[Infowarrior] - Copyright law threatening privacy

[Richard Forno]

Copyright law threatening privacy

By Kris Kotarski, Calgary HeraldSeptember 7, 2009

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Copyright%20threatening/1969025/story.html

On Dec. 13, 1981, Poland's communist government declared martial law  
to put down the Solidarity movement. Telephone lines went silent  
across the country, and once service was restored, each time anyone  
picked up the telephone they were greeted with a voice: "Rozmowa  
Kontrolowana."

"This conversation is being monitored."

Since telephone service was still a rare privilege in a country where  
the political establishment feared citizen-to-citizen communication,  
some could shrug their shoulders because it did not directly apply to  
them. When, days later, the government set up regional censorship  
offices to read everyone's mail, shrugging one's shoulders ceased to  
be an option.

Not quite 30 years have passed, and tales like these remain common,  
from the Egyptian government's efforts to register and track users at  
Internet cafes, to Iranian government agents showing up on Twitter  
this spring to intimidate protesters.

That dictatorships treat their citizens this way is no surprise. What  
is surprising is that democracies are beginning to do the same.

It is increasingly apparent that modern copyright law is utterly and  
completely incompatible with the right to privacy. This is at the core  
of the Pirate movement in Europe which broke through to elect its  
first members of the European Parliament this summer, and the Pirate  
Party of Canada, which is collecting signatures on its website to  
register as an official political party as we speak.

While the name may sound a little humorous, the cause is very serious  
indeed. Whether you spend a lot of time online or not, the Pirate  
movement aims to keep the bounds of your and your children's  
relationship with their government in a reasonable place, and to make  
certain that the balance between citizen rights and the bottom line  
does not tilt in the wrong direction.

What has changed? Before home computers, compact discs and Internet  
file sharing, it was conceivable for copyright laws to be enforced in  
a manner that did not bring the state to any-one's doorstep. If there  
was an illegal copy of a book in a bookshop, one could report it to  
the authorities. If someone brought a video camera into a theatre or a  
concert, they could be readily seen.

Given today's technological realities, this is no longer the case. If  
we look at legislation that either exists or is tabled across the  
Western world, sending a song to a friend by e-mail is a crime.  
Posting even a short clip of a copyrighted video on a message board  
for one's friends risks a fine whether the message board is public or  
not, and taping a television show and passing the tape to your mom or  
dad may be illegal as well.

No one likes stealing, but the problem lies in the fact that current  
copyright laws are completely unenforceable unless the government or  
industry groups start to read every e-mail and analyze every form of  
online communication done by citizens.

Think "Rozmowa Kontrolowana," every time you sit down to write an e- 
mail. Think Egypt, Burma or China, with your government openly reading  
your mail looking for a reason to charge you with a crime.

Lobbying groups representing those who rely on the existing copyright  
regime for their business models have been fighting tooth-and-nail for  
such regulations. Canada's Bill C-61, which died a deserved death  
because of the last federal election, is our homegrown example, and  
there are many more across the Western world.

Such efforts aim to turn what citizens do in the privacy of their  
homes into criminal offences, and to compel enforcement, they aim to  
make Internet service providers (ISPs) liable for what users do with  
their Internet connections (just imagine your local grocer being held  
legally liable for selling a tomato that was thrown at a politician).

This would help certain industry groups protect their bottom line. It  
would also destroy the sphere of private interaction and the right to  
private communication, something that is absolutely crucial to a well- 
functioning democracy.

Rick Falkvinge, the entrepreneur who founded Sweden's Pirate Party,  
said it best when speaking in front of Google employees in 2007.

"If copyright is to be enforced in this new environment, that means  
law enforcement and corporate interest groups must monitor every one  
and zero that leaves my computer and that includes looking at the  
letters to my lawyer, and doctor and wife.

"I'm frankly not prepared to give them that right."

Are you?

kkotarski at gmail.comtwitter.com/kotarski

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