The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is a Canadian institution worth protecting. Please join me in signing the petition below.
The digital locks provision in Bill C-32 is anti-consumer and it has to go. Here’s a rough transcript of the video above:
Hello! Graham here again with a bit more on Bill C-32.
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who watched and shared the original video, and I hope you’ll pass this one along too.
So – back to Bill C-32, the Canadian DMCA. As I mentioned last time, the bill needs work, but there’s one part that needs to be removed entirely: the digital locks provision. it’s anti-consumer, and does nothing to actually help the artists and creators who write, compose, and create. As a content creator myself (I won’t be so crass as to call myself an artist) I know that digital locks aren’t the right answer, and here are a few more reasons for you.
First: These are HD-DVDs. You might remember HD-DVD from such great format wars as HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray. HD-DVD, despite being a pretty awesome format, lost the war.
I paid over $900 for the discs that you see here. The problem is: my HD-DVD player is broken. What’s worse: they don’t make them anymore. that means $900 down the drain, useless.
Unless! Unless I can use the HD-DVD drive in my computer to break the digital locks on these files… which I can. Then I can extract the movie information that I paid for and watch it on other devices, like my computer or my PlayStation 3. Under Bill C-32 doing exactly that – breaking the digital lock for my own personal use – would be illegal. And I’d be subject to fines of up to $95,000. Nearly one hundred grand for something I paid $900 for.
Think about that – I’m not selling these discs. I’m not giving the content away. I’m just breaking that lock so I can use them again. Something I’m doing in the privacy of my own home without affecting anyone else… and the government wants to stop me. That’s wrong and it’s today’s first reason for why digital locks have to go.
The second reason? Well, Heritage Minister James Moore sent me a message on twitter saying I should buy discs with digital copies if I want to use them on other devices. He then blocked all communication on twitter from me – which is a pretty undemocratic and cowardly thing to do.
Now Mister Moore completely ignores the over 500 DVDs that I own that I purchased before digital copies became available – he’d still like me to be classified as a criminal for using them the way I want. But I do have some discs with digital copies, so I thought I’d take his advice and get started with them.
I have 15 discs with digital copies. Only 7 of them actually work. The remainder time out when I try to activate them, or the codes have expired. Can you imagine that – a DVD expiring? Is this what we, as consumers, want?
Of the seven that I was able to get working, none of those digital copies will play back on my BlackBerry, or my PlayStation Portable. None of them will stream to my Xbox or my PlayStation 3.
Some of the Blu-ray movies with digital copies came with DVD versions. I ripped them. They worked on everything immediately. So your second reason is: if the product I buy in the store doesn’t work as well as the quote unquote illegal product, then the law is bad and needs to be changed.
To recap: digital locks will prevent you from using stuff you’ve paid for in the future as technology moves on. And secondly digital locks prevent you from using the stuff you’ve bought now in a normal, reasonable manner.
Contact your MP and let them know that the digital locks provision is consumer hostile and will negatively affect how much money you spend on games, movies, music, and books. Tell them it has to go. We can fix Bill C-32 before it’s too late.
The Globe and Mail published an article today detailing some of the pain that Canadian customers are experiencing with the iPhone. The article has received over 200 comments so far – all of them resoundingly negative. It appears that this mega-corporation may have pushed the buttons of some Canadians just a little too hard – in a time when gas prices are astronomical, when governments are ramming copyright legislation down our throats… perhaps the iPhone is the final straw.
Some of the more elegant quotes from the article:
“Rogers has outflanked its rivals, Bell Mobility Inc. andTelus Corp., by bringing the newest technology to market first and by canny investments in network upgrades. It’s not going to give away the farm to satisfy some Apple diehards…”
Marketing Consultant Luke Sklar – spinning this PR disaster as hard as he can.
In relation to Rogers having a GSM network capable of supporting the iPhone:
Liz Hamilton – the most hated woman in corporate communications in Canada.
It’s amusing to see the PR crew from Rogers forlornly attempting to add a positive tone to this story. The exclamations of “value!” and “customer usage!” reeks of desperation. It’s a pity that this “visionary” company didn’t see this backlash coming.
If you use Rogers – for ANY service – it’s time to take a look at the competition. Stand up for your own rights and for those of your fellow Canadians and tell them to push off.
