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U.S. Rejects Canadian Rejection of DMCA
P Starrson writes "
Slashdot readers may recall that last
month Canadian policy makers rejected the DMCA for Canada.
Not so fast apparently -- the U.S. Trade Representative has released
the annual Section
301 report which each year tells the rest of the world that they
need stronger intellectual property protection. This year Canada is a
particular target -- the U.S. plans to conduct a special review of
Canadian policies and explicitly rejects Canada's rejection of the
DMCA. A good summary on what this means from Canadian law professor Michael Geist."
the American public rejects the DMCA.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Do you think Bush could leave other countries alone for 10 bloody seconds??
Isn't screwing your own country up good enough?!
The USA can suck my balls if they want us to adopt the DMCA. We dont even want the concessions they have made as it is, never mind the full DMCA.
While im sure it will eventually happen, I've certainly been calling local politicians and telling them about my feelings towards the DMCA and copyright legislation change.
The only way to keep things the way they are is to voice to those in charge that this is the way you like it! Come on canadians dont get lazy on this one.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
I say it's way past time Canada and the rest of the world told the US to go fuck itself.
You're using her as bait, Master!
The actual citizenry of either country has yet to be asked whether they actually want the DMCA, since most of the people don't even know it exists and probably most of congress doesn't even know it exists, since it was passed by voice vote without anyone in congress actually reading it.
The u.s. is in the transition to a wholely IP based economy, the DMCA is their lifeblood to a prosperous future. Log onto cspan sometime and watch the Greenspan-meets-congress videos, he keeps telling them "We need stronger IP laws.." Without any doubt his opinion holds more weight than yours ever will. I don't have much to say to young idealists or anybody with a inkling of hope left except, submit to your masters, it'll be easier.
How on earth do the bought-and-paid-for senators in the states think they can make laws for other countries - without invading them. America, at this rate is well on the path to destroying itself through either corporate corruption - or alienating the rest of the world against it.
It just meant that Canadian lawmakers are more in tune with the values of the typical United States citizen than are the members of the U.S. Congress and Senate.
;-)
:-(
Well, at least in this particular area...
I don't think anyone is surprised anymore that our lawmakers write laws that reflect the values of lobbyists.
Mark
Perhaps if the USA opens the border to Canadian Beef , softwood lumber, and settles all the other open trade disputes Canada could CONSIDER, reconsidering such a bill. But I doubt it.
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
...that I am sick and tired of America's attempts to tell other countries what to do. When commenting in this thread, please keep in mind that not all Americans feel that we should be so meddling, and only 51% of Americans were willing to re-elect the current administration.
I'm beginning to think the US government passes more laws outside the US than it actually does inside the US...
Oh yes, stronger IP laws. Just what everyone in Canada needs and wants.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
If the US can tell us what to do the we should have a say in their election, and it would probably sound like this:
Canada rejects Bush.
NAFTA! Ha! Good luck with that one. See: Softwood Lumber dispute, Mad Cow dispute... Both illegal under NAFTA.
I guess they should be shaking in their boots now, eh?
Why do US policy makers assume that every country needs to have the exact policy as we have? One of the founding priciples of US conservatism is the preservation of sovereignty. That principle has meant that the US has ignored the call for a Canadian-style medical system, or the foreign policy goals of the EU. For good or ill, US conservatism demands that countries decide what is in their own best interests and guide their foreign and domestic agendas accordingly.
Now these conservatives are demanding that Canada abandon sovereignty and model all of their intellectual property laws after the US?
US 'conservatives' have the intellectual consistency of baby shit.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
The exploitation of copyrighted material by Chinese companies is much more detrimental than internet copyright infringment. The funding that is going into attempting to force countries that are marginally complying should instead by spent on those countries which flagrantly break those laws which are _explicitly_ required for the continuation of the creation process.
"this is the gloaming"
radiohead
This is really just an exercise in power, the US will back up these strong suggestions with threats of trade sanctions etc.
The thing that gets me as someone who lives in Britain and recognises the behaviors of the British Empire in the past is that Americans don't recognise that they live in an empire in all but name.
There seems to be a sort of xeno blindness, nothing outwith the US borders exists and therefore cannot be important. The result being these kinds of strong arm tactics used against sovereign nations. Guess why large portions of the world are antithetical.
Deleted
God I love the arrogance of the US. It is shit like this that shows that the US really is imperialistic. If it cannot invade other countries like Iraq, it tries to subvert the legal system to make the laws echo its own.
I still do not see why the US even needs the DMCA. There is nothing in that law other than dismantling of fair use rights that is not covered by either pre-existing copyright law and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. If we do not need it, no other country does.
And why is Canada such a big deal? You would think they would want a place like China where piracy is rampant to adopt a DMCA before Canada. But then again Chinese courts have not ruled downloading MP3s off the net legal like Canadian courts did.
Anonymous Cowards generally receive no replies because you're a coward and I'm a bitch
Riiiight- all other developed countries. You'll notice how they stress this like it's the norm and the baseline everyone has. Canada isn't the odd man out, but rather the US is in this case.
