[kwlug-disc] Your country needs you (or "Our MP is on the C-32 committee")

[Denver Gingerich]

Hi everyone,

Apparently (and quite surprisingly to me) Peter Braid is one of the 12
people on the committee that will be revising Bill C-32:

http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/5249
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4774129&Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3

For those who are in Waterloo, this is an excellent opportunity to get
your voice heard.  The best way to do this, in my opinion, is to
arrange an in-person meeting with him by calling his office at (519)
746-1573 and saying you're a constituent that would like to chat with
him.  Call as many times as needed until you get a firm date; I've
found that MPs' offices often say "we'll schedule it and call you
back" but it could be a week or two before they get back to you.  The
squeaky wheel gets the grease (the persistent constituent gets the
firm meeting date).  Oh yeah, and the sooner the better because I've
heard that the government wants Bill C-32 passed before the end of the
year!

I think the most important thing to point out is that the WIPO
Internet Treaties (WCT and WPPT), which the Conservatives want to
ratify, do not require the prohibition of "anti-circumvention"
(restriction removal) tools like doubleTwist and libdvdcss, which Bill
C-32 prohibits in its current form.  Geist makes this very clear in
his article, "The Case for Flexibility in Implementing the WIPO
Internet Treaties: An Examination of the Anti-Circumvention
Requirements" (don't worry, the "EULA" is just BY-NC-ND):

http://www.irwinlaw.com/pages/content-commons/the-case-for-flexibility-in-implementing-the-wipo-internet-treaties--an-examination-of-the-anti-circumvention-requirements---michael-geist

To demonstrate how often TPMs (use "TPMs" instead of "DRM" with MPs as
it more accurately maps onto the Bill C-32 terminology) are used and
whether C-32 restricts their removal, check out these posts of mine:

http://ossguy.com/?p=612 - "DVDs and TPMs: how often is CSS used?": a
list of DVDs and whether they use CSS; conclusion is that about 98% of
DVDs use CSS (useful in demonstrating that TPMs are extremely
prevalent so one should not take the question of how to regulate them
lightly)
http://ossguy.com/?p=662 - "What C-32 means for DVDs": confirmation
that CSS is a TPM (sort of)
http://ossguy.com/?p=696 - "What C-32 means for jailbreaking":
confirmation that jailbreaking is prohibited by C-32 (also sort of)
http://ossguy.com/?p=717 - "Will exemption rulemaking work for C-32?":
analysis of how the US' exemption process works (it's not really
useful, so we shouldn't depend on it); related to "What C-32 means for
jailbreaking"

Along with pointing out that the WIPO Internet Treaties don't require
prohibition of anti-circumvention tools, it's important to note that
prohibiting them is in fact a very bad idea, as hopefully the above
articles will help to show.  It's likely best to approach this from
the competition point of view, ie. if I buy a movie on iTunes, it's
anti-competitive for Apple to restrict that movie to be played only on
Apple devices and as a result, it is necessary to have circumvention
tools to bypass anti-competitive restrictions (so I can play it on the
device of my choice instead of the device of Apple's choice).

I hope this is helpful.  If you're planning to visit Braid and want
some tips, let the list know (or me directly) and we'll help you out.

Denver
http://ossguy.com/