Jun
13
Proposed Copyright Amendments a Draconian Farce
Filed Under Web
There’s been much ballyhoo about proposed copyright amendments details in bill C-61. I won’t go into much detail about, well, the details, as it’s all covered in great, err, DETAIL on many a site, including the ever awesome Michael Geist goes into deep detail about why it’s so insane.
Many creators don’t have much issue with their works being used by educational institutions, for research purposes, or even sharing amongst friends or non-friends (ie torrented files). so long as they see some sort of compensation (also known as a reason to keep creating), it tends to work out. If it didn’t all those local bands playing local gigs selling their discs and other merch locally wouldn’t exist. somehow, it still works.
The fact of the matter is that intellectual property is own by the creators and it’s up to they themselves to slice up their rights and the rules surrounding their work as they see fit. That includes putting over-thought digital locks on their work, be it hardware, software, or pretty much anything involving ones and zeros. People who think DIVX movies should be free because “it’s just information man!” obviously have never relied on said “information” to put food on the table.
The problem is that the new laws are completely at odds with how shit works nowadays. It doesn’t matter if you digitally lock a DVD, people are going to be pissed if they can’t rip it to their iPod. Even worse, these security locks usually cause more problems for the legitimately paying consumers. If you’re a PC gamer then there’s a good chance you have been exposed to or have heard of Starforce protection before. It’s caused boycotts large enough to make companies like Ubisoft formally announce they would be dropping the locking scheme from future games. The issue? The obscene protection mechanisms employed not only didn’t prevent the files from being cracked, but they caused extreme instability in the systems that paying users installed their games on, sometimes resulting in hardware ceasing to function.
Point being, don’t piss off the paying customer. If they want to copy their CD to their iPod, their computer, their PS3, let them. If you tell them not to then two things will happen:
1- The customer will do it anyways. If they can’t easily do it, they might look up a workaround, and then…
2- They will regret buying the product in the first place because they couldn’t do with it what they wanted/expected. Not only can you say goodbye to repeat sales, but you can be sure they’ll tell their closest friends (at least) about how irked they were when they tried to watch the movie they paid for.
This happened to me with A Perfect circle’s second CD, The Thirteenth Step. It was an AWESOME album, but in order to listen to it on my computer I was forced to install software containing a music player that would not only play just that CD, but wouldn’t allow any other player on my computer to run it. I downloaded the album the very same day, something I shouldn’t have ever had to do, just to get an easy to access MP3 copy of the album onto my hard drive.
Don’t tell the consumer they’re wrong and fine them. Work with the consumer and find a solution that allows them to use the content they purchase the way they want to while still making sure you get paid in the end. the music and film industries haven’t bottomed out, unlike the doomsday predictions at the start of the decade, so there’s gotta be a way.
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