To Canadians against CBC’s iCopyright DRM and Fair CBC Copyright: CBC needs more viewers not more Cynics

Facebook | Canadians against CBC’s iCopyright DRM.

Facebook | Fair CBC copyright

First, I’d like to thank Cory Doctorow for posting a blogpost about this on Boingboing, Michael Geist and Jesse Brown for noticing it on Twitter and subsequently retweeting it, Stephen Michalowicz of the Torontoist for writing a great article, and everyone on facebook and twitter for spreading the message.

It looks like enough people are angry about this that now 2 facebook groups has started. I’m glad that Canadians care about their public broadcaster and how it uses their tax dollars.I have a couple of thoughts to share with that group and everyone who has concerns about this.

Boycotting the CBC is not the answer. In fact, visiting its site more would allow for larger amounts of advertising revenue to come from their webholdings so that they do not have to use these kinds of revenue generation techniques. I am against the system, but not against the CBC.

Another way to help out the CBC so that it can receive more money is by talking to your MP about how much you want the CBC to have more funding. It was just last year that the CBC had to fire 600 employees. I don’t want anymore to be let go because of boycotts of its news, because it is good news and great material! The CBC can be something Canadians be proud of if it just starts receiving the proper funding.

I admit that the last 3 years of the Conservative government’s cutbacks have not helped, but the liberals did the same kind of budgeting in the 1990s. All governments of Canada rarely want to give more money to the CBC because it is a watchdog and critical of the government’s actions. We cannot let the CBC lose that role. It is the broadcaster that answers to Canadians, and it should answer to our concerns about using iCopyright.

My position on the CBC’s use of iCopyright is that I find it a waste of money for the CBC to use an unenforceable copyright enforcement agency and questionable licensing operation for  its content. Furthermore, I don’t like Canadians being told they have to follow Fair Use. Our media is saturated enough by American legalese. CBC, as the produce of Canadian content par excellence, should understand that we need to know more about our legal system, and especially our copyright system.

It’s a real shame that the CBC has taken this road of revenue generation, but the real problem is that it is underfunded and has to compete with private broadcasters on the television end, and media conglomerates that own newspaper websites. If it’s a faulty system that is a waste of our tax dollars, then let’s show them how faulty it is through exercising Fair Dealing to the maximum of its interpretation.

Hopefully, like the Toronto Star, the CBC, will realize that this isn’t a very lucrative business model, and abandon it (the Star hasn’t abandoned it, but they are a private company, not a public broadcaster).

If the DRM bounty hunters come knocking on your door, pull out the Copyright Act and defend your quotiations according to Canadian Law. This is about copyright sovereignty, not just inefficient public spending.

Keep posting, keep attributing the creation to the author, and keep watching the CBC.