Saturday, August 19, 2006

This could be your chance to stop the madness

My fellow Canadians, while you enjoy your summer and imagine that your politicians are doing the same, a line is being drawn in the sand. The entertainment industry (it is rumoured) is preparing to convince your ruling federal government to introduce legislation that will match American's DMCA.

Michael Geist, a lawyer who knows copyright law, intends to spend the next 30 days explaining what's wrong with the DMCA idea and what must be done if a similar law is to be introduced in Canada.

I believe this is important to every consumer, anyone who enjoys any form of entertainment in any digital form. The entertainment industry is desperately trying to set the stage that would allow them to decide what the cd, dvd, vcr / pvr, cable box, computer, mp3 player, satellite radio of tomorrow can and cannot do. These are the death throes of an industry that thinks it can win the argument that new technology is bad for business (remember the cassette and video tape? - yeah, it hurt them soooo badly). This is the same industry that wants to ban all online lyrics and guitar tablature sites, because it threatens creators and publishers.

But don't take my word for it, just listen to the group of artists who have come out to declare that current artistic regulations are too restrictive as it is.

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