Montreal Tech Watch

There is a meeting open to all tomorrow regarding bill C-61. The bill is viewed by many as an abuse, which was solely submitted because of lobbying from the US music and cinema industry, as well as media groups in Canada; while the MPs who submitted it said that it’s a necessary upgrade to Canadian law.

The meeting takes place at Station C, 5369 bvd St-Laurent, suite 430, from 6.00pm; and aims at organizing citizen actions locally, campaigns and brainstorming next steps. The movement was started by Evan Prodromou (also well known for its various wiki projects and support of new and open practices such as Creative Commons), and we already had a first meetup last thursday, with 20+ people coming to discuss the Bill’s details.

I encourage anyone to come there and participate as Bill C-61 will have many consequences in the future, in the way you will enjoy music or any digital media. Personally, my opinion is that artists and authors should have the ultimate word and should be able, on an individual basis, to formulate what rights&obligations users have when they consume their work. If the artist state that nobody should be able to copy or reproduce his/her work, or if there’s no limitations when purchasing their work, then it’s ok with me — but in any case, I don’t think it’s the government’s role to decide on an universal basis what users can or cannot do with digital media. This might suprise you, but hey, it’s a personal opinion.