Toronto copyright consultation town hall
On Thursday, August 27, 2009 the Government of Canada held a town hall meeting in Toronto as part of their copyright consultations. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, or what format it would be. Earlier in the year I attended a town hall held by MP Olivia Chow, which was more interactive — there was a panel and participants both ranted and asked questions of the panel.
This Thursday’s town hall was much more regimented. Because of the number of participants and the limited amount of time, speakers were drawn from a hat. Each speaker had the floor for three minutes, and then the next speaker began promptly. While I appreciated the hard time-cap on rants, the format prevented anything resembling a dialog. Each person went up and said their piece, one after the next.
There was definitely a preponderance of music-industry folk. One count of industry reps in the first hour had: “3 Warner, 1 Sony, SOCAN, AVLA, CRIA spokesperson, CRIA lawyer, CACN chair.” Although there has been talk about the music industry stacking the deck, I think that’s a little hyperbolic. Basically, we seem to be on a road where the role of the labels will be vastly changed; instead of being the gatekeepers, they should become enablers. Since that will take time, and not everyone will keep the same jobs, they’re naturally fighting with any available tool to ensure the continuance of their way of life. While it’s frustrating that the town hall ended up being dominated by their voices, it’s not surprising, nor do I think it was due to unethical behavior.
I wasn’t really prepared to speak, so when my number got called I scrambled to get something cohesive out. I had a list of points I wanted to address, and I got through some of them. In hindsight, there were likely more important points. It would have been nice to have more time to explain the issues in depth, instead of trying to hit a list of points to add a tally to Tony Clement’s tally.
For more coverage, see:
- My tweets from live-tweeting the townhall
- #copycon on twitter
- Michael Geist’s recap
- Now’s coverage
- CBC Spark press video
- Paul T’s blog post
Videos are also available:
- full video thanks to @ossguy (250 meg wmv warning)
- playlist on youtube for those who would prefer shorter clips (slowly adding clips as I cut them)