Slashdot Mirror

Yahoo's new features that will share users' online activities and interests with people in their address books

So you can do a lot of things on Yahoo! like play chess, manage finances or e-mail. But what level of detail is going to be shared and for what possible reason?

Let's take the most basic possibility -- similar to XBox Live -- where it says eldavojohn is playing Futurama. You only ever get a few pieces of data: my name, I'm online and my activity. But it doesn't popup with "eldavojohn has died" or "eldavojohn has reached achievement X." The specifics are hidden resulting in this only facilitating friends noticing they're online and playing together. Might work with Yahoo! Chess but it I can't see it working for finances or e-mail. "Hey, eldavojohn's online, let's read up on some mutual funds together!" Or, "eldavojohn's e-mailing, I should e-mail with him!" Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. This only sense this makes is if you're one of those "microbloggers" that likes to inform everyone what you're eating and when you're urinating because you have some weird infatuation with yourself.

The most extreme possibility is far worse. What if you knew who I was playing chess with, what stocks I was buying and who I was e-mailing. If this is the case then Yahoo! could be poised to overtake Facebook as the number one source of evidence in divorce proceedings. I think anyone would agree that this extreme is highly undesirable.

So I don't get it. Yahoo! is trying to build a better service by switching this on? How are they planning to do this? The cynic in me is defaulting to some sort of money related advertising scheme whereby you say surely whatever you share with your friends can be shared with an advertiser. There is some money in that. Is that already baked into this privacy statement or will that be done behind your back or will that be a future "feature"?

Canada is up to #3 Woohoo!

Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada are responsible for (up to) 6 billion worth of infringement themselves. Just a bit more than the 710 million claimed.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096--geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement

Then again, its probably statutory damages vs. actual losses.

Still, I'm proud to be on the list again. Thanks!

On a related note: Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors?.

I'll elaborate my point about regulating drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, since I did not say much about that in my previous post. The wikipedia article on this topic mentions that

The BP well did not have any remote-control or acoustically-activated shut-off switch for use in case of an emergency such as the rig sinking. The countries of Norway and Brazil require them on all offshore rigs, but oil companies persuaded U.S. regulators that such backup devices were unnecessary due to their expense

Another measure which could have helped is the requirement to build a relief well as part of the original design. Coincidentally, Canada requires that and BP has been lobbying to get that requirement dropped.

TLDR: The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico could have been largely mitigated had BP been required to take extra precautions required by law in foreign countries.

I'd like to know how you can make it cost a billion dollars to build a database, which is essentially what the gun registry is.

History repeats itself. Ontario is having the same problem with costs exploding in the medical records area. Another couple billion blown. Feather-bedding, pork-barrels, you know how that works.

• A $30 million untendered contract to IBM approved by cabinet ministers on the government's management board.
• Unnamed senior health bureaucrats for thwarting his efforts to get investigators into eHealth for a routine audit in the summer of 2008. McCarter's staff did not gain the desired access until last February - just a few months before Health Minister David Caplan ordered a special audit once the eHealth spending scandal erupted.
• Unnamed consulting companies for driving up each other's fees, artificially creating a higher going rate for their services.
• Too much power in too few hands in awarding of contracts, which did not get enough oversight from top officials in the health ministry.
• The $647 million spent, with little to show for it, by SSHA, set up by former premier Mike Harris's Conservative government.
• What one source called a "war" between SSHA and the health ministry over how to manage and accomplish a complicated endeavour like creating electronic health records.

Another insider privy to McCarter's findings said "the auditor really took everybody to task. It's a very bad report, it's not sugar-coated."

Consultants hired by eHealth were paid up to $3,000 a day and, meanwhile, billed for expenses like tea and cookies.

As well, lucrative contracts were granted without competitive bidding in a rush to get a system of records running as promised by 2014.

The usual corruption that happens when you create a large government program.

From here:

Kajouji: I am planning to attempt this Sunday.

Cami: Wow. You want to use hanging too?

Kajouji: I’m going to jump.

Cami: Well, that’s okay, but most people puss out before doing that. Plus, they don’t wanna leave a terribly messy mess for others to clean up.

