It would seem Glenn Henshaw, on Fri, Jun 04, 2010 at 03:09:48PM -0400, wrote: > > On 2010-06-04, at 2:55 PM, Shawn H Corey wrote: > > > On 10-06-04 02:22 PM, George Standish wrote: > >> Late last night I posted a question to the Ubuntu-ca mailing list, > >> asking if anyone could confirm or deny my suspicion that the new > >> copyright law would be bad for linux and open source. > >> > >> CBC headlines like "Copyright bill would ban breaking digital locks", > >> this sounds bad for DVD playback on linux in particular. > >> > >> http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/06/02/copyright-bill-clement-montreal.html > >> > >> On a whim, I also sent an email to Michael Geist, detailing the > >> Ubuntu-Medibuntu situation in particular. Well, it turns out he was > >> both kind enough to reply, and was well aware of the Linux/DVD issue! > >> > >> Michael quick reply suggested that not much had changed regarding Open > >> Source since Bill C-61. > >> > >> A comparison of the two available at > >> http://www.scribd.com/doc/32485771/C-61-C-32-Comparison-No-Annotation-English > >> > >> Michael's blog post dated July 30, 2008, "61 Reforms to C-61, Day 28: > >> TPMs - Interoperability Exception, Linux and DVDs" detail the situation > >> nicely. > >> > >> http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3244/369/ > > > > There is no ban on the current encoding for DVDs or CDs. This is > > because the government is charging a media levy on all blank CDs and > > DVDs. Because you have already paid to access them, you can view and > > copy them (to a blank disk, of course). Otherwise the government has > > committed fraud. > > This is true for CDs, but not DVDs. (It is also true for VHS and cassette tapes, but not BetaMax or iPods. The list of media is explicitly listed in the copyright levy legislation). Even if it were true for DVDs, I think the TPM matter is tangential. Pre-paying the royalties might make copy music non infringing, but I don't think one would gain the right to legally defeat the TPM. -Ross