Awards Season is Upon Us, Screeners Soon to Follow
For long-time observers of video piracy, the traditional end of the year awards season provides a very interesting peek into the interplay between the movie industry and the file-sharing scene. Even as studio executives continue to push onerous DRM schemes on end users, the reality is that most commercial films find their way online well [...]
10 Years of DeCSS and Xvid
Many recent articles on file-trading and the P2P community have noted that the Napster phenomenon occurred ten years ago, marking a decade of joy for down-loaders and despair for the big content companies. Less noticed is that 2009 is also the tenth anniversary of another bit of crucial P2P technology, the DeCSS decrypting tool. Publicly [...]
Leak Confirms ACTA Is As Bad As Feared
While the entirety of the proposed ACTA treaty for the global enforcement of intellectual property and copyright has yet to become public, the response of the EU to the draft document surfaced today. It was posted on the website of the German political party, Die Linke (The Left), but is in English, although it should [...]
Canadian Student Group Voice Their Opinions on Copyright
Among other things, Canadian student union CASA has called for expanding fair dealings and avoiding a blanket anti-circumvention legislation. These groups are the latest additions to an ever expanding list of stake-holders calling for an expansion to fair dealings. Of course, these aren’t the only things the two organizations called for.
The way things [...]
ESA Canada – Canadian Gaming Industry Grew Without TPM Law
A recent op-ed in the ongoing copyright consultation in Canada by Danielle Parr of ESA Canada suggests that TPMs prevent piracy and somehow lead to more consumer choice.
Not that the arguments aren’t self-defeating or are a departure from reality, but those are among a number of arguments being made for a blanket ban on circumvention. [...]
Another Day, Another Call to Expand Canada’s Fair Dealings
Barry Sookman might not like the idea of expanding Canada’s fair dealings regime, but the increasingly large chorus of calls have been to expand Canada’s fair dealings regime in one way or another. The latest call comes from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) which seems to coincide the growing [...]
Manitoba Music Industry Association Shuns CRIA Stance on Copyright
It may be history repeating itself. When CRIA pushed for Bill C-60, many Canadian labels who were, at the time, members of CRIA, broke away from the organization, saying that they were against suing music fans and against the blanket ban on circumvention. Recently, during the round table in Saskatchewan on the issue [...]
Canadian Copyright Consultation Submissions Keep Rolling In
There’s no shortage of opinion on the copyright debate in the consultation. In fact, if you are able to keep up reading all of the submissions at this point, you’d probably deserve a medal. Fortunately, there are a few able to keep up with the mountains of suggestions, ideas and proposals and one, [...]
Finland Wants to Criminalize Talking About DRM Circumvention
Is it criminal to even talk about CSS contained in a DVD? Apparently, with respect to circumvention, that’s what Finland wants to do through a controversial court case. As a result, the case is moving to the EU court of Human rights.
At issue is a Finnish EU copyright directive which came into force [...]