Kajouji: I want it to look like an accident. There’s a bridge over the river where there’s a break in the ice. The water is really rough right now, and it should carry me back under the ice, so I can’t really come up for air. And if drowning doesn’t get me, hopefully the hypothermia will. Is there anything you want to do before you go? I’m trying to get my affairs in order—cleaning my room, paying off my loan.

Cami: I’ve got everything ready to go. My mom will get my insurance and money, so there will be no worries there. I’ve got my funeral s--- all taken care of. Got rope and stuff ready. Do you have a webcam?

Kajouji: Yes.

Cami: Well, if it comes down to hanging, I can help you with it with the cam. Proper positioning of the rope is important.

Kajouji: Thank you.

Cami: That method is so fast and certain, I can’t think of another way for me. I don’t want to feel nothing.

Words fail me, really.

Just as Nimoy's in the news, so is Shatner. Right now people are pushing for William Shatner to be named the next Governor General of Canada (an appointed position), and there's a large Facebook group based on it. Even Leonard Nimoy wants him to get the job:

Nimoy, who was in Alberta for a comic convention, says the job would be perfect because Shatner has just been "sitting around twiddling his thumbs" recently.

He says the job would give Shatner a sense of "self worth" and allow him to "get out and do something."

They're only a month behind the Toronto Star.

Really?
Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Quiet Manitoba Town, Toronto, Montreal,
and Snowstorm

So, we have shootings AND snowstorms in April.

I'll keep visiting Mexico during the coldest part of our winter.

Why doesn't the same principle apply here?

The only principal that ever applies is that rich, litigious people and institutions get whatever they want.

In a democratic society, they couch their whims into bite sized "causes" with simple-seeming resolutions that the populace can get behind to reduce the effort the upper class has to put into getting their way, such as "copyright infringement starving all the poor artists" or "carbon emissions destroying the environment" or "Lack of Christian Values (and influence) in our schools leading to bedlam". Then they just sit back, nudge where they feel they need to, and drive popular opinion towards their destinations.

This is why when the rich are hoist by their own petard: be it homophobic GOP senators and leaders of the church buying meth from their male prostitutes, or music studios caught mass-infringing their own artists' copyright, or (alleged) copyright holders perjuring DMCA provisions by issuing fraudulent takedown notices (be it for IP address confusion, or just as often for scattershot pissing in the pool) you never hear more than a "gotcha" headline about the matter, and then nothing after that ever changes. The power of these "causes" are always directly proportional to wealthy, influential people orchestrating them to suit their particular needs.

IP's being poor relation to individuals (or IP's listed at tracker being poor relation to actually participating clients) mean nothing to the powers that seek to waylay citizens with the cultural blunt trauma of Intellectual Property. They don't have to explain themselves, they don't have to make sense, they just have to have more resources than you and occasionally convince a cadre of crazies Glenn Beck style that they are in the right in order to keep their own hands clean while you are beaten.

A link to a blog with no sources or names. Great.

Here's a link to the actual story with things like details

Some notes:

1. It isn't "The City Councilor". This is ONE city councilor. There are 44 of them. This has been pitched by one (Adam Vaughan). This is like one senator saying "We should do something about Washington's birthday", and being reported as "US Government Changes Washington's Birthday"
2. Mr. Vaughan sits on (amongst other boards) The Library Board. So is it any surprise he's pitching a radical plan for more money for libraries?
3. TFA: "Right now, this is a plan, not a reality," Pyper [chief librarian of the Toronto Public Library] said.

So: Proposed idea from one guy, that isn't going to happen.

> Assuming extradition is not enforced, that person would only be labeled criminal when in Saudi Arabia's borders.

That already happens now - it's how the laws already work. If that's all you want, it's already done, so what your point? See Dmitry Sklyarov.

As for "diplomatic ties", that's also already done and being done. There are many countries that have "harmonized" their laws with the USA for the sake of diplomatic ties (often whether their citizens like it or not).

> How do you think citizens from the country you are exploiting feel?
> Do you think they are endeared by your actions?

Far fewer citizens have really been exploited by copyright infringement by P2P etc, than the number of artists and stars that have been exploited by the labels[1] and the programmers that have been exploited by their companies (e.g. EA etc). And how about the people were who rooted by Sony's rootkit (which is technically considered hacking in many countries)? Who went to prison for that hacking?

