I am a constituent who cares about Canada’s cultural policy, and I am writing in regard to legislative proposals for “copyright reform.” During the last Parliament, Bill C-60 provided some very sensible approaches to this complicated topic, but it also left room for improvement.  As you consider the issue of copyright reform, I hope that you will work to ensure that any new legislation is not a regression from the sensible policies set out in Bill C-60.

In particular, I do not believe that “digital rights management” (DRM) technologies should stop the public from making lawful uses of their legitimately acquired media.  Publishers using DRM push aside the delicate balance between copyright and the rights of the public – a balance set according to an assessment of the public interest by legislators – and replace it with one-sided rules that reflect publishers’ private interests. Even artists disagree with publishers’ anti-consumer use of DRM, as evidenced by the recently formed Canadian Music Creators Coalition. Therefore, as in Bill C-60, new copyright reform legislation should not make it illegal to circumvent DRM for lawful purposes.

I am also concerned that the use of DRM can threaten computer security and consumer privacy, as in the recent Sony-BMG “Rootkit” fiasco.  When content companies routinely use technological measures to control how people enjoy entertainment in the privacy of their own homes, I think we need protection *from* DRM more than we need protection *for* it.

Transparency in computer software is essential to secure operation. I both utilize and contribute programming expertise to Open Source projects, not controlled by a single company. Fundamentally, DRM requires that people do not have control over their devices, and thus the people cannot publically debate, disclose, and contribute to such projects. I object to any legislature that makes it illegal for Canadians to tinker with the hardware, software, and media that they have ownership of. In effect, legislature that prohibits circumvention of DRM places control of Canadians’ rights in the hands of forign corporations.

For example, many cellphone handsets sold today support playback of musical ringtones. Customers pay for phones with such capabilities. However, in the current climate in America, companies often cripple handsets to play only approved ringtones, which are sold for exhorbant prices. This is artifical market control, and forces customers to pay twice for the same media. 

Implementing DRM in any hardware or software solution increases development and production costs, and reduces the value to users of that technology. DRM takes away rights such as time shifting (record something and play it later, like you can with a VCR), format shifting (for accessibility by disabled), and copies approved by the Canadian copyright laws (such as for context in political commentary, parody, and other analytical processes).

These concerns are shared by a substantial and growing number of informed Canadian citizens.  I hope that you will take them into account when considering any changes to Canadian copyright law.  Thanks very much for your time.

If you haven’t already, write to your MP, and make sure you know where each other stand on this issue! What else can you do?

Rainbows are cool too!

The moon wanted more of my night
I turned off the engine and the headlights
The trees appeared as they’d never been gone
I promised the fields I’d return from now on
And the moon kept on rising
I had no more to say
I put my roadmaps away
And surrendered the day

And I know you’ll be calling me soon
And if I don’t answer I’m calling the moon
Calling the moon
I was calling her then
I’m wondering will she take me again
Oh, I am calling the moon

When I called the moon back to me
I thought she wanted my beauty
I shone in the best that vanity buys
I covered the path where my life turned to lies
And the moon kept on rising
But I felt nothing at all
She comes when the empire falls
And shines on crumbling walls

Calling the moon
By the name that she chose
As Tennessee wandered in moth-eaten robes
Oh, I am calling the moon
Calling the moon
Oh I’m calling the moon

Oh, make sense of me, night
I can see so much from this cold height
The moon said oh darkness my work is done
I’ve poured this bottle of light from the sun
But their anger keeps on rising
And they don’t understand
I’ve shown them all that I can
That the world is at hand

And I know they’ll be calling me soon
And if I don’t answer I’m only the moon
I can see by her light
This one’s going out to the moon tonight
Oh, I am calling the moon

Calling the moon
‘Cause I know what it’s worth
To tug at the seas and illumine the earth
Oh, I am calling the moon
Oh, I am calling the moon

a past painful event not normally accessible to the conscious mind

Anime: Haibane Renmei
Song: Ghost Story by Sting
Completed: April 2007

You can find a nice high-resolution version on the ORG, but here’s a youtube video.

Background: I started working on this video in November of 2006. I knew I wanted to do something emotional with Reki, and I didn’t want a lot of other characters around distracting things, leaving primarily the interaction of Kuramori and Reki. This significantly cut back the quantity of footage available, or forced me to photoshop out a character.

Concept: Reki is confronting and dealing with her loneliness tonight, thinking about Kuramori. There are three distinct phases to the video. I tried to fit several themes into this format.

Phase 1: Despair
Evening strikes. Reki is making her way through the town, back to OldHome. She’s beginning to call up memories. Reki is facing one of the little feathers, watching him Abandon her. Her heart is hardened.

Phase 2: Confrontation
Little death comes in the form of night. Reki is indulging herself, and slipping into the memories. She draws forth the hurt, the anger, the loneliness. The same old issues of abandonment she’s always suffered, and never dealt with.

Phase 3: Peace
She finds closure, children no longer hate her, and everything looks better in the morning. Knowing smile on her face, I can almost touch her as she fades away…

I added a fuzzy border to visually delineate memories over many of the clips.

In each of the three phases Reki is confronted with some external representation of her self-accusation: The young feather running away, Nemu behind her in the hallway, and the kids returning at the end. In each case I used photoshop to prepare a version of the frame to fade with.

Things Not Done
Initially I also wanted to play with the moon phase throughout the video, to give another progression of time, but the footage didn’t lend itself well. Also, in the ending shot facing the painting of Kuramori, Reki still has spots on her wings; removing those spots, proved to be too time consuming.

Tools Used:
AVISynth
VirtualDubMod
Sony Vegas
Photoshop

I spent the better part the last few months working on this video. Thanks to all the people who let me rant about the little story I wanted to tell.

⎡Forever⎦

However, more significantly, it provided an excuse to help me avoid working on my MIT642 Traffic Analysis Specification assignment.

Hiding under a facade of busyness with other things is one way to avoid real work. Which is a huge stumbling block for me.