 called “Made in America,” which explains how American private interests (lobbyists) have been using our conservative government to fulfill their agenda of DRM enforcement. Link by way of Michael Geist.

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