If the artists and creators are already getting ZERO $$$$ from the labels they can't lose any more to P2P. In fact the smarter ones have realized they might as well encourage distribution of their stuff and then make money via tours - otherwise they're not going to get anything (it's all taken up by the "middle man").

If you feel so strongly about exploitation, go bark up that tree instead.

And if you're actually from one of those Big Media Companies and trying to promote their agenda, take this message to your handlers: "FUCK YOU".

The ordinary citizen in the USA has little to worry about from "piracy", it does practically nothing to them.

The media companies actually make money, they just use hollywood accounting to pretend they don't, when it suits them.

[1] directly:
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096--geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement
Or via Hollywood accounting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
See also: http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2002-11-13-stan-lee-sues-marvel_x.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1578440/JRR-Tolkiens-estate-to-sue-New-Line-Cinema-over-Lord-of-the-Rings-trilogy-profits.html

Aside from the critical acclaim and the plethora of Oscars and other awards, the complaint claims that they have grossed over $6 billion (£3.07 billion) worldwide through box office receipts and DVD and merchandising sales.

However, the suit filed by the Trust claims that, apart from $62,500 (£32,000) paid upfront before production began, "not one penny" has changed hands.

p.s. Not related but assuming you are a US citizen, just for some perspective go divide the trillions your Government has spent bailing out ill-deserving companies by the number of US citizens. Google for Federal Reserve trillions.

> neither should Canadian citizens receive immunity when facing international copyright charges

Depends on what those "international copyright" charges are, and what laws they are based on.

If they are not actually international copyright laws, but just some stuff that the USA is trying to push to Canada, but Canada hasn't accepted it, then I don't see why Canadian citizens should have to follow those. Especially laws like the DMCA.

The Canadian citizens already pay a levy. And strangely enough the Media Companies in Canada are the ones not paying the artists.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096--geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement

quote:
"After years of claiming Canadian consumers disrespect copyright, the irony of having the recording industry face a massive lawsuit will not be lost on anyone, least of all the artists still waiting to be paid. Indeed, they are also seeking punitive damages, arguing "the conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers."

Given the track record for such legislation and the way the recording companies and their friends behave, I doubt this legislation is really going to be used mainly for shutting down botnets.

I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Both the blogs are biased, uninformative, and basically uninteresting.

Furthermore, the source chosen for the slashdot posting seems to have been searched for and specifically chosen so as to be the least informative and lacking in interest. A better one is at Toronto Star

Among the information in that paper is a statement by Watts that the trial was fair, and a direct contradiction to "Making Light's" timeline of events.

And the seizing of gaming consoles is a lie.

And who exactly said such a thing? Citation or it's a straw man.

Alberto Federico Ravell is a liar

First off, point of information which parent poster surely knows: Ravell was asked to step down as director three weeks ago by the majority stockholders, leaving Dear Leader without a favourite punching bag.

and a media terrorist.

Second, extending or redefining nasty concepts to include everything you don't like is a trademark of manipulative, fascist governments. "Enemy of the people", "terrorist", "destabilizer", "coupmonger", "spy"... In the last few years, Venezuelans have heard not only about "media terrorism", but also "media coup d'etats", "information blockades", a "soft coup" (sic), "juridical coups" and even an "electrical coup" (in reference to the crisis around the recent power shortage). I hate to say "look it up yourself", but I'm not doing your homework either. Please note that the latter reference is an opinion piece by a inconditional ally who has been vicepresident and head of several ministries.

Having just skimmed the doc, I don't see why anyone would care. The information available to law enforcement is actually less than I had expected.

Actually, I suspect that Microsoft are flat-out lying. There was a murder case in Toronto, Canada where a teenage girl persuaded her boyfriend to murder another girl:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/03/13/rengel-trial.html
http://www.thestar.com/article/596268

Much of the evidence was in MSN chat logs between the girl and her boyfriend. This Microsoft document claims on page 13 that "Microsoft does not log the content of communications between users".

So if it isn't logged, where did all this evidence come from?

See also this:

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096--geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement

Basically Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada are being sued for not paying the artists.

