Tag: Web, Blogging and Computers

Canadian Digital Copyright Rulings

Yesterday’s Canadian Copyright Board ruling on the payment of fees on new
blank media such as iPods and blank CD as got some notice on some popular
US blogs. There
are two separate cases at play, the ruling of yesterday by the Copyright Board
as well as another from 1999 which has been appealed out of the Copyright Board
to superior courts on payment of tariffs through ISPs for sharing music on the
internet. Here are some background documents on both matters:

  • The Copyright
    Board ruling     on the tariff on blank digital media for recording music dated
    12 December 2003. Oddly it does not appear to cover personal computer hard
    drives where most downloaded music resides;

  • The Copyright
    Board ruling     on the tariff on digital sharing of music via the internet
    dated 27 October 1999;

  • The Federal
    Court of Appeal ruling     dated 1 May 2002, the judicial review (narrower, not
    an appeal) of the Copyright Board ruling, above, on ISPs and copyright. Have a
    look around paragraphs 179 to 192 for the point of the ruling; and 

  • A
    Supreme Court of Canada backgrounder     on the appeal from the Federal Court of
    Appeal judicial review. The oral arguments in this appeal were heard on 3
    December 2003. The ruling is pending.

Make sense? With any luck the
Supreme Court will make a ruling that will make practical sense, as I think the
Copyright Board has on the tariff for blank digital media. Unfortunately, it is
an appeal from a judicial review of an administrative tribunal order. Lots of
procedural issues to muddy to substance.

Stinky Roo and Tijuana Bibles, Too

I live right inside radio when I listen…

Marshall McLuhan, 1964

Radio,
like beer and soccer, is totally immersive. As Ian illustrates this
morning, the seduction of the immersive can lead to strange places and
thoughts. Indeed, as M.McL. went on to say,

Anybody who wants to moralize about radio has to
dump Gandhi and Hitler into the same pot.

One of my favorite
programs is Weekend
Mornings from CBC in the Maritimes. Like Brent, the
music is eclectic, though, perhaps, they might not play the Tijuana Bibles, whose members dress like Stong
Bad. Band member Super Destructor and I exchanged emails last night as I bought
a CD via paypal:

Me:

Thanks Super Destructor,

Money sent.

That’s great. Brent Bambury was all over your music the other day on his
drive home show [CBC Ottawa afternoons] and said you were the greatest thing
since something…something like the Stampeders…and that is something.

He played a cut or two and I am sure going to whistle your tunes while at the
workplace.

I am just so happy being able to write someone by the name of Super
Destructor I want this email to last forever. I’ll probably do a review on my
website (10,000 visits last month) [Ed.: you are always in my
thoughts]and you can come over there and brag me up. That’d be great.

Super Destructor:

thx for the kind words amigo. there’s a reason
europe keeps bringing us back for tours – forget about the masks and how we
look, just LISTEN – we have good songs! our next cd Fists Of Fury is gonna
smoke, we got 10 songs recorded, 5 more to go! pkg’ll be sent our mon or tues, i
have some other mail to go out…

adios,

SuperD.

The band’s name refers to slang for Mexican ’60’s
porn and their get up and names are a respectful homage to the
contemporaneous Mexican wrestling scene, cousins to Atlantic Grand Prix
Wrestling of ATV of the 70’s and my love, the Cuban Assassin. Apartment
Wrestling, their first CD will be mine soon.  Driving Mexicali
sounds.  Zounds.

The host of Weekend Mornings is Stan Carew, who our daughter at 3
dubbed Stinky Roo. The music is a bit corny and comfortable and aimed at seniors
laying in bed drinking tea and contemplating a tumble mostly without the
bibles. Stan and the crew play with the conventions of radio,
sometimes sounding a little like an old time dance hall live broadcast,
sometimes like Orsen Wells toying as a teen.

Playing with the knobs all around.

Rats: “See ya, Ship!”

From Brother Iain’s yellow press:

As Ontario’s Conservatives continued to trail in public opinion polls, dozens of Tory aides, including senior staff, have been shopping their resumes around ahead of the Oct. 2 election. Among them are members of the office of Premier Ernie Eves, senior members of Finance Minister Janet Ecker’s staff, and an administrative assistant in Education Minister Elizabeth Witmer’s office. Many of the resumes — posted electronically on workopolis.com or monster.ca — [Emphasis mine] have been updated in the past week or two, and several in just the past few days.

Good web savvy reporting.

Hate Crime

Discount Blogger, a New Brunswicker in Atlanta, is speaking and entertaining comment on the new criminal code provisions on same-sex hate crimes. I must say, I am flabbergasted by the failure of this vote in the House to be unanimous. In case you are interested, here is the record from Hansard of who voted yea and nay just in case you want a word with your local MP next election. [Hey, there is Elsie Wayne against it and Peter MacKay for it. Troubles in Tory land continue.]

Just to be clear, here is the Bill as passed by the House of Commons. Bill 250 adds sexual orientation to an existing list of subjects of prohibited hate speech – the others being “colour, race, religion or ethnic origin” – under both sections 318 and section 319:

318. (1) Every one who advocates or promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

(2) In this section, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part any identifiable group, namely,

(a) killing members of the group; or

(b) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.

So, the class of speech is limited to advocating killing and physical destruction of a group. These are activities which I usually class in the class “Generally Bad”.

The provisions of Bill 250, now passed, deal with a second set of crimes under section 319, hate speech against “any identifiable group” which leads to “hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace” and “communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group”. I also include these acts in “Pretty Much Bad, Too”.

Others do not believe this bad is so general. The wackos Certain of the faithful have weasled required an exception to be worked into section 319 – the “Pretty Much Bad, Too” crimes – in our Criminal Code:

if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.

So now we can sing “Jesus hates you this I know. For the Bible tells me so…” And hates you, and you, and you and especially you.

And it would also be possible for me to say Jesus hates those who supported the section 319 exceptions as hypocritical, soul-scoured falsifiers…if, that is, I thought it was possible for the good Lord to hate.

Gwynne on Bush

Gwynne Dyer, who frosted the cake of my teen nuclear fears with his TV series War, has written on the situation faced by the US in Iraq as the money starts to tighten. First, good call having the Barbados Advocate as a client, Gwynne. It is always important to organize your tax deductable business trips well. Second, interesting observation:

…many governments are also privately debating whether they want to help save the Bush administration from the consequences of its own folly. Without a lot of military and financial help that can only come via the UN, Bush may be dragged down to defeat by the Iraq war in the November 2004 election. With the extra troops and money, he might contain the problem enough to survive. However, they ask themselves, do we really want that?

Hat nod for the topic to Ron’s Box of Soap, librarian and, with Gwynne, fellow Newf.