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End of Online Anonymity in Canada?
boochy writes "Are we close to losing our anonymity online in Canada? As Angela Pacienza writes in a National Post article; "The record industry's attempts to sue people who share music online threaten to change the widely held expectation that everyone's anonymous when surfing the Internet, lawyers representing the public interest argued Monday."
This is a very interesting article that shows how much the lawyers representing the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic are trying their best to protect our privacy online."
But again, the National Post is just a wet-dream from those rich people who are trying to eliminate the State so they can profit off the unrich people unhindered.
[rant]
For the love of god, the state should NOT be a cash redistribution machine; it should NOT be large, and it should NOT be powerful.
The economy is NOT a zero sum game. Just because someone is rich does not mean that they accumulated their wealth by the exploitation of the "unrich" (is that the new politically correct term? I should probably start using it, lest the "tolerant" masses stone me for being "intolerant").
I have grown weary of standing by while my fellow Canadians rally for a larger, more powerful government. How many times must we walk down this path until we finally accept it leads nowhere.
Well, I suppose as the old saying goes "a government that steals from Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul." Just remember my fellow citizens, do not rest until those with high incomes have LESS money than those on low incomes.
[/rant]
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
Nice apples to apples comparison. There are a number of state schools that are in the same range as your $3800 per year. State funded universities range from $700-$2000 per semester.
I'm not talking about a state/provincial school. I'm talking about a private institution. And not just any private institution - the most expensive one anywhere in Canada. At the time, Acadia's tuition was the highest anywhere in Canada, of ANY undergraduate university, public or private. I'm saying that it was impossible to find a school in Canada where it was more expensive to get an undergrad degree than Acadia. And it cost $3800 per year.
I'm comparing Canada's most expensive private institution with the USA's average tuition for private institutions. And Canada is obviously far, far more accessible.
I seem to remember paying about $250 per month for Alberta Health to cover my family.
Are you a Canadian citizen? Were you perhaps working here on a work visa? Obviously, immigrants don't get automatic and complete access to our health care system, but taxpaying Canadian citizens don't have to pay anything for health care. Dental and vision is a different story - yes, you have to pay for that. This is, however, usually covered by your employer, if you have one. Otherwise, sure, it's a few bucks a month, but nowhere near the $250 you cited.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
Second, the State has a duty that everyone can lead a decent life. This means that it has to make sure no one gets swindled by anyone, be it a bank, an employer or a scammer. With the barriers to entry that the rich are putting all over the place to prevent competition from entering the markets, the Economy is starting more and more to turn into a zero-sum game.
The time when an entrepreneur can pursue an opportunity is long gone, not thanks to increased government regulation, but thanks to anticompetitive trade practices that are effected by the larger and larger conglomerates that swallow more and more of the Economy every day. We know and have seen where the opposite (less and less State) goes towards: we see it daily at work in the USA, a place where the rich and powerful trample the unrich into meaningless pulp. Typical bourgeois poppycock. Their propaganda aims only towards the elimination of the State so it will stop preventing them from abusing consumers and the public. Ask yourself: when a rich man asks for something, does he do it for everybody's sake or merely for his own? When you're greedy enough to have accumulated a vast fortune, your motivations are rather crystal-clear.
Ironically, I think that we are both on the same side on the issue.
is certainly not capitalism.
Something that is not textbook "responsible capitalism for dummies" is not de facto socialism as your previous post insinuated. The particular levy issue is a case of aberrant capitalism wherein corporate consortium has exerted enough influence on government as to institutionalize the expropriation of wealth from individuals (by a government acting as an agent of the corporations) to enrich corporations whose dated business models are failing.
What would you call forcefully taking money from everyone just to support the actions of certain people?
Bush tax cuts.
By the way, notice how I managed to write the above without any argumentum ad hominem?
Your original post was a sly attempt to disparage a great country ad populus, an action to which this particular hominem takes serious umbrage.
Less it be misconstrued by those acquainted only with binary viewpoints: I am not anti-capitalist - I live and work in and benefit from the capitalist system. But there needs to be a balance. A sad fact of the human condition is that too much power in any one group's hands leads to their abuse of those with less power.
Sigs are bad for your health.