And quote:
After years of claiming Canadian consumers disrespect copyright, the irony of having the recording industry face a massive lawsuit will not be lost on anyone, least of all the artists still waiting to be paid. Indeed, they are also seeking punitive damages, arguing "the conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers."

That's a damned good idea if it becomes a strong case precedent, as the sword cuts both ways:
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096--geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement

The CRIA would owe musicians enough damages to pay of the US national debt!

The music cartels should be very, very careful what they wish for.

As humorous as that was, this is exactly the sort of security that actually works: looking people in the eyes, asking questions, being trained to skillfully detect what constitutes an honest response.

The general stupid masses of the western world see the fancy x-ray machines, silvery conveyor tables and shiny rent-a-cop badges and think this somehow translates to better security. But this is not security, this is an illusion of security. This is just put on for show so that your representatives in government (hahahaha... I know) can appear to be doing something about those dern terrrrists.

Security is not a product or a technology. Security, in the case of an airport, is an active process of identifying risks through layers of highly-trained intelligence personel; not high school drop-outs hired to press buttons.

Wait, why does that sound familiar?

After all, she called for nothing less than a revolution.

Before the age of 12, during elementary school, I can attest that kids learn a lot and succeed very much. I don't understand why you are saying they are so comparatively unsuccessful at learning. Between the ages of 0 to 4, the only things kids learn is how to speak and the basic laws of the universe and of their surroundings by trial and error. If we compare that to everything kids learn in elementary school and how fast they learn it, they do learn much more in the system.

However, between the ages of 12 to 18, the game is completely different. It is at this stage that they start to get fed up with school and want to work and earn money. It is also to these kids that the author of the book you are recommending was teaching. In the province of Quebec, our dropout rate is 29% if this article is to be believed: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/600889 . Maybe the solution is to give them more freedom and put them in charge of their education. Now, would they be responsible enough to do this? I don't know. They wouldn't be able to blame the system for their failures though.

Security in airports isn't inherently a bad thing, but to quote the internet "ur doin it wrong".

Israel has been dealing for this threat on a much higher level for years. It's not as hassle free a solution as no security, but the wait times are substantially less, and success substantially better than America's Funniest Security Theater.

Thanks to the ./er who I saw this from first(sorry I don't remember who you are).
Israelification of American Airports

The fact that a routine error can cause major institution like an airport to grind to a halt is a sign that its operating procedure needs to be revised. It's stupid to just live with it when there are alternatives

For example, there's been a lot of recent talk about updating our airport screening to look more like Israel's, where they've been thinking about terrorism a bit harder and longer than we have. I'm sure there are other alternatives too. However, remember that the point of terrorism is to cause fear and economic loss to industrialized countries, and to bait us into a self-destructive overreaction. By that standard, they guy who walked through the wrong gate pulled off a pretty impressive piece of terrorism, at basically no real risk to himself. You don't want to enshrine a system where this sort of exploit is possible, or else every group with a quibble can hold an airport hostage.

Essentially, your argument applied in Canada, was used in Canada, and the people won at the Supreme Court. As a result, downloading files for personal use is largely legal in Canada. Uploading of files is still a grey area.

Then some artists pointed out that the Canadian music industry hasn't been properly paying royalties on some of the CDs it has been selling. In fact, they have been selling CDs without a proper contract in place at all. As such, a bunch of the large Canadian record companies are on the hook for billions in liabilities.

Effectively, in Canada, the recording industry has been violating it's own anti-copying laws. Things are very different in Canada, as opposed to the U.S. The recording companies are being chased by the musicians! For non-payment of royalties!!!

I'm pretty sure Harper has done more to dismantle transparency in the last 3 years than Chretien/Martin did during their tenure.

Just a sampling of things I can recall off the top of my head since 2006: This, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

And I'll repeat again what I said above: all this (and more that I suspect I've mercifully forgotten over the last 3 years) has taken place under the watch of an autocrat who explicitly ran on the promise of transparency and accountability in the 2006 election.

... and people wonder why the general public thinks politicians are a bunch of assholes ...

I'm pretty sure Harper has done more to dismantle transparency in the last 3 years than Chretien/Martin did during their tenure.

