[discuss] MPs in ridings -- can us FLOSS folks get in touch with them?

[Russell McOrmond]

Last Thursday the House of Commons adjourned, meaning MPs are in
their respective ridings until the end of January. As I wrote in
http://c11.ca/5387 , this is an important time for us to get in touch
with them.

For the Canadian FLOSS community, the focus needs to be on
"technological protection measures". I've come to believe that
anything we say about the Copyright parts of the bill will serve as a
distraction from the Paracopyright parts which represent the greatest
threat to software choice and thus FLOSS. I also believe politicians
are knowingly making policy choices on Copyright, but that they don't
understand technology enough to understand the impacts of Paracopyright.


I've sent messages to try to meet my own MP on this issue again, and
hope that other people will as well. The more technical people talk to
MPs about the Paracopyright aspects of C-11, the more chance we have of
avoiding the harm the passage of the current bill will have to our sector.


I'm here to help if anyone wants to discuss the policy itself, and
why I've taken the focus that I have.

[Hub Figuière]

Post by Russell McOrmond
I've sent messages to try to meet my own MP on this issue again, and
hope that other people will as well. The more technical people talk to
MPs about the Paracopyright aspects of C-11, the more chance we have of
avoiding the harm the passage of the current bill will have to our sector.

Only if your MP is a deceptiCon, because they all vote the ideologicial
party line. And even then it is a lost cause as the all vote like sheeps.
Since when the "Harper majority" accepted an amendment in any of the
bills from the position? Never.

Mark my words: C-11 will go through unamended with unanimous support
from the DeceptiCons.

Hub

[Russell McOrmond]

Post by Hub Figuière
Only if your MP is a deceptiCon, because they all vote the ideologicial
party line. And even then it is a lost cause as the all vote like sheeps.
Since when the "Harper majority" accepted an amendment in any of the
bills from the position? Never.

I don't think you will be surprised that I'll disagree with this
defeatist attitude :-)


When it comes to the Copyright portion of C-11, I believe the
Conservatives made policy choices based on an understanding of the
impacts. Whether I agree or disagree with those choices doesn't
matter, and I agree that they are unlikely to change those provisions.


When it comes to the Paracopyright provisions in C-11, few of the
politicians are aware of the impacts and thus it is unlikely they made
deliberate policy choices. Our job as a technical community is to
focus on educating politicians about these impacts, so that they can
have a policy discussion based on science rather than science fiction.



I've observed the CPC rhetoric since they formed, and I strongly
believe if they had the same understanding of the technology that I do
that they would be as strongly opposed to the Paracopyright policies
currently in C-11 as I am. They were so upset about the mere
registration of long-guns, and yet we see a policy which legalises the
non-owner locking up of our technology?


They truly have the "protecting property rights" aspects backwards,
where C-11 Paracopyright will not only harm the interests of most
copyright owners, but also directly attacks other classes of owners.
They've also expressed support for devolving power to provinces, with
C-11 Paracopyright quite likely coming up to constitutional challenges
if passed without amendments (See:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6214/125/
http://l.c11.ca/faq#constitution )


Whether a government MP or opposition, the point is to draw
attention to the Harper cabinet to this issue. They may not take
amendments from the opposition, but I can't believe they won't be
willing to amend a misunderstood section of bill to be consistent with
their own values.

So far the debate in the house has missed the core Paracopyright
issues in C-11 . I discussed this in http://c11.ca/5386 , as a reply
to an NDP MP and leadership candidate discussing C-11. Like a vast
majority of MPs discussing this issue, he is distracted by the minor
impacts of C-11 "use controls" on fair dealings, not recognising the
major harm of C-11 "access controls" on many areas of law including
copyright.

BTW: At the very least, try to get people to sign the IT property
rights petition. I want there to be opportunities in February for MPs
to stand up and discuss this issue. http://l.c11.ca/ict/
--
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>

Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
http://l.c11.ca/ict/

"The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
portable media player from my cold dead hands!" http://c11.ca/own

[Hub Figuière]

Post by Russell McOrmond

Post by Hub Figuière
Only if your MP is a deceptiCon, because they all vote the ideologicial
party line. And even then it is a lost cause as the all vote like sheeps.
Since when the "Harper majority" accepted an amendment in any of the
bills from the position? Never.

I don't think you will be surprised that I'll disagree with this
defeatist attitude :-)

Not defeatist. Realistic. That mean a different angle needs to be found.
The conservative caucus that hold a majority in the house of common is
deaf to anything that does not come from the "leader's" office and
talking points.
So why wasting our energy on that approach?

Post by Russell McOrmond
When it comes to the Copyright portion of C-11, I believe the
Conservatives made policy choices based on an understanding of the
impacts. Whether I agree or disagree with those choices doesn't
matter, and I agree that they are unlikely to change those provisions.
When it comes to the Paracopyright provisions in C-11, few of the
politicians are aware of the impacts and thus it is unlikely they made
deliberate policy choices. Our job as a technical community is to
focus on educating politicians about these impacts, so that they can
have a policy discussion based on science rather than science fiction.

See my previous comment.

