Topic: New copyright law in Canada.

[Jimmy]

We talk about law so it's normal

Maybe they will used the same system that the computer game industry use (at least for the games I own). You buy a downloadable only version with two licences and you can use them on any computer you want, if your hard disc crash it isn't a problem you just contact the seller and void one of your licence and re-installed it again. The only restriction is that you can have more than 2 installations of the game. I bought my game with this system since at least 3 years and it's a perfect system even better than having a physical one in your hand (a cd can stop working not a downloadable files, if you lost it you just get it again and start the unregister/register procedure).

We just need to wait and hope for the best. Anyway the companies I work for and those from wich I buy don't put protection on their dvd. Of course it's possible that Sony, Disney, Fox and the others big label jump on the occasion but I don't think they will do it.

[RossRoy]

I just lost access to a few CDs worth of music I had purchased a few years ago. Why? Because the DRM servers were shut down...

Same goes for downloaded games. Yeah sure I love Steam. Install the client on any computer, enter my ID and password and off I go. I can play any games I've purchased on the service so far. I can even redownload them all to my hearts desire. But what happens when Steam is not viable as a business anymore and the servers are shut down? I lose it all. Pirates? Still playing happily.

Just take Ubisoft's recent example (I forget which game it was) but the servers were brought down from a DoS attack.. So what happened? Legally purchased games stopped working altogether. Pirates? They were still happily playing away.

That's my main gripe with all this. We'd be entirely dependent on the whim of some big media conglomerates. Keeping servers running costs too much? Shut them down, they can buy it again on our new shiny better more limited format....

[Touti]

I also have a much better version, good enough to distribute, only I can't, because it's locked.

Which is also the one you'd be watching at home.  Now Jon, what would you say if that nice Blu-Ray disc "married" itself to whichever player you first use it with and could no longer be played on any other device.  You pay 25$ for a great movie in Blu-Ray, with your friends you decide you're all gonna watch it together at the rich one's place, this jerk you all love but are also jealous of because he's got the super-duper-high-res 120 inch plasma TV with the 62.1 sound system, you all have a great evening until you slide your disc in his player and get a nice message on the screen informing you that from now on you can only watch your movie if you friend invites you over 

DRM Protection opens the door to that sort of things.  I don't what we need to stop piracy is to limit the rights of honest people.  What we need is make it illegal and give those who are wronged the means of getting justice.  If if was easy for studios to find pirates and get them to pay for what they do it wouldn't take long before nobody does it anymore and there would be no need to limit the rights of those that are doing nothing wrong.

[Touti]

P.S:  Nope, don't even try     I won't tell where they sell the 62.1 surround system

[Najemikon]

Eric, don't for one moment think I support DRM because it is a slippery slope. One problem is the long illegal term of "public broadcast". I don't think anyone has ever enforced it outside of pubs and clubs, but it was once clear that if you bought a home video you were not allowed to take it somewhere and play it for a group. That would be a Public Broadcast! So film night round your mates is actually wrong...

Even if that isn't true now, it shows how old fashioned and narrow minded they traditionally are.

[Najemikon]

P.S:  Nope, don't even try     I won't tell where they sell the 62.1 surround system

Damn. Almost caught you.  

[Jimmy]

You pay 25$ for a great movie in Blu-Ray, with your friends you decide you're all gonna watch it together at the rich one's place, this jerk you all love but are also jealous of because he's got the super-duper-high-res 120 inch plasma TV with the 62.1 sound system, you all have a great evening until you slide your disc in his player and get a nice message on the screen informing you that from now on you can only watch your movie if you friend invites you over 

Eric it's your disc and you don't remove the protection by bringing it for watching it on any Blu Ray reader you want. It's the same disc that the one you have at your home to watch on a 10 inch black&white TV (I can be extreme too ).

You can bring your cd wherever you want and it's the same with a dvd and a BR, the new law won't change it.

[RossRoy]

You can bring your cd wherever you want and it's the same with a dvd and a BR, the new law won't change it.

The law won't change it. But it opens the door to tell the company to do it - since it will be illegal to get around it.