Just a sampling of things I can recall off the top of my head since 2006: This, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

And I'll repeat again what I said above: all this (and more that I suspect I've mercifully forgotten over the last 3 years) has taken place under the watch of an autocrat who explicitly ran on the promise of transparency and accountability in the 2006 election.

... and people wonder why the general public thinks politicians are a bunch of assholes ...

I'm pretty sure Harper has done more to dismantle transparency in the last 3 years than Chretien/Martin did during their tenure.

Just a sampling of things I can recall off the top of my head since 2006: This, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

And I'll repeat again what I said above: all this (and more that I suspect I've mercifully forgotten over the last 3 years) has taken place under the watch of an autocrat who explicitly ran on the promise of transparency and accountability in the 2006 election.

... and people wonder why the general public thinks politicians are a bunch of assholes ...

Record industry faces liability over `infringement'.

I wonder if any change to Canada's Copyright law would change the fact that The Canadian Record Agencies owe billions of dollars to artists due to copyright infringement?

--jeffk++

Retired mining analyst Stephen McIntyre isn't a warming denier. He's merely a stickler http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/737357--portrait-of-a-local-climate-skeptic

Well it certainly wasn't the Canadian border:

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/621908

IANAL, but what happens if they plaintiffs prevail and Warner, Sony, et al refuse to pay? I doubt their assets in Canada exceed $60 billion

The article claims there were 300,000 songs infringed and the cost per infringement is $20,000. That only comes out to $6 billion. So something somewhere is incorrect. Either the math or the source numbers.

Exactly, Canada's already paying the costs of climate change, the U.S. is likely seeing similar damage but, you know, that type of talk wasn't tolerated under the old boss.

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/730922--global-warming-challenging-northern-infrastructure-report

At the fish counter you may not get what you pay for

Consumer, beware: When you're buying fish, you may not get what you pay for.

In a cross-Canada investigation, fish sold as wild Pacific salmon turned out to be farmed Atlantic salmon. Sea bass was actually endangered Patagonian toothfish, marketed as Chilean sea bass, which is a different species. Cheaper skipjack was substituted for sushi grade tuna.

Tilapia stood in for snapper and even white tuna. "Bluefish" from a Chinatown shop turned out to be a species of herring that's not even listed in the official database of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

About a quarter of 500 fish samples turned out to be misidentified or mislabelled. They were genetically tested and matched using the world-famous Barcode of Life DNA database at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph.

This sounds similar to what was done with Saddam Hussein's yellowcake uranium a year ago. It was shipped from Iraq to Canada and used as fuel for the Bruce nuclear plant.

1. You specified common law. Most of Canada is common law, and my post disproves that what you said applies to "common law" generically.

2. Why not look at the plea bargain in the Roman Polanski affair if you want something that doesn't pass the smell test?

BTW, the maximum sentence for sexual assault when tried as a misdemeanor in Canada is $2,000 + 6 months. The minimum is an absolute discharge. Aggravated sexual assault, on the other hand, can get you life.

To put this in context, we just gave a life sentence to a genocidal nutbar from another country who thought that Canada would be a safe place for him.

'Kill, rape and pillage': Rwandan gets life in jail'
Published On Fri Oct 30 2009

MONTREAL-In sentencing genocidal killer Désiré Munyaneza to the harshest penalty possible, Quebec Superior Court Justice André Denis quoted an ancient philosopher who insisted that even when everyone else is going one way, you can always go another.

"Many Rwandans of all ethnicities, as the proof showed, behaved courageously during the genocide, often paying the price with their lives," said Denis. "The accused, an educated and privileged man, chose to kill, rape and pillage, in the name of supremacy of his ethnic group."

Handing down a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, as Munyaneza stood unmoved, the judge added, "Each time a man affirms to belong to a superior race, a chosen people, humanity is in danger."

Munyaneza, known as "Scarface" to his victims, is the first person to be convicted under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. The 42-year-old father of two will serve his sentence in Canada.

It's a case watched closely by legal observers because of the implications it could have for similar cases here and abroad and even, some say, for preventing such tragedies in the first place.

Denis found Munyaneza guilty last May of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1994 Rwandan genocide that saw the Hutu-led extermination of hundreds of thousands of people, primarily ethnic Tutsis.

