COPYRIGHT OR COPYWRONG

OK, lame title for a post but whatever, get over it. :P

My sister brought this issue to my attention earlier in the week and she said that I should do a posting on it. The title of the article she sent was "Tories eye $500 fine for illegal downloads" - Hmm... You can pretty much guess where the rest of this post is going.

Does anyone remember a program/company called Napster? Remember when those mp3 files were still new and really kinda cool? Remember when the big music corporations started suing single mothers and 13 year old girls for tens of thousands of dollars for a handful of downloaded music? Well, if new copyright laws go through, this is potentially what we will be seeing again.

What's that you're saying? It didn't work the first time so why try it again? Yeah, pretty much. Targeting all the people they want to have access to their music is not the answer.

The changes in the copyright laws would mean that if you own a CD or whatever, you can make copies for yourself to your heart's content. Burn a copy to your computer - to your mp3 player - even to another CD - but don't you dare think about sharing with your friends. Hopefully you weren't planning on making a mixed tape/cd for a friend or that girl/guy you've been crushing on - because that would make you target to potentially hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Did I mention that if you do make all of these backup copies for yourself, the moment you no longer own the original CD, those copies in your possession are then deemed illegal. Good times.

Ahh, sharing. Apparently it's bad. Sure, I get the issue with downloading music - there is lost revenue for the people who make the music. But not being able to share your music? It's no wonder that more and more people are bypassing the large music corporations.

But what if you do own all of the music yourself - can you prove it? Crossing the border with your tech may be harder in the near future. "Border officials may seize iPods under trade deal" You could have your tech confiscated for no good reason beyond being suspicious [read: quotas and random grabs]. How do you really regulate something like this? How do you single people out?

Excuse me ma'am, I'm going to have to confiscate your ipod - sorry for the inconvenience.

These articles are just the tip if the iceberg. If you do some searches on your own you will find tons on all of this.

So what do you think of it all? I know that there are some avid music fans out there, and I know that many of them enjoy sharing their music finds with their friends.

- More Spin than Win-Win
- Criminalizing everyday Canadians