Looking back on 2009: the demise of Canada’s international reputation

Today is the last day of 2009. We all no doubt have much to reflect on this December 31st, as well as much to look forward to in the months to come: our New Years 10-pounds-less resolutions, the debauchery that will occur only hours from now, helping to wash away the unwanted memories of the last 12 months…

But as I reflect on 2009, I find myself little elated about the year ahead: if Canada continues on the trajectory set out in 2009, I fear that 2010 will be even more dismal, disappointing, and embarrassing for both the country’s citizens and the country’s reputation than its predecessor. I fearfully predict that 2009 will simply act as a small-scale model for years ahead, during which neo-liberal economic policies will exponentially over-ride freedom of liberties and help to promote environmental degradation.

Harper at his best.

Canadian Film Becomes the Apple of the iPhone with NFB Application

The National Film Board has opened the floodgates with their renowned iPhone application launched last October. I have just downloaded their latest application and have finished watching Ha’Aki, an impressionist’s vision of Canada’s most popular game.

I discovered the NFB back when The Log Driver’s Waltz came to my homeroom in its wide, flat and powder-sprayed cans. At the time, the Academy Awards’ documentary, short films and animation categories were the only vehicles I knew of that non-Americans could use to expose their artistic product to a wider popular audience, and Canada was always in the running for these prizes. What would eventually become Internet was only a few connections shared amongst a handful of Army scientists.

However, the NFB has always been a progressive organization, and have become trendsetters of late. The site, which was revamped last year hosts over 1700 and counting films for free streaming – and now facilitates borrowing. The Board’s strategy is proving successful on an international scale. The 24,000 of the 80,000 downloads since launch of the application have come from outside of Canada. It is somehow gratifying to be able to actually count the appreciation in which Canadian film is regarded abroad.

The iPhone initiative has also received kudos from the Apple Blog, which has voted the app in their top 10 of 2009, for the Best Use of Content category. Most importantly, taxpayers get a return in the form of a giant national film library, open 24 hours and free to access from anywhere a signal can be had. It is fascinating to see how this public institution is learning to take advantage of the latest communications technology to promote the national brand.

To run the software, you need an iPhone or iPod Touch with OS 3.0 or higher. Once you have installed NFB, you can access different channels and load the films. From there, it is easy to browse and view hundreds of films. I found that because of the loading lag time, a good option is to “Watch Later.” This allows your device to load a film for a 24-hour loan. So far, it has exceeded the “borrowing” period, and it has not evaporated, dissipated or self-destructed.

I am astounded at the wealth of content, from classics such as “The Sweater” to the contemporary documentary serie“GDP”. I have watched more than a few films now, and so much of the product is stunning. However, the NFB is not resting on its laurels, but is pushing forward to create international partnerships. It will be interesting to see how the optimization of mobile media gives Canada a boost in affects the composition of the audience and promotion of international partnerships.

Canadian Torrent Site Recieves Summary Judgement from U.S. Circuit Court

Copyright litigation continues to traverse international borders as a California Circuit-Court ordered a summary judgment against a Vancouver-based torrent site last week. 2009 has been a tough year on high-profile torrent sites, and this decade of unprecedented media replication has ended with yet another legal blow to the file sharing community. Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that the defendant, isoHunt intentionally encouraged copyright infringement.

isoHunt has long maintained that it is only a search engine that hosts cached files to torrent trackers. Its founder, Gary Fung, argues that in this capacity, isoHunt is Google or Yahoo an essential part of how the web works. The defense has argued that it does not store any files on its servers for users to download directly, and therefore do not fall under the legal definition of copyright infringers. Judge Wilson dismissed this, calling the torrent tracker “nothing more than old wine in a new bottle.”

Fung has long disputed charges of copyright infringement. In a letter to the Canadian Government, he writes that as his sites already have a copyright protocol in place, they are already functioning in compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, specifically with notice and takedown provision.

Fung has further argued that some of the content on users’ computers is copyright protected and some is not. To complicate the issue further, some content is free in some countries and yet rights-protected many in others. Since he does not possess the technology to determine what files are and are not protected on a user-to-user basis, he asserts that the only practical thing to do is to put into place the notice-and-takedown policy.

The defense is correct that they do not actually host any content, nor do they choose which torrent files get downloaded and used. However, isoHunt almost certainly has logs of what titles are chosen, and many of those are clearly copyright protected.
The isoHunt development team has come up with their latest project, one that Mr. Fung says will change the way people will think about P2P sharing. The recently unveiled Hexagon.cc is either a brilliant legal strategy or something more high-minded, but it is could serve as a model for content development within community groups. As the suffix indicates, this site is geared toward the Creative Commons community, providing them with a dedicated site for creating groups and sharing original content.

This article cites an EU study that found majority of consumers have decided that they will never pay for content. However, the study reports it is not piracy of copyrighted material that has hurt the industry, but an increasing abundance of free content that provide consumers with an “all you can eat” buffet. This leaves content creators with the question of how to recreate their business models so that they can earn a living. This has been the prevalent question of the late 00’s.

Canada and Afghanistan: the sacrifice of our small towns

On this last day of the year 2009, at the edge of the century’s new decade, an old war drags on. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are the method of choice for killing in a land-locked Asian country, whose connection to Canada, deepens.  Today our media reflect with us on the death of 4 men and one woman, a journalist described by her colleagues as “curious, open-minded and decent.” Is it too romantic a generalization to think of these qualities as quintessentially Canadian, when we are at our best? Perhaps. Canada as benign versus Canada as a dark place of disappearance and suppression. Canada as banal. Canada as a country whose major cities rarely give up any war dead but whose smaller places since 2002 do just that.

Home towns of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan in 2009 (source: cbc.ca – apologies for any errors)

Cambridge, ON

Edmonton, AB

Edmonton, AB

Yarmouth, NS

Victoria, BC

Calgary, AB

Saskatoon, SK

Loretteville, QC

Chute-A-Blondeau, ON

Beauport, QC

Warwick, QC

Val D’OR, QC

Sept-Iles, QC

Ste. Hyacinthe, QC

Montreal, QC

Saint-Calixte, QC

Peterbourough, ON

Edmunston, NB

Quebec City, QC

Brownsberg-Chatham, QC

Wicklow, ON

Les Mechins, QC

Hearst, ON

Port Colborne, ON

Ripples, NB

Sault Ste. Marie, ON

Mississauga, ON

St. Catherines, ON

Baie-Comeau, QC

Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NFLD

Pinawa, MB

Ottawa, ON

“Human Security” and Other Words Banished to DFAIT’s Talking Points Gulag

This is a story that has flown a bit under the radar in mainstream Canadian media outlets, and needs much more attention and discussion.  Over the summer, Embassy Magazine reported that the Government of Canada was discretely “purging” certain words and other phrases that civil servants could use to describe Canadian foreign policy and affairs.  Words like “human security”, “international humanitarian law” and the “Responsibility to Protect” were all “blacklisted” and banished from the Government language archipelago, obviously as a signifier of a shift in focus of Canadian foreign policy.

In early December, Taylor Owen and Adrian Bradbury who both work in the field of human security, re-raised the changes in The Mark, noting, among other things, how the changes lead to confusion (such as eliding distinct concepts like international law and international humanitarian law) and, most problematically, were done without much debate or transparency.