A businessman in his home city of Butare, Rwanda, Munyaneza came from a well-known bourgeois family and had a master's degree in economics.

During the genocide he also acted as a leader among the brutal Interahamwe militia.

Denis found that Munyaneza, a failed refugee claimant to Canada who was arrested at his home in Toronto in 2005, used his access to vehicles to transport innocent Tutsi to their deaths. He looted Tutsi businesses. He murdered four Tutsi in a store, saying, "All Tutsi must die."

He called them "vermin."

He even used sticks to beat to death children who were tied up in sacks, the judge found.

The defence is appealing the verdict, but a hearing before the Quebec Court of Appeal isn't likely until next year and both sides agree the case will ultimately wind up before the Supreme Court of Canada.

"We've got what we believe to be a pretty strong appeal," defence lawyer Richard Perras said outside the courtroom.

The trial was extraordinary in that it took nearly two years and even travelled to Butare to hear witnesses.

The total cost reportedly reached $4 million.

Munyaneza's defence contended much of the evidence was faulty, witnesses were hazy on dates, and that many couldn't identify his prominent facial scar.

But Denis said he believed the prosecution's witnesses, noting Thursday that Munyaneza's witnesses often denied there was even a genocide.

"We know that to deny a genocide is to kill the victims a second time," Denis admonished.

Jayne Stoyles, executive director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for International Justice, said in an interview that the sentence "se

"But neither is it the automatic evil socialists imagine it to be."

Except that it is, free markets means slavery for those at the bottom, the REAL bottom, the informal economy and underdeveloped countries from which wealthy nations extract surplus profits.

http://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/article/719355--how-we-re-creating-an-illegal-workforce

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/304711

Just from first few results from google. Cost overruns from large power projects is of the reason why electricity rates is higher, but consumers don't see the effect of those cost overruns due to the subsidies.

Why do you think the rates are so much higher for regions? It's definitely not because we're that much more efficient.

I think you're forgetting that much of the current deficit is in response to the economic meltdown that started before Obama became president.

However, to clarify, the current projected deficit is $1.6T. The $9T estimate is for 2010-2019. Although the long term estimate is alarming it not likely to be accurate. Could be more, could be less.

Yes, because that's worked out so well before:

"Privacy commissioner probes PM's list":
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/265982

Or did you fail to read this story the first time it was posted, particularly the parts where Facebook has been working with the Privacy Commissioner for months to resolve the issues through technical and other changes?
http://www.priv.gc.ca/cf-dc/2009/2009_008_0716_e.cfm

I did attempt to submit this as a story a year ago. Didn't make the cut:

rbrander writes "Canadian copyright watchdog Michael Geist has written the story of How the U.S. got its Canadian copyright bill". The arm-twisting was pretty up-front: "Canadian officials arrived ready to talk about a series of economic concerns but were quickly rebuffed by their U.S. counterparts, who indicated that progress on other issues would depend upon action on the copyright file." ... "the USTR...made veiled threats about 'thickening the border' between Canada and the U.S. if Canada refused to put copyright reform on the legislative agenda."

The link for that submission was: http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/443867

So, bottom line: It isn't the industry telling a nation of 30M people what to do, it's an industry saying "We pull strings and US trade negotiators dance the mamba for us. Do as you're told or they'll dance that mamba all over your timber, cattle, grain, and steel sales to a trading partner 10X your size."

Not many people know that Canada is the US' largest trading partner: much larger than China, larger than China and Britain combined. But the converse is staggering: the US is 80% of our TOTAL world trade. When the US negotiators hit the table saying "No discussion of of all our trade issues about the big-ticket items until you cave on the little wee Intellectual Property issue", the Canadian government has very little choice but to comply. That goes across party lines.

While I don't agree with your assertion that we need a constitutional amendment to do national energy policy (and neither does any legal scholar that I'm aware of), I can kind of almost agree with this:

It'd be nice if he and Congress would get out of the way, eliminate energy taxes and subsidies, and let the price determine what solution prevails.

As long as one of the subsidies removed was the giant defense subsidy to the oil industry. If the oil industry had to pay for their own security in the Middle East (rather than having the DOD do it for them, for free), oil would be priced a lot more realistically, and the market would move us to other solutions. Unfortunately, the nuclear industry would benefit less than one might think, because nuclear energy is still pretty damn expensive, as Canadians have discovered.

