Uptown Magazine - May 13th
Prime Minister Harper promises to enact a Canadian DMCA in six weeks
If you haven’t been following the recent developments in the creation of a U.S.-style copyright act by the Canadian government, you may have missed the fact that the Prime Minister’s office has instructed Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement to finalize the framework and direction of the upcoming bill. Despite opposition from Canadians at public hearings and through letters, emails and phone calls to their MPs — plus the fact that most Canadian artists do not want to see a rigid copyright act like the one south of the border, which, incidentally, hasn’t done much to curb downloading or copyright infringement in that country — the Canadian government has caved to pressure from the U.S. and is going to push through the controversial changes. While there is still time to contact your MP and voice your concern, the Tories don’t have a good track record on listening to what Canadians really want. “What a goddamned disaster. The Tories have shown — yet again — their utter contempt for public opinion and Canadian culture and small business when these present an inconvenience to more windfall profits for offshore entertainment giants,” says Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow. “There’s only one thing stupider than being the first country to enact the DMCA, in spite of its obvious shortcomings: enacting the DMCA after the first country has spent a decade showing how rotten and backwards this approach to copyright is.”
IDisown4U
Having problems with your family? If you want to ensure that you burn those bridges completely (but don’t want to get your hands dirty), the brains behind IDump4You have started up a new online venture called IDisown4U that will do all the messy work for you. If you’ve heard any of the breakup calls he has made on IDump4You, you know what type of approach Bradley is going to take. IDisown4U is the perfect solution for anyone looking to put some serious distance between themselves and the family member they’re feuding with.
Quick Hits
Dubmatix – London Calling (featuring Don Lettes)
Balanced Records’ Dubmatix offers up his reworked version of The Clash’s London Calling. Hopefully we’ll get to hear it this live on June 19 at the Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition — he’s a featured performer at the free Old Market Square portion of the fledgling festival.
MP3 of the Week: DJ Co-op – Jazz Fest Mix
Known for his genre-bending mixes, DJ Co-op was the perfect choice to pull together artists from this year’s Jazz Fest into one cohesive hour of music. Featuring cuts from The Budos Band, The Roots, Great Lake Swimmers and a slew of other performers, it’s the perfect soundtrack for pre-gaming Jazz Fest-goers.
