Dan Siemon » Copyright

Who owns ideas?

Dan Siemon — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:41:37 +0000

Recently CBC’s excellent Ideas program ran a documentary on copyright entitled Who own’s ideas?. The episode provides a really nice overview of the issues and even includes a bit of history which is too often ignored in this debate.

Both a podcast and a direct MP3 download are available.

The pressure for copyright reform in Canada

Dan Siemon — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:14:10 +0000

No One Likes a Bully: The IIPA and Canada

An interesting description of where some of the pressure relating to Canada’s copyright reform is coming from.

Canadian copyright

Dan Siemon — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:44:08 +0000

Anyone who pays attention to the current copyright debate has heard the claims that Canada is a hot bed for movie piracy. For a different perspective take a look at this video from Michael Geist and Daniel Albahary.

Putting Canadian “Piracy” in Perspective

Free software/copyright conference at UWO

Dan Siemon — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:23:56 +0000

On Monday April 9th and Tuesday April 10th Western Law is hosting a conference at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada called Knowledge Policy for the 21st Century.

Speakers include:

Richard Stallman founder of the Free Software Foundation.
Stacie LeGrow from RedHat.
Matt Norwood from the Software Freedom Law Center.
Jason Schultz from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Macrus Bornfreund from Creative Commons Canada.
Law faculty from The University of Western Ontario, Queensland University of Technology – Brisbane Australia, Victoria University – New Zealand, Ohio State University.

The conference fee is pretty cheap so if you are in the area it may be a great event to attend.

The copyright loby (more of the same)

Dan Siemon — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 01:25:33 +0000

Just before the last federal election the world found out how cozy some federal politicians involved in copyright reform were with special interest groups. Despite the change of government, it appears little has changed.

Oda and the Copyright Pledge

CRIA’s Lobby Effort: The Untold Story

Michael Geist deserves a lot of credit for not letting this drop.

Transcripts and audio versions of Geist’s Hart House 2006 lecture entitled Our own creative land: Cultural Monopoly and the Trouble with Copyright are available if you are interested in Canadian copyright reform.

RedHat summit videos

Dan Siemon — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 17:00:08 +0000

Red Hat has posted videos of the keynotes from the Red Hat summit in Nashville. So far, I have only watched two of the three videos. Both were excellent.

Eben Moglen: Discusses the philosophical and political ideas behind free software. He argues that free software is about allowing individual creativity. If you don’t ‘get’ free software you need to watch this speech.

Cory Doctorow: Provides a bit of history on copyright change and how the incumbent industries always try to stop progress. Lots of good DRM discussion as well.

There is no future in which bits will be harder to copy than they are today … Any business model that based on the idea that bits will be harder to copy is doomed. [Cory Doctorow (2006 RedHat summit in Nashville)]

I found both of these speeches to be inspiring. Free software is the start of a wider revolution. As Moglen says in his keynote (paraphrasing), it is an incredible privilege to live through a revolution.

Feds Face Digital Crossroads

Dan Siemon — Sat, 20 May 2006 22:35:13 +0000

Feds Face Digital Crossroads by Charlie Angus, NDP Heritage Critic.

Wow, a federal politician that understands the problems in copyright reform.

Bonus link: Rocking in free world