Note most Eurpoean and Asian countries, and even in Canada-like Austrailia, have IP laws nowhere near the stupidity of the DMCA.
The US is not the norm. The US is trying to impose it's views coming from CORPORATE AMERICA and project them not only on the individuals but also on the individuals in other countries (all 6 billion of them). The DMCA only removes rights from individuals and gives it to corporations.
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
What nerve. The US refuses to honor its own laws and international treaties concerning the softwood lumber issue with Canada (yes, I am in BC), yet insists that Canada implement the draconian DMCA or something similar.
I hope the government of the day has the balls to tell the US that we refuse to talk about IP until the US honors the NAFTA rulings re softwood lumber.
It was fine until they loosened the restrictions on corporations. You can thank the lobbiests and lawyers for that. Did you know that corporations are considered "citizens" and have almost all the same rights as a person? Here's a pretty good look at why things are the way they are now
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Get the facts straight! First off, the US has had cases of mad cow that initiated in house. The main difference is that the US quietly handles these issues. Funny how only the rest of the world hears about the problems within US borders.
The United States' first probable case of mad cow disease was detected in a cow from a farm in Mabton (washington state)
http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2003/Mad-Cow-Diseas
http://www.theeagleonline.com/news/2004/01/29/New
Second, Canada handled the situation better than anyone.
"In May 2003, veterinary officials in Alberta confirmed that a sick cow sent to a slaughterhouse in January of that year had been inspected, found to be substandard, and removed so that it would not end up as food for humans or other animals. "
And for a view on just how the situation plays out
"On Dec. 29, 2004, The USDA announced that it recognized Canada as a "minimal-risk region" for BSE and imports of young Canadian cattle would resume March 7, 2005.
The new classification means the U.S. will not again close its borders to Canadian beef unless there are two or more cases of BSE per one million cattle older than 24 months of age in each of four consecutive years."
- So the US wont' be as silly for a single cow. With 14 million cattle, that means 28 cows need to have mad cow for them to do that again.
Mad Beef, Yummy -- fine.
But don't put the focus on Canada here considering you've had the same problems and we've collectively had less than many parts of the world.
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
See more at wikipedia here.
How can US government be respected as a democracy if it can't respect its own neighbor's sovereignty?
It's not only about sovereignty, it's also about democracy; US can't even respect Canadian democracy. If the legitimate democratic Canadian Government decided that DMCA isn't apropriate for Canadian People it's US' duty to respect Canadian Government decision as strongly as it fights for democracy in Middle East.
It's about time to the US Government to understand that THE WORLD must be democratic, not only countries. It's about time to the US Government understand that it's necessary to respect the laws and the decisions made by the United Nations.
-=-=-=-=
I know life isn't fair, but why can't it ever be un-fair in MY favor!?
Just like Iraq and other countries, right? The only bits of Canada, or any other country that are sovereign are those outside cruise missile range.
Americans don't recognise that they live in an empire in all but name
Leaving aside the pitfalls of generalizing about "Americans" (something that's becoming increasingly meaningless as that nation polarizes) and confining discussion to the red-staters, I'm not sure the problem is that they "don't recognise" that the US is an empire. It's more that they don't recognise that it's a bad empire. The British Empire wasn't exactly shy about announcing itself, but jingoistic pride, cultural arrogance and a nationalistic media all combined to ensure that its citizens were generally happy about that empire.
I think the same holds here. Read a topic like this at -1 and you'll find a fair number of posters who like being in the American Empire. They like the "we're number one!" thing, they like the knee-jerk machismo that flows from military adventurism, they really do think they're God's chosen country, and they're perfectly willing to let their leaders trample over a world they see as filled with terrorists, godless communists and spineless Eurotrash.
Here's the difference between the US and Canada in Copyright reforms: The American comittee on Copyright Reforms is Sen. Orrin Hatch. He was payed $179,000 in 2004 by the RIAA/MPAA. The members of the Canadian comittee on Copyright reforms, on the other hand, were not given any noticeable contributions by the entertainment industries. For one, corporations are limited into how much they can donate, for another such conflict of interest wouldn't be allowed. So who'se reforms are you likely to believe to be lest biast? The opinion of the side who was payed nearly 200 grand by a party that voices one specific view, or the opinion of the side that wasn't bribed.
"I'm pretty sure that China would be glad to take all of Canada's oil currently going to the U.S."
t /fasttrack/20050415/RENBRIDGE15?section=Energy
Speak of the devil...
http://globeandmail.workopolis.com/servlet/Conten
Deleted
This war of words between Canada and the USA regarding IP has been brewing under the media radar for many years now. Many groups have attempted to filibuster the regression induced by the well-payed USinian lobyists in Ottawa, but they continue to trudge relentlessly onward. I'd like to believe that the many letters I've written, and the many communicae sent by friends and family have had some effect on our MPs, but in my heart I know this is a false hope.
Our ruling parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, both have great incentive to adhere to demands from the USA if it may boost trade in key large industries. Whether this is beneficial to Canada is debatable, where your position is based solely on whether you choose to follow the GDP or general quality of life. In the end, like USinian politics, those proposing and promoting the bills often stand to gain from such draconian IP laws, whether it be from personal business or positive spin in the next campaign.