I like citations. I don't like false bravado.

"The reality is Canadian law features a private copying exemption that includes a levy on blank media. The Federal Court and the Copyright Board of Canada have intimated the levy, which has generated hundreds of millions of dollars, could apply to personal, non-commercial downloading of sound recordings onto certain blank media. The law therefore opens the door to some legalized music downloading, but it does not cover other content (movies or software) or the uploading of any content."

I guarantee you the Liberals and NDP will back this up. No political party has a monopoly on the never ending quest for power.

Don't be so sure.

NYT is not the only ones doing this: http://www.thestar.com/article/533435 "Prime Minister Stephen Harper was made aware of the kidnapping, which occurred two days before last month's election, almost immediately but honoured requests by the CBC, on the advice of security experts, that any attention or media coverage of such kidnappings escalates the incident, and often leads to dire results. " Melissa Fung, a CBC reporter was held for awhile in Afghanistan, and they too decided to protect their reporter. This is all fine and dandy, but lets get serious here, whenever someone is kidnapped and it make the news the bad guys have what they want: PUBLICITY What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Report after the fact if you must, but lets think of the kidnapees!

Global warming doesn't affect us now.

I live in Nunavut you insensitive clod.

Apparently where it's offered, it isn't selling. From http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/633960:

The voters in B.C. weren't just electing a new legislature on Tuesday; they were also voting in a referendum on a new electoral system - the "single transferable vote," or STV.

STV is too complex to describe briefly. Suffice it to say that it is a form of proportional representation now in use in several small places. It was almost adopted by B.C. voters in a 2005 referendum, where it fell just two percentage points short of the threshold of 60 per cent required for passage. Electoral reform advocates across Canada were hoping to breathe new life into their cause by achieving a breakthrough in B.C. this time.

Instead, B.C. voters delivered a crushing defeat to STV. Just 39 per cent of them supported the complex system, while 61 per cent opted for the first-past-the-post status quo.

Following on the heels of an even more resounding defeat for proportional representation in the 2007 referendum in Ontario, this surely should bring an end to the electoral reform movement in our country. Canadian voters in two major provinces have sent a strong message that this issue is not high on their priority list.

I only knew about this because I had to watch Ustream feeds of Hockey Night in Canada to see the Canucks-Blackhawks series, and every third ad was policital -- a lot of them being either for or against the Single Transferable Vote.

Mal-2

Your beef at this point is with Canada, not the U.S.

No it is not. It is with your country who imposes its will on everyone else, whether they are friend or foe.

We also have free trade agreements which make putting tariffs on softwood lumber illegal as was ruled by your court systems as laid out in NAFTA. U.S. continues to do what it wants.

We have agreements that prevent your country from interfering with waterways which flow into our country, but they ignore those and do what they want.

We have laws against killing Canadian citizens, but here sits a man on death row which you barbarians are going to celebrate in his murder.

It is illegal to detain people indefinitely, but here sits a Canadian boy who defended himself against U.S. invaders after they killed his family and friends. He's been there since October 30, 2002 without a conviction.

Yet another slam against FOX News. This seems to happen every day here. Well studies show that FOX is *not* a conservative channel, but in fact lies dead-center in its views (relative to the American population), so it's "balanced" moniker appears to be accurate. As for other channels, they are all liberal-leaning, with CBS being the worst:

http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/528635 [thestar.com]

It's been well-known for decades that TV reporters are liberal in their views, so I'm glad FOX exists to provide balanced coverage. Now all we need is a conservative channel, and we'll at last have television that represents all American views - left, center, and right.

Yet another slam against FOX News. This seems to happen every day here. Well studies show that FOX is *not* a conservative channel, but in fact lies dead-center in its views (relative to the American population), so it's "balanced" moniker appears to be accurate. As for other channels, they are all liberal-leaning, with NBC being the worst:

http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/528635

It's been well-known for decades that TV reporters are liberal in their views, so I'm glad FOX exists to provide balanced coverage. Now all we need is a conservative channel (CBN perhaps?), and we'll at last have television that represents all American views - left, center, and right.