A quiet board

[Joel Goguen]

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Russell McOrmond wrote:
|    I'm curious if all the Canadian users of Ubuntu are aware of the
| impact that Canadian copyright revision will have on them?  Are they
| aware of the ways to get involved?
Sadly, most of the people I talk to either a) don't know about it, b)
don't care about it, or c) both.  The only people in my area who care
about copyright issues or DRM work in IT, with perhaps 2 or 3 who don't.
~ Even content creators I know (mostly working in film) don't care
enough to even listen to what's at stake.  The IT folks I know who care
are almost exclusively Linux users, it seems the Windows-using IT people
are among those who don't care one way or another what happens WRT
copyright laws or DRM.

|    Whether it is the proposals for mandatory filtering on ISPs which may
| disable Canadians from downloading Ubuntu ISO images via BitTorrent, or
| anti-circumvention legislation that would disallow us from using Ubuntu
| and still access legally purchased multimedia content, there will be
| implications for this community.
Along with any mention of potential ISP action, I think you should make
strong note of actual current ISP actions.  Rogers throttles BitTorrent,
and according to a manager I spoke with they also throttle encrypted
connections.  I was told that I could expect a speed reduction of
approximately 40% on average for encrypted connections.  I'm clearly not
the only one who's noticed, Michael Geist has noted that University of
Ottawa users on Rogers can't seem to access the university mail
server[1], or open a VPN connection.  This has more than a few effects
aside from just not being able to access Ubuntu ISO images over
BitTorrent though:
~ * Maggie is a computer-savvy user who is part of a film production
team.  The team has agreed that they would like to distribute their film
free of charge, but none of them have the bandwidth to handle the
expected demand.  The solution, assuming BitTorrent remains mostly
unmolested: create a torrent.  This allows the team to share the
bandwidth initially, and as the movie spreads other people contribute as
well.  ISP filters pick up the movie and decide they're sharing
Hollywood content, and Maggie and her crew now face legal problems they
can't afford for legally distributing their own content.
~ * Sally is the CEO of a mid-sized ISP.  Previously, her company was
not liable for copyright infringement occurring on their network.  The
new filtering regulations have changed that, and Sally now finds herself
meeting with her board and lawyers to discuss their options after their
filtering technology failed to detect and prevent what the CRIA alleges
is copyright infringement.  Sally isn't worried about being found guilty
of copyright infringement, but she is worried about being found guilty
of permitting copyright infringement to occur.
~ * Joe has a wireless router in his house, but since he has a very old
laptop he is limited to using WEP.  He plans to replace the laptop once
he has money, but before he has the chance he gets served with notice of
a lawsuit for copyright infringement.  Not being someone who downloads
anything, let alone something illegal, he is quite surprised.
Unfortunately, since his network is "secure", he may not be able to
claim that it was someone else as his defense.  Assuming of course that
running an open network would remain a viable defense under the new laws
Joe is getting his first taste of...
~ * Katy is a Linux user who went and bought a new laptop that appears to
be highly compatible with Ubuntu Linux.  However, she realizes very
quickly that removing Windows 7.0 to install Ubuntu will require
circumventing the Trusted Computing Platform (Treacherous Computing
Platform?[2]).  Katy is aware of the new copyright law, but didn't speak
out against it, thinking it wouldn't affect her since she doesn't pirate
anything and only uses content she has legally purchased.  Now, she is
stuck with the choice of illegally circumventing the Trusted Computing
restrictions imposed on her, or using Windows 7.0 and subjugating
herself to whatever restrictions Microsoft and the major content makers
have decided is appropriate above and beyond the Trusted Computing
restrictions.

Of all those, only poor Katy's situation seems to be a little "out
there" to me.  The others are perfectly believable and seem entirely
realistic after seeing what Michael Geist has had to say about it.

So I suppose I pose another question: What can we do to educate people
who don't care enough to listen?  Hopefully I'm an isolated case, but it
seems to me that the number of people I know personally who care or who
even want to be made aware even the slightest bit are the vast minority.

[1] http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1859/
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuI6SLFnGbQ
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTLL1UjvfU&NR=1

- --
Joel Goguen
http://jgoguen.ca/
The goal of Computer Science is to build something that
will last at least until we've finished building it.

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