[d at DCC] [Fwd: Candidates in Kitchener/Waterloo region]

[Russell McOrmond]

   WSIC and WPIRG will be hosting me Wednesday next week for a 
discussion on copyright.  It will be a relatively short talk one-way 
given by me (15-20 minutes), and then an interesting dialogue on copyright.

   I want to include a specific discussion about the Candidates in 
Kitchener/Waterloo region, so I sent the following message to them.  If 
you are in these ridings and have received some correspondence, please 
let me know so that I can include it in the discussion next week.  You 
may also want to hammer your own candidates to ensure that they offer 
answers to these questions.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Candidates in Kitchener/Waterloo region
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:36:27 -0400
From: Russell McOrmond <russell at flora.ca>
To: harold at haroldalbrecht.ca, kitchener-conestoga at greenparty.ca, 
ovdasilva at hotmail.com, rodmcneil at ndp.ca, kyle4kw at gmail.com, 
votepeterbraid at primus.ca, cathymaclellan at rogers.com, andrew at kw.igs.net, 
  info at cindyjacobsen.ca, stephen at stephenwoodworth.ca, 
k_centregreen at hotmail.com, info at karenredman.com, oscarcolearnal at ndp.ca


Dear Candidates,

   I will be giving a talk at the University of Waterloo on Wednesday,
October 1'st (A week and a day from now).   The talk will be about
Copyright, new media, and specifically the Conservative Bill C-61
(tabled 2008) and the Liberal Bill C-60 (tabled 2005).

   Given we are in the middle of an election campaign, those attending
the talk will ask me who best understands this issue. This is an issue
where the individual people elected are far more important than the
parties, and we have already observed major policy changes with the
change of one issue critic within a party.

   If you have a personal position on these two bills, both titled "An
Act to amend the Copyright Act", this would be appreciated.

   The area I will focus on in the introduction of my talk is legal
protection for "technological measures".  The following is an analogy to
a transportation technology to help clarify the issue.

   Immagine a bill which said that car owners who wish to use public
roads are no longer allowed to drive themselves, or choose their own
drivers. Instead the car is locked by the manufacturers who decide what
drivers will be allowed.  The bill would make it illegal for the owner
of the car to unlock the car in order to drive themselves or hire their
own drivers.  Anyone who provides car unlocking services, or
technologies to unlock cars, would also be violating the law (and in
some cases, committing an activity that rises to the level of being
criminal).

   If we switch from talking about a 'car' to talking about
communications technology, this analogy becomes a fairly accurate
description of the most controversial aspect of Bill C-61.

   Do you believe that this is an appropriate response to copyright
infringement, or any other unlawful uses of information technology?  If
you were to compare the severity of illegal activities one can carry out
with information technology (such as our home computers, portable media
devices, VCR's, camcorders, DVRs, etc) and transportation technology
(such as a car), where would you place non-commercial copyright
infringement?


   Thank you for any responses.  Please indicate with any responses
whether I may post what you have said to our Digital-copyright.ca BLOG.

Kitchener Centre
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/edid/35037

Kitchener - Conestoga
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/edid/35038

Kitchener - Waterloo
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/edid/35039

   If you have any questions, please ask.

Russell McOrmond
305 Southcrest Private,
Ottawa, ON
K1V 2B7
Phone: (613) 733-5836
http://www.flora.ca/#contact

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
   portable media player from my cold dead hands!"


-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
   portable media player from my cold dead hands!"