[Jimmy]

How? If I bought an original CD it doesn't make a difference to him that I listen it on my home system or in my car or at a friend house. It's the original not a copy and it would be the same with an original dvd or an original BR. Looks like you are frighten by "le bonhomme sept heures" to me

[Najemikon]

Jimmy, as I said before, it's long been a law [albeit ignored] that retail bought discs, music or movies, are for home use only and there is a grey area about what counts as a "public broadcast".

It's possible with the advent of technology, especially Blu-Ray, to start locking discs to the first players used. I doubt they will, it would be stupid, but I bet they've thought of it because their history is to be as tight as possible.

It may have changed again, but in the UK you would need a licence to play a radio in a pub or club, which might be fair enough, but I heard of building sites having to band radios because the local councils considered that because the radio could be heard by anyone passing, it counted as a public broadcast! Think about how far that could be taken...

[RossRoy]

How? If I bought an original CD it doesn't make a difference to him that I listen it on my home system or in my car or at a friend house. It's the original not a copy and it would be the same with an original dvd or an original BR. Looks like you are frighten by "le bonhomme sept heures" to me

For current formats yes. But who's to say it will not change with future formats?

[Jimmy]

in the UK you would need a licence to play a radio in a pub or club, which might be fair enough

It's the same here. We had to pay a global ammount of money every year for the copyright when I was working at my university radio. I can't remember if it was really big, but I know that we had to pay it to some governement agency.

For current formats yes. But who's to say it will not change with future formats?

And in the future the car will fly and we will be able to travel by teleportation
Sebastien you are affraid of thing who will never happen in our lifetime

[RossRoy]

Sebastien you are affraid of thing who will never happen in our lifetime

Don't be so sure. The music and movie industries would love nothing more than to charge you each time you watch a movie/listen to a song. This law allows it.

Unless you believe the world ends in 2012 - then all is moot! 

[Jimmy]

No I don't trust the movie anymore since the moon didn't disapear because of a nuclear explosion in 1999

What can I say I'm the type of guy who is always positive

[Touti]

Quite a few posts and statements here while I was drinking good wine and eating a top notch filet mignon in a restaurant on Laurier street  

Jon.  Thanks for clearing up the DRM thing, for a second there I thought you wanted to email your resume to the "Let's screw people up" department at Microsoft

But all jokes put aside and to answer one of your comments.  I don't know what the laws currently are in the UK but here in Canada it was never illegal to bring a dvd to a friend's house for a group of friends to watch it together.  AFAIK it was never considered public viewing.  It would be illegal to show it on big screens in a bar, a restaurant or even a private club but I don't think it's illegal here to bring a CD or DVD to a friend's house.  For Christ sake I found out this morning that it's not illegal here to sell copies, I would certainly hope in that case that I can bring a movie at a friend's.

Jimmy.  Do you remember Sony and Celine Dion's CD about 2 or maybe 3 years ago ?  They tried to put some kind of protection on the music CD that installed some DRM control program on a PC if you put the disc in your computer's CD rom.  Sony never said anything about this up front, there was nothing about it printed on the CD cover and if you remember they got caught because they fucked up big time and there was a virus or something wrong with this program that messed up people computers.  If they had not fucked up it could have taken months or even years for people to find out that Sony illegally installed software on their computers.

It would be very easy even with current technology to make blu-ray discs with 1 rewritable sector and change the blu-ray specs and player to rewrite that sector on the disc with a unique player ID that would marry the disc with the player.

Knowing that the technology is available and in keeping in mind the Sony/Celine Dion CD mess, I think it's not far fetch to think that Studios would go to such resort if the law allows it.

This is is very simple in my opinion.  Studio's will let you do everything you want with what you bought as long as they know it's easy and not risky for you to get your stuff illegally if they give you a hard time.  But maybe one day they'll manage to put an end to piracy and when that happens I can guarantee you that they'll do everything they can, legal or not, to screw us as much as they can and make us pay as much as possible.

Sony proved it 2 years ago with Celine's CD......................................and yes, I'll grant you that whoever bought that crap only got what they deserved