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November 15, 2004

They're screwing us AGAIN

via Cory at Boingboing: "Canada Heritage is now recommending an Internet "levy" that will go to a collecting society, on a grounds that everything on the Internet is copyrighted by someone, and the collecting society will gather money for them in exchange for your use of their material."

Does this mean that if someone links something that I wrote, or if someone uses my words somehow, or saves it to their computer, then I should get paid, and that this collecting society will pay me? Of fucking course not. It's yet another ridiculous cash grab. As Cory says, what am I getting for this? A slut dipped in water and rolled in sugar? (Also known as "sweet fuck all".) Some quotes:

Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, and Howard Knopf, a Canadian copyright lawyer and director for the Center for Intellectual Property at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, have sharply condemned the proposals. Mr. Geist blames "an amazing lobby job" by the recording industry, and Mr. Knopf calls it a "travesty [and] an exercise in hyperbole."
The proposals are so tough, Ms. Murray said, they have already encouraged the CanWest newspaper chain to introduce a new contract for freelancers that demands they hand over all their rights "throughout the universe, in perpetuity."

"You'd think this would make writers' groups wonder about why [the writers have] been busting themselves to support WIPO ratification [and] Internet licensing," she argued.

Throughout the universe, in perpetuity. That really sums things up, doesn't it? You can't really have rights when you are a freelancer. What do staff have to sign? Throughout the multiverse, in all future incarnations? No wonder blog reporting is gaining such popularity. Of course, not all people believe that blogging as reporting events around you is a good thing. This leads into my next post.

Posted by JonasParker at November 15, 2004 11:29 AM

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