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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."
Just some random (and probably irrelevant!) thoughts...
As an American, I agree. My country is far too full of itself for its own good. Arrogance and pushiness are not virtues.
As a Canadian I have to say - "STAY THE FUCK OUT OF OUR LAWS."
Granted, as the U.S. is our largest trading partner, we have a number of things that are a little "grey" or messed up... For example, if it was not for the U.S. influence we probably would have legalized pot long ago.
I love the minority government we have right now though - our Prime Minister just denied a number of the White Houses requests because there could have been a forced election if he went against the will of the people. I hope it continues this way - bizzare concept I know - the will of the people driving things?
What is really sad is that much of our law is based on the changes that came about in the U.S. oh, about 200 years ago... (And English law as well)
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
This is a good point. Our PR class covered the DMCA a couple weeks ago, and our teacher couldn't stop saying, "this is the world we live in, folks".
I got the impression most kids didn't know it even exists, and this is on a college campus where liberal ideas are tatooed on your forehead as a prereq for admission.
Even my strctly conservative father doesn't like the DMCA after a brief explaination of its implications. I think people just don't know what its all about.
you know i like tony blair for one reason , he is the greatest thing to hapen to the scottish independance movment since Thatcher .
.
I am sick fed up of his Brown(Pun not a false capital) nosing to Bush.
John Smith would have been a Truely great leader had he not sufferd the heart attack(Blair got in ridding off of Smiths past achivments) and had he been alive today i am sure he would have told Bush where to shove it(perhaps i over-esteem him , but i really admired the man, an honest politican is a rare thing)...I digress.
The Blair-Bush alliance would suffer some serious problems if it occurs that a political problem hapens with canada and the US, The commenwealth is still a major source of trade and the rest of europe would quickly side with Canada forcing the Labservitives hand
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
As an American, I can say that many of us do, and we don't like it. Chalmers Johnson recently wrote a book called the Sorrows of Empire making the case that we are indeed an empire in all but name. This realization has been slowly growing. People who make the claim that we are an empire are less often dismissed as cynics. Even the Economist is claiming that we are an empire.
We have military personell in over 135 nations. Most have less than 20 and are probably guarding embassies, but more than you would think have over 1000, including Belgium. The UK has over 13,000. It can be said that the sun never sets on the American Empire.
Many Americans are horified by this. Some are proud of it. Some are both horrified and proud.
Another interesting site
Nice Marmot
What I find amusing is that you find rejecting a facist policy such as the DMCA a "fuck you".
What I find a bigger "fuck you" is feeling that he can push his internal policies on other countries, even if they stand to hurt that country and its own internal policies.
It is a bit like trying to turn countries from socialism/communism using mulitary coups and CIA involvement, even when it is against the will of the people. (sometime at home as well)
Oh wait...that already happened....many times...
"the US will back up these strong suggestions with threats of trade sanctions etc"
Well in answer to that all I need do is point out that Canada is America's largest external supplier of oil and I would guess probably natural gas. I'm pretty sure that China would be glad to take all of Canada's oil currently going to the U.S. if the Bush administration were to be their usual arrogant selves and start a another trade war. Venezuela is on the verge of doing just this and they account for another big chunk of America's oil imports like 12% if I remember. This tactic wouldn't work very well if there was a surplus in the oil markets but there isn't a surplus now so it DOES work very well.
For a country that is completely dependent on the rest of the world for energy and is by far the world's largest debtor nation its threats are starting to ring pretty hollow. The U.S. does have the honking big military but its been established that the American military is pretty impotent as long as you don't go toe to toe with them in the open and opt for an insurgency instead.
The U.S. really does need to be blessed with an attitude adjustment that when you have become completely dependent on the rest of the world for energy, completely dependent on other nations to to prop up your massive debt, and most of your manufactured goods come from abroad that you are a pretty impotent nation and the rest of the world can start treating you as such.
@de_machina
I think what the parent is referring to is the fact that business will innovate far quicker in china because they will not get caught up in the ip red tape that is in the US.
I see your point, but I doubt the chinese government are that stupid as to waver foreign investor confidence and "take all their ip" as you say. instead, increased taxation in a profitable business sector is a far more PC and palatable approach.
you see, the US patent law seems to try to protect ideas from being profited on by others, but instead, is being used as a vehicle to stifle invention. take for instance, Kodak vs. Sun over Java. Kodak waits until Sun makes a few $$$, and then sues them for their "patent infringement". what happens the next time someone half intelligent builds something great in their garage? should they search through and interpret every single patent that's been registered before making that invention? no, instead, they will not bother at all. and that's where countries like China will offer a more competitive environment, where the best ideas will survive (because they need to be good in order to!)
Sorry, but I've a sneaking suspicion the rest of Canada puts more money into Quebec than they're "stealing".
How about you just give Ontario back all the money you've, uhh, "borrowed"?
I think it is way past time for Canada to point out to the UN that the US is in violation of UN resolutions, has had questionable elections, and should be invaded by a U.N. force to restore democracy.
If Conoleeza Rice and Tom Delay are part of the collateral damage we will learn to live with it.
I am lucky that I cannot get jailed for viewing a legally purchased DVD under Linux. Our parliament didn't directly implement that in the law, but put an exception in the law comments that (I hope) will keep me out of jail while viewing legally purchased content with an non-approved DVD viewer.
That legislation was imposed on the EU from the US and US corporations.
Another law change was imposed specifically on our country after a threath of US trade restrictions through the WTO. This law change makes it possible for copyright holders to raid my private home if it is "probable" that I may have violated a copyright (or patent, or trademark). No need to get the police involved, a "probable violation" for a non-criminal offence is enough to get my private home raided.
In particular the last law change made it clear to me why so many people around the globe hate the US because they think the US tries to impose their views on them. This gave me a better understanding of why a lot of US-foreign people think the US is imperialistic, and condome terrorist actions.
I still do not concome terrorist actions, but I hate the US government now (fortunately not the US people although they are supposed to have democratically have selected their government), and understand why some people want to retailate against the US.
Except for one point, We are the largest seller of Oil to the US, is that a faucet I hear being shut off. And electricity, don't forget about that. Boy is New York Dark all of a sudden.
Seems you haven't followed the news out of Canada in the past two years. More than one Polition has told them that in pretty much those words....
Of course the US didn't like it was demanding that those people lose their jobs, how dare they critize (for whatever reason) the mighty US of A?
So much for free speech.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
Not really. Unlike Iraq, Canada and those who would immediately ally with her have more than enough firepower to level the entire United States several times over. More realistically, they have more than enough trade power to cripple the US economy several times over.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.