Lucas

1. How do Canada's copyright laws affect you? How should existing laws be modernized?

This is an important question because Canada has been using the solution for years now; tax on blank media. This affects me because all of a sudden, what I've been doing for years is now considered illegal. But this is only because the landscape is skewed with biased opinions, half truths and ignorant people. The obvious solution should be to sit down, layout the current law, the new forms of copying works and try to fit them together.

2. Based on Canadian values and interests, how should copyright changes be made in order to withstand the test of time

Personally, I don't see much of a difference between copying media from somebody on the Internet and from a friend or the radio. Before the Internet was wide spread, I could copy music from the radio. I could copy one music casette to another (stereos had a separate tape deck for this purpose). I could record a movie from the TV, or I could hook up two VCR's together and record my friends movie.

Now, I'm copying media from an acquaintance that possibly lives on the other side of the world, instead of a friend or local media. I'm recording the media to a hard drive instead of a casette tape, but it's the same thing. The only difference here is that I am now copying across the globe instead of across the country. Now I'm copying from another country, who may have different copyright laws. This is the sticky part that has to be worked into Canada's Copyright laws. I think another reason that people get so confused is because of the digital nature of the content.

The question of how should copyright changes be made in order to withstand the test of time has an easy solution: get this copyright law updated correctly right now. I can't forsee how the medium in which the content is stored and traded (which really is the basis of the problem here) will evolve. We started with analog and now we're using digital.

3. What sorts of copyright changes do you believe would best foster innovation and creativity in Canada?

I don't know if it's a question of Copyright changes, as it is a question of changing the mindset of artists and distrobution companies. Many of them are clinging to an increasingly antiquated way of creating works and doing business. They need to embrace the new technologies and to give people what they want and how they want it. An example of this is iTunes. You can go there, pay for one song, instead of an entire album and download it. Stores like HMV are selling less and less music on physical media in the store. They compensated by offering a wider range of media (movies, music, toys, pop art) and selling by creating an online store to sell their wares.

4. What sorts of copyright changes do you believe would best foster competition and investment in Canada?

Artists need to realize that there is a new way to promote themselves. Many independant bands promote themselves on social networking sites like MySpace. The people who listen to their music are likely using those sites. There are many ways to get ones name known in the community and this is just one example. Another is by offereing a free download. Whether it's a picture of a painting, a few songs from an album, or a chapter from a book. Give the people a sampling of what you have to offer, so that they don't have to spend money on something that they later find out they don't like.

5. What kinds of changes would best position Canada as a leader in the global, digital economy?

More openess. In a time when more and more countries are locking down the Internet, we should be opening up. Let Canadian citizens excersize their right to choose what they view.
More educated and skilled people. We have a lot of immigrants with educations that are wasted because they are not recognized. Give these people courses to update their skills, which makes their educations useful to our economy. We should also address the issue of rising college and university costs.
More inovation. When you think of companies that are recognized around the world, how many are Canadian? We should change that.
We also should not be following the USA's lead when it comes to law. They can be bullies.

I appreciate having a forum in which to voice my opinion.

Lucas