D Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be "D Day", as it were, for Canadian copyright.

Let us hope that the "D" isn't as in "DMCA".

HK
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Government of Canada to Table Bill to Amend the Copyright Act

OTTAWA, June 11, 2008 -- The Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry, and the Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, and Minister for La Francophonie, will deliver brief statements and answer media inquiries shortly after the tabling of a bill to amend the Copyright Act. Members of the media will also be able to attend a technical briefing and lock-up prior to the tabling of the bill to amend the Copyright Act.

Date: Thursday, June 12, 2008

Lock-up and technical briefing for media

Location:
Press Theatre
National Press Building
150 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario

Time:
9:30 a.m. (media registration for lock-up and technical briefing)
9:45-10:40 a.m. (lock-up -- media only)

Ministerial statements

Time: 10:45 a.m.

Location:
Centre Block Foyer
Centre Block
Parliament Hill

A question and answer session with ministers will follow.

Once the media lock-up has begun, no one will be allowed to leave the room or contact his/her office until the embargo is lifted. Journalists will be required to sign an undertaking to respect the release arrangements.

Wireless communication devices such as cellular phones, BlackBerrys, personal digital assistants or any other removable wireless communication devices (including modems, air cards and wireless microphones) will not be allowed in the lock-up area.

For further information, please contact:

Deirdra McCracken
Press Secretary
Office of the Honourable Jim Prentice
Minister of Industry
613-995-9001

Dominic Gosselin
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage,
Status of Women and Official Languages and
Minister for la Francophonie
819-997-7788

Media Relations
Industry Canada: 613-943-2502
Canadian Heritage: 819-994-9101

Copyright Comic

Gordon Duggan, founder of Appropriation Art, has a fantastic copyright comic book, which can be found here.

It features all the usual suspects, and I'm honoured to be included.

Quite apart from the artistic brilliance of it, it's really quite accurate and informative.

It should be mandatory reading for those responsible for this file in the government.




HK

iTunes Movie Rollout in Canada - sans DMCA

Apple is making available lots of movies for Canadians.

iTunes users in Canada and the United Kingdom will now be able to download and rent movies from Apple's online store.

Canadians will be able to choose from over 1,200 films such as "Juno," "I Am Legend," and "Cloverfield" from movie studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Sony Pictures. More than 200 of the available titles for rent come in high definition.

Those in the UK will have a library of over 700 films, Apple said. The British rental catalog also features over 100 titles available in high definition.

This is the first big Apple online movie rollout after the USA, shared with the UK - hardly a pirate haven and, indeed, a leader in the EU.

This clearly suggests that Apple has little if any concern about any alleged inadequacies of current Canadian copyright law, which is apparently quite adequate to protect its interests and that of the studios.

And Apple just loves DRM and TPM, when it suits it.

One more reason why we don't need a Canadian DMCA ("CDMCA").

HK