As I write this our politicians in Ottawa are going through Bill C-32 the new copyright bill. At first glance there are some significant problems with it but they mostly come from the idea that to circumvent the digital lock on digital media automatically makes you a criminal. So I'm writing a post on how @mpjamesmoore and @tonyclement_mp can fix this with very little work. First of all remove any refereance to "any circumvention is an infringement".
If the media companies insist on this then they must do either of the following:
1) Provide the media in every format available when you purchase the media. So when you buy a DVD, you get the ipod version, a computer version, a phone version, a version to run on Linux, Unix, Mac and Windows, and a hard disk backup.
2) Start a free service where customers need to put in a some sort proof of purchase, and the company will ship for free or make available for download that media you purchased.
3) Digital media needs to be transferable to there will need to be a very simple way to change ownership, and allow format shifting. Lot's of people share a computer and have a single itunes account when kids leave home they may want to take their music with them.
4) If Media companies GET ANY tax payer money it would be considered already subsidized by the TAX PAYER and must have FAIR USE provisions for format shifting and backups even if DRM is on the content.
5) Media companies need to pay a Inconvenience tax, if they are going to treat us like criminals then we should do the same to them. If they want to tell Canadians how we consume our content then we are going to may them pay a lot of money to do business here in Canada.
Don't get me wrong I believe if you like the content you should pay for it. However I do feel media companies are unfairly taking advantage of consumers. You should NOT have to pay for every way you want to consume your content. If you have a DVD you should be able to watch it on your computer and ipod. You should be able to make a backup of it. You should not have to pay $10.00 for a digital copy when the physical DVD is in a bargain bin at Wal-Mart for $5.00. It cost more money to make that DVD and house it in a store then to put a digital file on a web server some where. That's just my point of view. If you buy it you should have the right to do what you want with it (for personal use only).
