Movie Piracy: Blame Canada vs the Truth

Once again it seems that Canadian attitudes toward Digital Rights Management, Intellectual Property, and Copyright are the targets of Big Media.

Warner Bros. Pictures issued a release today that states, among other things:

Frustrated with unauthorized camcording of its new releases in Canadian cinemas, the studio said it will immediately halt all "promotional and word-of-mouth screenings" of upcoming releases.

...

"Canada is the No. 1 priority in terms of anti-camcording legislation," said Darcy Antonellis, senior vp worldwide anti-piracy operations at Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Pure crap.

Michael Geist, a renowned Canadian Intellectual Property expert as the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa takes significant issue with the claims Warner uses to support this action.

As for the claims that Canada does not have laws to address the issue, it bears repeating that Canada does have laws that make recording a movie an infringement and where the recording is for the purposes of distribution there is the prospect of severe fines and jail time. Indeed, last month the RCMP told the Industry Committee that they are working on an investigation that involves camcording, though there are resource issues since health and safety concerns take priority.

There's more to this, but you'd best read both posts for the full details.
Me, I'm still sticking to my original thinking that Big Media just doesn't know how to handle online media and new media because they've got too much invested in the 'old way of doing business'.

They're trying to put the Genie back into the bottle, unfortunately he's just too big to fit.

And as a Canadian citizen and taxpayer, I think the government has more important issues on the national agenda -- hello, Afghanistan anyone -- than creating laws that make sure Big Media's not threatened ?

Technorati Tags: Canada, Piracy, Movies, Entertainment, Ban, Intellectual Property, DRM