[Cdn-DMCA] Copyright bill universally rejected --- onward to consumer bill of rights

[Sandy Harris]

Chris Brand wrote:
> 
> >   http://www.digitalconsumer.org/bill.html
> Personally, I'd add one more thing to this list
> 7. These rights cannot legally be taken away by content producers.
> i.e. if somebody sells you a CD that you can't back up using
> generally-available consumer devices, you get to sue them for that.
> 
> I think having a list of rights on a website somewhere that your average
> Canadian can relate to (e.g. "this means that using your VCR to record
> a show while you're out so you can watch it later is legal") and pointing
> out that these rights are currently (a) not embodied in law and (b)
> currently threatened, 

Actually, it is slightly worse than that. Some of those rights have been
through legal tests. Some of the big companies are, quite deliberately
in my view, trying to restrict them despite the law.

e.g. the specific issues of making a tape of a record you own for
listening in the car and of taping a TV show to watch later both
went to the US Supreme Court. In both cases, the industry lawyers
argued that this violated copyright, and in both cases the Court
ruled that it didn't.

So now the industries are getting tricky about it. They are trying
to push through "content control" systems that deny consumers those
rights, and then have it made illegal to bypass their controls. 

> would be a very good thing. Then we would go on
> to say "If this annoys you, here's what you can do..."
> 
> I believe that Michael Argast has started working along these lines.
> 
> Chris
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