Description: So how do we protect and promote Canadian culture in the digital age? Right now, the answer to that question is intertwined with the fate of Canada’s copyright policies.
Source: The Globe and Mail
Date: Nov 17, 2010
For years, Canada has attempted to protect its cultural content – books, music, television, film – from being overshadowed by those of larger nations, notably the United States. Canadian private television broadcasters such as CTV and Global are required to spend 30 per cent of their gross revenues on Canadian programming. Thirty-five per cent of the songs on Canadian commercial radio stations must be by Canadian artists. Click here for rest of story
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think Canadian content rules are still relevant in the digital age?
- Should Canada’s copyright policies be more about economic protection or Canadian social content protection?
- Are their downsides to Canadians of making this copyright policy to strict and onerous?
Sydney H.
*There are downsides to Canadians making copyright policies to strict. If policies are too strict individuals and companies will not be able to know and understand every detailed restriction. People will start to enforce their own rules and expect that since they are acting ethically no harm can come, but soon this self-enforcement will weaken. One person or company will see another successfully operating at a less ethical level and think it okay to follow suit. People don’t want the responsibility of enforcing ethics upon themselves and others because they already have jobs, tasks, and goals in mind. People want to have an ethics expert responsible for the broad enforcement on everyone, but more importantly they want an enforcer who is fair and conforms to the social comfort zones of that culture. Too many restrictions enforced on people is like too much pressure stressing along Earth tectonic plates. Eventually people will snap and the change is not easy to endure.
Greg
It is important to preserve Canadian culture. We don’t want to loose touch with who we are and end up being “stirred” into the “Malting Pot” which is American culture. Canadian culture(media) is not something to be ashamed of, sure it isn’t as “glamorous” or “photo-shopped” and “edited” as our counterparts down south, but it is a representation of us. If anything is needed it is an increase in funding and production of canadian media and culture to show case to the world who and what we are. Canada has many artists (actors, singers, musicians, writers, etc) to be proud of and that unfortunately end up south of the border. With all the human resources and talent Canada has, we have the ability to create an strong economy of arts and culture which would have the potential to be show cased on networks around the world. We need legislation to encourage the development of culture and arts industry within Canada.
Nathan Benoit
I agree with Mr. Rogers, I think that it is for our benefit that the technology can be illegally downloaded and there is little that the movie, music, and other companies can do about it. They should just accept that there will always be a way for millions of Americans to download films and music illegally. They should be resourceful and figure a way to make a profit from this some how, as the up and coming indie music stars on you tube have done. Musicians like Justin Bieber have really benefited from the internet and while others like the producers of major films have really felt a negative impact from illegal downloading. The movie producers are just greety and have felt the power shift from the producers back to the people. The bottom line is that people will always do whats in they’re best interest.
Kelsey Kasner
I think that making stricter copyright laws would be beneficial however I think that enforcing them will be the hard part. With technology constantly improving it is going to be very hard to control the use of the internet to download music and movies. There is always going to be a way for people to locate and retrieve the music and movies that these copyrights are meant to enforce. How would we control this problem? Would they start to fine people? But where does it become too much? Is it the consumers who download one movie a hour? A day? A week? Although the people enforcing the copyright laws might be able to stop the big sources of downloading, there will always be new ones replacing those. I think that musicians should try and find a way to benefit from the internet, and use it to their advantage in order to make money. Even though stricter copyright laws with stop some people from downloading, others will continue and the needs for enforcing the copyright laws will continue to grow.
Sarah Lust
Canada’s Copyright Act grants a series of rights to the author of a work upon its completion. There are actually very few formal requirments for establishing copyright in Canada. In Canada, computer software falls under the category of literary work. The most important right granted to the copyright holder is the right to reporduce a work and, by extension, the right to prevent others from reproducing it. Copyright issues have been thrust onto the world stage recently, primarily due to the ease with which digital information can be copied and distributed. I personally do not beleive that Canada could be successful in putting copyrights on downloading movies, music, files, etc. People are continuously becoming more and more intellectual when it comes to computer software and technology. If these new copyrights were to be legalized the problem would be to enforce them. I think these new copyrights should have been implemented a long time ago because now it may be to late. There are millions upon millions of illegal downloads being done every day and people will be able to find new loopholes around new copyrights.
Judy E
The need for stricter copyright laws is an ongoing concern. However, more of an issue is the need to enforce them in a very precise manner. With millions of people illegally downloading movies and music it will be very hard to stop them without the enforcement of the stricter copyright laws. A lot of people are not concerned about it either. You hear about people getting warnings from Shaw, TELUS, or Rogers and yet it does not stop them from downloading illegally. With technology continuously improving and becoming easier to use, it makes it even easier to download and retrieve movies and music without paying. The question now is how do we stop all this? Or should film companies try to find a way to make a profit from this.
kathy
Personally I think that copyright is an ongoing debate. Before it was video tapes being under attack. The US courtroom stated that “taping a TV program to watch at a later time was [wrong].”But today Shaw is offering to record your favorite television show so that you can see it later in the day. Is that not similar? This to me is such a contradiction. The only difference now is that people have to pay for it so it’s legal now. Further the government shut down lime wire people will always find different websites, as the internet is expanding at an increasing rate. Now a day’s you can view movies on live stream or download them. However having a lock on CD’s is not a smart move. When I buy a CD I automatically put it on my computer and then upload it onto my iPod. How is that fair to the consumer? They purchased the CD I think that they can upload it to their own computer. This moves consumers to the internet where they can download music and do whatever they want with it. I think that Canada’s copyright policies should be worried about both the economic and social content protection. I think that if companies lowered the price and made it convenient to the consumer. However there will always be people who will continue downloading music and movies.
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