In a wonderfully Orweillian gesture the WIPO treaties are being pressured to ratification by our own Heritage Minister. She firmly states that initiating the acceptance of these treaties will help to further protect the interests of Canadian content producers. In actuality, this hardly has any direct benefit for Canadian artists and serves to provide a greater influx of cash into large distributors, the sources being litigation and intimidation of the new IP violators. More often than not the distributors are USinian, and will choose to promote artists on a culturally and nationalistically agnostic basis. This is hardly a promotion or protection of Canadian Heritage, and, in my humble opinion, likely serves to further dissolve what exactly it means to be Canadian.
We have a rich cultural history, with many proud and strong events and persons we can look back upon. Sadly, as these are not markettable to a broad North American audience the distributors have little incentive to invest money in them. The Canadian market is small enough that potentially losing a few Canadians to the CBC over nationalism is hardly an issue in comparison to the net cost of producing content intended for a Canadian audience, rather than simply saturating the market with cheap USinian drivel.
This just might have stemmed from the Softwood Lumber dispute. And the live cattle ban that the US has in place as well. A 'tit for tat' if you will.
As for softwood, an International Court has ruled that the US is illegaly charging tariffs on Canadian Softwood lumber crossing the border.
As for the live cattle ban, what a farce, the border is not closed, Americans are buying the cattle here in Canada, having them processed, and then shipping the products over the border, to their huge profit gains. And dont get me started on the lax USDA' BSE testing. Sad to say, but you Americans are eating some very tainted beef products. Some of you are crazy enough as it is, now you get to sue your beef provider chain. Have fun. Lawsuits work for you, not for the rest of the world. Especially not us Canadians.
So, how does this lead to Canadian law not recognising the DMCA, well, our asshats think your asshats made a pretty stoopid law. So we wont put into place the same thing. We have laws protecting copyrighted works. nuff said. Copyright theft, is copyright theft. We have laws for that. We don't need the rest of the totalitarian threats behind the Act. Besides, in Canada, its not illegal to download copyrighted works, partly because, that act is not against the law here. It is against the law to upload copyrighted works. And that works for us.
Much akin to your Patriot Act. What a crock. Its called "Freedom of Speech". Besides, the terrorists we do have here, are probably tax paying citizens anyway, they drive our cabs, our busses, and they clean our offices. We don't have many Mexicans or Puerto Ricans here. Something about the cold...
It's bad enough that SOX got rammed down our throats. This is just another way for Canadians to say "Not in our Land"
Even if rejection of the DMCA violates NAFTA, all Canada has to say is that it will be upholding the ruling in the same manner as the US has upheld the rulings on softwood lumber.
For those that don't know, the US has ignored every, single ruling against it on the softwood lumber issue.
The US seems to only like free trade when it is in the US's favour. Otherwise, f*** it.
"What if canada suddenly made oranges illegal. We dont grow any oranges up here, so only the importers would be affected. But believe me, some orange producer down in the states would be hopping mad."
You mean like how the US made Canadian beef illegal? Or like how the US illegaly made Canadian softwood lumber illegal? Or pork? Sugar?
It's the US that's abusing the situation. So take your orange analogy and shove it.
Maybe they should fix their IP laws instead of trying to fuck up ours just as badly as theirs are.
Some smart people in the US must know that their IP laws will put them at an economic disadvantage... all they have to do is get the whole world to adopt them, and then the party can continue indefinietly!
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
The inevitable conclusion of the effort to make the kind of IP protection you want possible necesssarily requires giving you absolute control over all data, wherever it resides. That is unacceptible.
The short version is this: America can go fuck itself.
I didn't see anything in the report about "the American PEOPLE" having a problem with Canada's internal policies.
Speaking as one of the PEOPLE that the US government is supposed to be representing, I'd like to know why they give a flying fsck what "the U.S. {anything} industry" thinks? Isn't it their job to represent the PEOPLE of the United States?
so now the USA thinks other countries don't get to make thier own laws?
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Fight and struggle! Rally the people and presure the governments, you don't want to end up like us do you?
.. Something Little Johnny forgot to do.
Full power to Canadian Govt for doing right by the people
Keep fighting UK, remind Tony he has more spine than Johnny.
That Texas cowboy has moseyed on in to my country, don't let him do the same to yours!
That's a nice theory, and has some merit in terms of motivation, but in terms of practical results it just isn't working. Check the statistics as http://www.bea.gov/ with respect to international transactions. The US saw a rise in the trade balance on services through the late 90's, but since then imports of services (particularly in the royalties category) have been growing at least as fast as exports. Strange as it may sound the US trade balance in terms of copyright licenses is flattening out, and possibly even starting to sink a little. At a time when the trade balance in goods is completely blowing out that's not a good sign.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
I'm forced to note that baby shit is, in fact, remarkably consistent.
Yes, it is wet, squishy, and stinks.
Just like the intellectual standards of US 'conservatives'.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"