RCMP Cracking Down On Internet Music Piracy

Sydney Weidman writes: "CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio Arts in Canada is reporting that the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) are cracking down on internet music piracy, beginning with a pair of arrests in Quebec. This is the first time I have heard of such action in Canada. As usual, Canadian authorities are always eager to "harmonize" enforcement policies with their cronies south of the 49th parallel. Canada is no longer a sovereign nation, I think. It is, as I once heard a New Yorker say "a large suburb of Detroit". I was hoping Canada might take a more enlightened approach to protecting constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, but apparently it is not to be. The link to the story can be found here."

Comments

Interesting.

[AndrewD]

Ordinary copyright in the UK doesn't attract the attention of criminal law enforcement agencies. Counterfeiting of goods, being a rip-off of the consumer (apparently people who pay good money for a designer label/perfume/what-have-you want a real sense of smug self-satisfaction, not a fake one) does get the Trading Standards people (not police, although they work with police support) all antsy.

Providing acknowledged knock-offs of software doesn't attract criminal enforcement though, breach of copyright being a civil matter over here.

What they do do, though, is run a fairly low-key ad campaign to point out that the profits of bootlegging get used to finance drug dealing and the sodomising of kittens and other family pets - I exaggerate only slightly - and as such responsible people shouldn't get involved.

Re:Interesting.

[AndrewD]

It is if you're creaming the profits off to buy terrorist weapons, which is the other bit of agitprop they frequently add to the mix.

Since you're money is far more likely to be used to finance the killing of innocent bystanders if you invest it in one of the big four clearing banks (eg by way of the account your salary goes into), I find it difficult to be concerned.

What Constitution?

[nezroy]

Canada might take a more enlightened approach to protecting constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, but apparently it is not to be.

I hate to point out the inherent hypocrisy of the article, which assumes that Canadian government should defend American rights, but in a more enlightened manner. There is no "Constitution" in Canada; nothing like what the States has, anyhow. And if there were, it would have a very different idea of what it considers basic rights. Anyway, Canada has always been trying to oppose music piracy (e.g. Canadian recordable media levy tax) -- just that nobody cared or noticed until it became an issue in the States.

The one we brought home in 1982

[RhetoricalQuestion]

There is no "Constitution" in Canada; nothing like what the States has, anyhow.

Check your facts. From 1867 to 1982, the Canadian Constitution was the British North America Act. That is, it was the act that Britain passed which made Canada a Dominion. It lived in London, and therefore any changes to it had to be made by the British Parliament. For example, in 1929 Nellie McClung et al. had women declared as persons under the law by going to London and arguing before the Privy Council.

In 1982, Prime Minsister Pierre Trudeau brough the Canadian constitution home to Canada, under the Constition Act which meant that we could change and rewrite it without the approval of the British Parliament. This Act, plus the subsequent amendments and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms make up the Canadian Constitution.

And if there were, it would have a very different idea of what it considers basic rights.

You're both right and wrong. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms (written in 1982) is actually quite similar to the Bill of Rights -- partly because it took a lot of its ideas FROM the Bill of Rights. There are some key differences, however:

• The American Bill of Rights forms everything as a negative right. Thus, Americans don't have the right TO free speech -- they have the right to NOT have their rights to free speech taken away. This is part of the reason why in the States, free speech issues are particularly messy, and things like Gun Control Laws are hard to pass.
• The first thing in the Charter states that all of our Guaranteed Freedoms are subject to &quotReasonable Limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society" This allows for things like laws against hate literature.

So Sydney is NOT asking the Canadian Government to defend American rights in a more enlightened manner, he's asking them to defend OUR rights, in a more enlightened manner. Which makes sense since (IMHO) our rights were granted to us in a more enlightened manner. (Mind you, we had 200 years of the American example to learn from.) There is no inherent hypocracy in the article.

The only thing that annoys me more than Americans who spout off incorrect garbage about Canada are Canadians who spout off incorrect garbage about Canada.