Post by Russell McOrmond
I've observed the CPC rhetoric since they formed, and I strongly
believe if they had the same understanding of the technology that I do
that they would be as strongly opposed to the Paracopyright policies
currently in C-11 as I am. They were so upset about the mere
registration of long-guns, and yet we see a policy which legalises the
non-owner locking up of our technology?

Welcome to the faux-majority.
Similarly they are for police power to spy on Canadians, which by itself
is in total opposition with their argument to scrap the LGR.

You have better chances convincing the Harper appointed Senate majority.
They seem to have a more sober approach and you can actually raise the
point that the copyright bill is actually infringing on the constitution
by trampling on the provinces prerogatives.

The other valid approach is via the Supreme Court of Canada that could
be, once the bill received royal assent, used to challenge the
constitutionality of the bill.

BTW, IANAL.


Hub

[Russell McOrmond]

Post by Hub Figuière
Not defeatist. Realistic. That mean a different angle needs to be found.
The conservative caucus that hold a majority in the house of common is
deaf to anything that does not come from the "leader's" office and
talking points.
So why wasting our energy on that approach?

A few reasons.

I don't believe that there needs to be one approach, or that this is
wasting energy.

Whether it will be before or after C-11 passes, changes will be
needed. We will need to have informed politicians that will make those
changes, some of which may already have seats in parliament.

Some of those who will fix these problems may be in the Senate, and
some of them may even be provincial MPP's. We don't know who those
people are that will best help us, so we need to meet with as many
people as we can.

Who is opposition today can become government later.


This is also not a left vs right or partisan issue. Those who think
this is a "Harper" thing need to remember that the policies we are
fighting come from the Clinton/Gore government in the USA, and are
strongly and aggressively supported by Obama. The Liberals were largely
able to table a better bill because the Bush administration wasn't
breathing down their throats, and thus they stuck to WIPO language
(limited use controls) rather than the WIPO+DMCA language (Access
controls that have no tie to copyright, etc, etc). While the Copyright
part of C-60 through C-11 can be said to be "Made in Canada", the
Paracopyright comes directly from the US presidency/administration.


The Harper government has accepted amendments to bills, even if not
in a rational/reasonable manner.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-politics-blog/2011/12/committeewatch-flashback-irwin-cotlers-c-10-amendments-redux.html
These are amendments to C-10 which the Liberals tabled but the
Conservatives in committee rejected. They were then tabled by the
Conservatives at report stage, but rejected by the speaker on the
grounds that they should have been brought forward at committee. They
are now likely to be tabled in the Senate, etc... A warped way to do
things, but possible if it becomes obvious to the Conservatives that
they are making mistakes.



Getting the attention of Senators is something we want to be able to
do, but that is best done by going through our own MPs. This is where an
opposition MP may be better, given they may be more willing to put in a
good word and help set up meetings with Senators.



Challenging the law after it is passed within the legal system will
not be trivial, and will require that someone actually be sued. I speak
about the constitutional issues in
http://mcormond.blogspot.com/2011/11/protecting-it-property-rights-not-short.html

It won't be me that will be sued. It is highly unlikely anyone would
sue me for being very public with my ongoing circumvention of TPMs as
they will know that I'll be willing to put my money/time/etc on the line
to fight for what I so strongly believe in. It will be a less
sympathetic defendant, likely a case where neither the plaintiff or the
defendant have any respect for the property rights of others: but where
those representing the DRM sector will somehow look less like the
thieves they are.



Part of the problem with the constitutional argument is that *WE*
haven't so far been able to engage our provincial politicians. My MPP
in Ottawa South is Dalton McGuinty, currently the Premier of Ontario.
He has thus far ignored and/or punted my questions to another Minister
who hasn't addressed any of the issues. I've tried to use the multiple
meeting I've had with his brother David who is the federal MP to try to
get the provinces involved -- but that itself requires that there be
more federal MPs aware of the issues and thus some support for his
pursuing (And thus back to the need to meet with federal MPs alongside
our provincial representatives).


And so-on. I don't see meeting MPs as the only thing we need to be
doing, but a foot in the door to the larger conversation we need to be
having. I'd love to meet with more MPs myself (I'd love to collect
the whole set http://flora.ca/mp :-), but that won't happen without
constituents meeting with them first to recommend they meet with me if
they want to get into the weeds/etc.

Post by Hub Figuière
You have better chances convincing the Harper appointed Senate majority.
They seem to have a more sober approach and you can actually raise the
point that the copyright bill is actually infringing on the constitution
by trampling on the provinces prerogatives.
The other valid approach is via the Supreme Court of Canada that could
be, once the bill received royal assent, used to challenge the
constitutionality of the bill.
BTW, IANAL.

I also am not a lawyer, and I agree that we should *also* be doing
the above.

I just see this as a larger interconnected network of things we
should be doing. The timing right now is federal MPs in ridings. The
other stages of the process will happen at other times, and while we
need to be ready for them they aren't what is happening this month and next.

Later next year I'll be suggesting we focus on a different part of
the challenge.

Then again, if you happen to know an MPP or Senator, and can work on
that stage of the process, then dive right into that right away :-)