This is yet another post in my Bill C-61 series. And a fair warning, this is an extremely long post. You have been forewarned.

Previous entries:

• New copyright ideas
• The conservative view on Bill C-61
• Fair use provisions (Personally, its not my best writing. I may go back, and edit it a bit one day. If I do so, I’ll archive the previous version of the page somewhere else.)

Bill C-61 does, admittedly, provide for a lot of protections and freedoms. Except where those freedoms conflict with a technological lock. So pretty much, even a half-assed protection scheme like CSS for DVDs, would prevent us from exercising our rights.

(See Bill C-61 Sidebar for a small discussion on a paradox I found in the Bill)

The problem however, is that the bill gives precedence for technological measures over basic usage rights, like backups, and rights protection. (See section 41.21(1) for its treatment above all of “Rights Management Information)

And this is quite frankly stupid. Technological locks can and will be broken, given enough of an incentive. Even the purportedly unbreakable encryption schemes of HD-DVD and Blu-ray were broken relatively quickly. I’ve even participated in such efforts, like working on code that circumvents the hash checks of the code blocks sent to my creative ZEN. Admittedly, I played a small role. But I was still able to do so, using no more than a computer, with a compiler, usb ports, and code.

Do we now outlaw compilers? USB ports? Code? The bad comes with the good. I can use the tools provided on a basic Linux distribution to write a computer virus, using no more than the ability of my mind. Does this mean the tool should be locked up? Or rather, should the actions of a few be punished and socially condemned?

What if they have a “supervisor” that prevents anyone from using a compiler to do so. Even a very well-programmed guardian can and will be fooled, as can be attested by anyone that has tried to block porn sites from teenagers. Any machine block can and will be defeated.

Anything that restricts us, that was made by a human being, can and will be defeated. Any puzzle, any scheme thought up by one man, can and will be broken by another. That is what intelligence and free-will means. We can imagine ourselves as the creator, and find the flaw, for there is always a flaw. Always.

All it takes is time, and effort. And if you prevent enough people from doing things easily, they have a reason to do so. Any technological restriction and will be defeated. There is no way to stop it. Ask any third year computer science student. Ask any mathematician that deals with encryption.

To make it a bit clearer, let us borrow an analogy from the real world. Imagine I place a lock on my house. Someone breaks that lock, and enters my house, stealing something. In this case, stealing is when I am deprived and they are simultaneously enriched. Now, do we punish them for breaking the lock by itself? No. We punish them for Breaking and Entering, as well as theft. The breaking itself is not illegal, but when done for the purposes of trespassing, then it is illegal. Even were the door open to all and sundry, that still does not allow for someone to trespass. So, the same punishment still applies, even if they did no breaking. The illegal act here is the entering, not the breaking.

Another example, then. Imagine a company produces beds. They also provide head rests. They design their beds such that they only connect to their head rests, and place a protection(hard plastic perhaps) on changing this. Now, say, I want to make my own head rest, or buy a different companies head rest. Breaking that plastic does not constitute an illegal act, especially not when it is commercially detrimental to the bed company. All that protection did was to try force me to buy their head rests.

Forcing one to buy other products, or forcing a person to pay over and over again for the same thing, from the same company is extremely illegal, when it comes to physical products. Imagine if I bought a car, and then they came out with an updated version. Then they stop all support of my car, and pester me to upgrade for better “features”. My car works perfectly well, great quality, yet, I am essentially forced to buy their “better” version, once again. This is whats happened in music, and the music companies love this. People bought records, then 8 track tapes, then casettes, then CDs, then ringtones and downloads… and it was all the same music.

Technological locks make us do this. If we can’t transfer our casettes over to CDs, then we have to buy the CDs! And if our computer dies, and we weren’t allowed to make backups… too bad so sad, buy it again!

I can almost picture these companies cackling as they slip their greasy fingers into my wallet, and try to extortion more money from me. Technological measures do not, I repeat, do not stop piracy. Their only purpose is to make us buy more.

So the question that must be asked is: why oh, oh why, is it that in Canada, the corporation’s bottom line matters more than the consumers wallet? Collectively, our wallets hold more money(and more taxable income) than the corporations individually do. But they’re more valuable to protect than we are Wow. Just wow. The government wants to allow corporations to make us poor. When you talk to your MP, mention these points, that the voting public, is infinitely more valuable, and more important than a psychopathic corporation. The public interests should come way ahead of any corporations interests. Make this very clear, and that any politician seen acceding to corporate interests over voter’s interests will not be voted for. Make it clear you will campaign against any such politician, that you will write, you will speak. You will donate your time, effort, convince your family, co-workers, friends and lovers to not vote for them.

You have power. You have influence. Use it.