Re: Induce this (Aug. 27)
Thank you for your well-written article. I hope you will be following the antics as our Canadian parliament returns in the fall. I will be following things via
http://digital-copyright.ca.Will Canada import the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and other bad policy as the USA has asked? Canadian policy makers have said they plan to introduce legislation in the fall to implement the WIPO copyright treaties that the USA practically authored alone. It is the WIPO treaties which the USA claims they implemented with the DMCA. We need to strongly articulate to our policy makers that Canadians do not want to import this thinking. The most recent report from the Heritage Committee of Parliament talks about quickly ratifying the WIPO treaty, and adding a levy to educational use of the Internet. This isn’t a levy to compensate creators for royalty-bearing works that are copied without permission, but taxing educational institutions for the use of works which the copyright holders intended to be royalty-free. First it will be educational institutions, and then likely all Internet users will be expected to pay a levy to legacy publishers when they access royalty-free works distributed by modern Open Access publishers. This type of thinking will not surprise you, given you already know about the levy on blank CDs. In my case most blank CDs are used to legally distribute copies of royalty-free Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). For each CD of software I burn I am forced to pay a levy to my political opponents in the recording industry. There are many people in our community that will be writing submissions to policy makers. I hope that your readers will be interested as well. I believe it is important to remember that we are all rights holders and have an important stake in copyright reform in Canada.Russell McOrmondOttawa
Re: Induce this (Aug. 27)
“”It is wrong — counterproductive, dangerous and asinine — to punish technology for crimes committed by people.””Bravo! Help stop Canada from ratifying those WIPO treaties (that led to the DMCA in the U.S.). As a writer you know that we all are creators, not just the people with lawyers.Ian D. AllenOttawa
Re: Induce this (Aug. 27)
Another example of biased, one-sided journalism.Sure, pick on the pencil. What about the lure of a blank sheet of paper? Paper has been known to collaborate with all sorts of other weapons of mass infringement such as pens, markers, crayons, printers and copiers. Surely paper is the culprit and deserves to be made illegal!Oh, how I wish.Gavin WelbournPresident & COOSigma Global SolutionsToronto
Re: EaZy does it (Aug. 25)
I bought my first computer after several years of working in the profession. It was barely used and I have no warm thoughts about it. I do, however, have fond memories of some of the machines on which I worked. They were the kind of machines that were they to tip over and someone was in the way, they would be dead and there would be a hole in the floor. I think the nostalgia has everything to do with recollection of a period in my life and little to do with love for a large piece of metal.James Broen
Re: EaZy does it (Aug. 25)
I felt the same sense of loss when my mother finally threw out my old Amiga that I had since 1985, when I was 8. While I did not use the system for as long as you used your Zenith, I did get through most of high school with it as my only PC. I used it as my primary game system long after Amiga had gone under (I think that it is back again) and to type my reports for school. I even dusted it off back in 2000 to play an old game I loved as a kid. Except for the monitor needing a long warm-up period after not being on for years, the system worked like a charm.Thank you for the great daily reads!Dave HildebrandSioux Lookout, Ont.
Re: EaZy does it (Aug. 25)
I’m one of those people with a museum of old computers. Mine is in the classroom of my Computer Science classes, Grade 10-12.PETs, TRS 80, 8088s, 286s, etc., etc. I’m getting an old Silicon Graphics computer on the weekend from a friend. (Just got some kind of Apple laptop this summer, but I can’t get it to print.) Why? Not sure, I think I just like showing the teenagers how they have changed over time . . . that way we can predict where we are going (ha, ha).Remember, It’s not the tool, it’s what you do with it! Anyway if you’re looking for a museum to unload your Zenith, room 502 at St. Patrick Secondary School in Toronto has space.Good luck.Michael BarToronto, Ont.
Editor’s note: Shane Schick’s EaZy PC has since taken up permanent residence in Michael Bar’s classroom/collection of computer antiquities.
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