Julianna Yau’s blog

I’ve been away from the copyright game for a while, so I thought it would be useful for me to reorganize some of my thoughts:

• Not all creators are equal. Their skill sets are different, their creations are different and their needs are different.
• Technology is always changing. Media and styles of creative output are always changing. A Copyright Act which speaks too specifically to technology or media (the direction toward which we seem to be headed) will always need revision and always cause problems.
• Availability of business models and intrinsic rights are not the same thing. Within reason, the business model used by a creator or business associates should not be limited by legislation. (Within reason being not in violation of human rights, anti-trust, anti-competition, etc). More specifically (and I expect an onslaught of disagreement on this, but I stand by it), a company should be free to use DRM if they choose to, and consumers are free to not buy products with DRM if they choose to. Companies use it because we still buy the product. There is no better protest than not buying their product. That being said, I don’t support the use of DRM (see the chapter “Speed Bump” in Wired Shut for why).
• The all-rights-reserved vs a-Creative-Commons-licence model gives creators their choice of how they want their work used. What we need is better definition of fair use, not more legislated exemptions and conditions.
• With new technologies for making capturing and duplicating easier and less expensive for everyone, the concept of what is being purchased and why needs serious reconsideration.

What I think is needed:

• We need a simpler Copyright Act, not a longer one. (Sadly, see Digital Copyright by Jessica Litman for why that will probably never become a reality)
• We need better public education on copyright, so that we don’t need to resort to a copyright slide ruler to figure it out. This, of course, would be easier to accomplish if the Copyright Act were simpler.
• We need better public education on art and the workings of the creative industries. As I noted before, people are shocked when they find out how much an artist actually gets from the sale of their work. In 2004, the average total income of an artist from all sources was $23,500. In 2005, the median income in Canada for all occupations was $41,401. Although average and median aren’t the same thing, and there is a year’s difference in the numbers, it’s still discouraging.
• We need to define sampling versus stealing
• We need to differentiate advertising and working for free
• We need to remember the creator

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but it was to be expected. Now to work on a letter regarding the budget cuts and the copyright bill. So much for keeping away from the politics of it all.

Dear Ms. Yau:

The Honourable Andrew Telegdi, your Member of Parliament, forwarded to me a copy of your e-mail of April 2, 2008, regarding net neutrality and your concern that Bell Canada is engaged in anti-competitive behaviour by controlling or “shaping” the traffic of independent Internet service providers (ISPs) that provide service through wholesale access to Bell’s digital subscriber line (DSL) network.

As Minister of Industry, I am responsible for the Telecommunications Act, which sets out the objectives of Canadian telecommunications policy. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), an independent public authority, is charged with implementing these objectives in its role as regulator of the telecommunications industry.

Canadian consumers can choose their ISP in a competitive marketplace, where prices are not regulated. Indeed, the competition between telephone and cable networks, as well as satellite, wireless and other players, has ensured that Canadians have a variety of choices, in terms of both price and quality, when selecting an ISP. Provisions in the Telecommunications Act and Competition Act ensure that the competitive marketplace operates effectively.

Under section 27 of the Telecommunications Act, the CRTC has the authority to address issues of unjust discrimination or undue preference in order to ensure that the marketplace operates fairly and effectively. If consumers feel that carriers are engaging in unjust discrimination or undue preference, complaints can be brought to the CRTC, where they are subject to a formal process. The recently created Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (www.ccts-cprst.ca) has also strengthened consumer protection with regard to telecommunications, and was established precisely to address consumer complaints on deregulated telecommunications services, such as Internet access.

In addition to the measures available under the Telecommunications Act, the Competition Act carries the power to address anti-competitive behaviour by ISPs, including cases of abuse of dominance and misleading advertising. The Competition Bureau ensures that prices in all sectors of the economy, except those that are regulated, are set by market forces and are not the result of anti-competitive behaviour. Under the abuse of dominance provisions in the Competition Act, it is illegal for a dominant firm to engage in the practice of anti-competitive acts resulting in a substantial lessening of competition, including disciplining or targeting competitors in order to raise prices or reduce customer choice.

