Archived - Trivett, William

There has not been enough publicity to have the population decide what they want. Only a select set of Internet geeks and copyright activists are aware of the situation. There needs to be more done to involve the people of Canada in the decision process, as it seems the politicians they have elected have their opinions persuaded by lobbyists and seem to forget about what the people who elected them would have wanted. Of course since the issue is not well known by the population, most of the constituents go about living in bliss. Though these laws pose a real threat to all Canadians and our way of life. The fact of the matter is, whether we support it or not, we have all have at some point in our lives infringed the copyrights of another. Be it by mistake, allowing someone else to use our computers for a moment, knowingly downloading music to which the rights are held by a draconian corporation or just by poor citation when writing a paper. These laws take control to a new level. By allowing what Canadians are calling the 'DMCA of Canada' we basically accept the fact that there will be harsh punishments for minor infringements. The original heavy fines for distributing copies of video and music for profit. Sure, if you made a few thousand dollars then it would have been a crime. In recent times this is not the case. I for one have never received a dime for my seeding of various torrents. I never wanted profit, most of the time I didn't even want the music or movie that I acquired. It was just so easy to do that it sucked me in. I don't go to the theatres any less, I don't buy any fewer CDs. I just have a collection of media that I happily enjoy at home. Most, if not all, of the music I download comes from artists that support the downloading of their music. Sometimes their labels even support it, sometimes not. My entire collection, if purchased legally, would probably run me around $10k. While a fine for a few of the top40 songs I may or may not posses would happily run me far more than this. Now, I don't claim to be saying that anyone stealing should get off the hook, I just think that fair penalties and fair law are required and needed for the situation. Governments are the extension of the populations majority vote. They are nothing more than this. Though many politicians and congressmen felt that in the case of Jammie Thomas that $1.92 million dollars in fines was a reasonable amount, most Canadian citizens would find it hard to believe a single mother of four should have her wages garnished until the end of time. I for one think that the fines should be equal to the cost of the loss of profit by the rights holders for only downloading. It is not fair for one to pay for the infringement of other downloaders. In that case, the 24 songs Thomas downloaded would have cost her less than $9 dollars which goes directly to the labels for the 24 songs which were found in her kazaa username in 2005.

William Trivett