Canada Post in Postal Code Copyright Fail

A company in Ottawa has crowdsourced a database of postal codes and now it appears that Canada Post is suing them for violation of copyright.  If you can't believe it, read it for yourself at CBC.   

Postal code data is a set of facts, and facts are not protected by copyright.  Yes, the format of those facts, so the A9A 9A9 character/digit sequence or format might be protected, so if you set up your own postal code system and you used L0L 0L0 somewhere, then they might have a case, and you might be a pirate, rrr, but even then it's not clear to me how you'd have damaged Canada Post's interests in any way.  Like, what is the harm?

In the current case Canada Post is trying to protect it's right to price gouge by making it illegal for other companies to compile and sell public facts.  In a free market this is called competition, and I can see how Canada Post might not like that because access to their own database of postal codes is extraordinarily expensive.

This is exactly the same situation as in other copyright cases, where rather than innovate to provide an awesome product at an awesome price, fat-cats in business lobby the fat-cats in government to protect lousy old business models with overreaching copyright law, protecting the interests of business over the interests of the consumer and of the society at large. 

On Fads, a Free Internet, and Paying Attention

The Kony 2012 craze is a fad like a hula-hoop.  In the first half of March 2012 the Kony video was watched 80 million times, and in the late 1950's the hula-hoop sold 100 million units.  Both of them were heavily promoted with the best of modern technology, and both are pretty inconsequential in terms of content.  Kony, since his peak in the late 1990s, is mostly a spent force, and 'hula-hooping,' well, who cares?

The thing exists because it can.  If it wasn't Kony, and if it wasn't the hula-hoop, it would have been some other asshole and some other toy.  Darwin showed that given constant variation and a nourishing medium, natural selection happens.  Kony 2012 has celebrity endorsement, YouTube, and a shit-load of users demanding entertainment.  The hula-hoop had celebrity endorsement, TV, and a shit-load of viewers demanding entertainment.  If the medium is the message, then Kony and the hula-hoop are strictly message.

What's interesting is the medium, and if hindsight is 20/20 then let's start with the hula-hoop, which flourished in a semi-euphoric, post-war, televised, affluent, civil society.  In a similar fashion, what's interesting about Kony is not Kony, but rather the fact that a complex idea expressed by a small organization can 'go viral' in the medium of our internet connected society, and millions of people across nations can participate in the conversation in a matter of days.

Kony, the Arab Spring, WikiLeaks, Anonymous, Copyright, SOPA, ACTA, all these messages point to the incredibly interconnected medium in which our society exists, and how messages within that medium increasingly bypass governments and corporations.  They are now the old authorities--the old keyholders and the old gatekeepers--and they are not pleased, but neither are the people.

Now is an important time.  I'm going to be paying close attention.

TED: Copyright Math

Very funny, and goes a long way to clarify the degree of damage suffered by the MPAA and RIAA.

CTV's Overview of C-11's Digital Lock Rules

As the bill stands now, it certainly serves the interests of corporate copyright holders over and above the interests of consumers.

Michael Geist on ACTA

Speaking at the European Parliament INTA Workshop on ACTA on Mar 1, 2012.

TheComedyNetwork.ca Fail

This is what I see when I go to a boingboing.net article where they've posted a John Stewart video: a note indicating that the video is not available at my location.

In Canada those shows are the property of The Comedy Network, who would rather damage their own product than let me enjoy it at some other site.  If this issue was judged by King Solomon, The Comedy Network would obviously be happy to cut the baby in half.  And they provide no link, and no assistance finding this video if I go to their site.

The outcome is that I don't get to see the video, and I lose respect for The Comedy Network, and for their parent company Bell Media, who put financial gain in front of integrity and lose both in the process.  Idiots.

The Government Heard Me

I wrote a couple of letters to my MP, Mark Strahl over the past few of weeks, one of which went like this...

I believe it's very important to not hobble the internet to protect copyright. Like the streets of a city, the internet is simply a thing that conducts traffic without prejudice.
Though some parts of a city might be rife with crime or social harms and some individuals or groups eminently worthy of arrest, nonetheless we do not--in a free society--curtail freedom of movement.
Please protect the rights of the individual in respect to the internet. Please protect freedom of movement, presumption of innocence, common carriage, and due process.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

In a second letter I expressed my concern about the plan to make the circumvention of digital locks illegal.  

I received this today from Vic Toews' office...

Thank you for contacting my office regarding Bill C-30, the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act.

Canada's laws currently do not adequately protect Canadians from online exploitation and we think there is widespread agreement that this is a problem. 

We want to update our laws while striking the right balance between combating crime and protecting privacy. 

Content Theft Penalty Comparison

I read an interesting article by Mike Masnick of Tech Dirt this morning comparing the severity of penalties for copyright infringement and for other similar crimes.  He argues that jumping the turnstile at the subway or not paying rent are similar crimes since the only real harm is that they deprive the plaintiff of revenue they might otherwise have gained.  In the case of rent the amount of money due is typically the rent you didn't pay.  In New York the fine for jumping the turnstile is $100.  But a woman is currently being ordered to pay $54,000 for downloading 24 songs she could have bought for $24, and that was lowered on appeal down from $1.5 million dollars. 
And copyright holders want to strengthen copyright law???
If 24 songs cost $54,000 then each $1 song cost $2,250 and by that math, jumping the $2.50 turnstile in New York should cost $5,625, which is obviously a ridiculous penalty.
But read the whole article here.