As you may know, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) has filed a complaint with the CRTC regarding Bell’s traffic management practices. While I cannot comment on specific matters before the CRTC, please note that the Commission regulates wholesale access by independent ISPs to high-speed Internet access services from both telephone and cable companies. Under the CRTC’s regulatory framework for wholesale services, Bell is required to provide access to its DSL network to independent ISPs at regulated rates and terms of service. If the CRTC finds Bell or any other network operator to be in violation of these terms or otherwise engaging in unjust discrimination or undue preference, the CRTC has the power to address these issues under the Telecommunications Act.

Access to the Internet is a key issue for Canadians. Industry Canada is monitoring domestic and international developments to ensure that our legislative and regulatory frameworks remain effective. Should you believe carriers are engaging in unjust discrimination and undue preference, I encourage you to contact the CRTC at 1-877-249-2782 or by e-mail at info@crtc.gc.ca. Please note that, on May 15, 2008, the CRTC set out a process to address the issues raised in CAIP’s above-noted application. Further details regarding this application and the CRTC’s recently announced process to look into the matter can be found on its website at www.crtc.gc.ca.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to write, and I trust that you will find this information helpful.

Sincerely,

The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P.

For several months, I have been looking for something (anything) which can post a digest of my Ma.gnolia bookmarks to this blog.

My first attempt was with Feedburner‘s link splicer, which does that…but only integrates the content into the blog’s feed. Although that’s useful, it isn’t the functionality I want.

Then I tried Ma.gnolia‘s own blog posting tool. Although it worked wonderfully, I stopped using it when my host upgraded to ModSecurity 2. This was a problem because modsecurity needs to be deactivated for the xmlrpc file so that WordPress will accept remote posting, but ModSecurity 2 can only be disabled by the host and for my entire site. This posed a security risk I wasn’t willing to take just to get digest posting of my bookmarks.

I was manually creating digests for a while, but that couldn’t be a permanent solution.

And then I searched through the WordPress plugins again and found that Postalicious had been updated to handle not merely De.licio.us bookmarks, but others…including Ma.gnolia!

At this time, it looks like Postalicious only supports one account from De.licio.us, Ma.gnolia, Google Reader, Reddit or Yahoo Pipes.

You can select:

• the WordPress user acount to attribute the post
• the categories for the post
• whether pingbacks are allowed
• whether comments are allowed
• the minimum number of links a post can have
• the frequency of posting (no limit, max of x bookmarks per post, minimum of x hours between posts, or post once every x days after hh:mm)
• whether to publish after the criteria are met, or keep in drafts
• whether to edit an existing post or start a new one if the author publishes the draft
• allow/disallow a custom list of html in bookmark descriptions
• post only or no bookmarks with a custom list of tags (no spaces, comma separated)
• whether to use bookmark tags as the tags for the post
• whether to always use the same custom list of tags for the post
• date format, based on PHP standards
• post slug template
• post title for single or multiple days
• bookmark syntax (e.g. bookmark link – description – custom text)
• tag syntax
• customizable post template for single or multiple days

Overall, I would say the available options have been very thoroughly considered, and the plugin works wonderfully.

Ma.gnolia bookmarks for August 20th, 2008:

• Counterfeit Chic: Tiffany v. eBay 2: The Appeal –
• Counterfeit Chic: More Auction Action: eBay defeats L’Oréal –
• No love for L’Oréal: EU courts waffle on eBay counterfeits –
• Storms in the cloud leave users up creek without a paddle – Why I've never been a fan of relying on remote servers for data backup and storage.
• Indie bands talk digital music and life without the labels: Page 1 –
• Judge zips MIT students’ lips on mass transit fare exploits – Security, intellectual property, money, research and transit. Sticky.
• Warner Music to rhythm games: pay up or the music gets it! –
• Bell Canada puts squeeze on ISPs with usage-based billing – So Bell, like the other Telcos, is standing to benefit financially from more content being transmitted. So when are the content creators compensated for creating the content that's being transmitted and resulting in higher ISP fees?
• Piracy could put film industry out of business, warns group –
• MAKE: Blog: Activists detained after lighting up “Free Tibet” LED throwies banner near Olympics – James Powderly is missing in China after displaying a LED throwie.
• Podcasting: Keep it Legal | Technology in the Arts –