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U.S. Senators Pressure Canada on Canadian DMCA
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. copyright lobby brought out some heavy artillery last week as
it continued to pressure Canada to introduce a Canadian DMCA. U.S.
Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins gave a public
talk in which he described Canadian copyright law as the weakest in
the G7, while Senators Dianne Feinstein and John Cornyn wrote to
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to urge him to bring in movie piracy
legislation."
Sometimes I think the US should just leave the rest of the planet alone. Just because "they" think one thing, doesn't mean it is the case...
when in doubt press enter and we'll figure it out later..
I think I can speak for most Canadians when I say:
Please, leave us alone. We can run our own country just fine without you.
WTF is this??? Once again, the American Senators think they can go about policing the world using blatantly wrong informtion that was provided by people who should not be providing information. I am sickened by the level of stupidity displayed by the US's lawmakers. These people are either voted into office (and we all know how unhackable the Diebold and other eVoting machines are), or are placed there by people who have other agendas. What agendas you ask? The lining of their pockets and subjugation of anyone who doesn't agree with them. I think this happened once before in the course of human history. If I remember correctly, I think this empire was called Rome. Or Roman. (And yes, I AM being exceedingly sarcastic at this time, since 0.001% of the US Senators will know what Rome was...) Thankfully, the Roman Empire collapsed on itself when a bunch of crazy people took control. But it started with just one. And right now, the US has a VERY crazy/insane/retarded President in charge. Perhaps this is the begining of the end...??? I sure hope so.
As a Canadian and a copywrite holder I say, you do what you like there, and we'll do what we like here. It's your country, have fun! But this is our country and we'll do as we damn well please.
We have more pressing problems. Social problems, economic and political problems. Copywrite? We've got bigger fish to fry.
The US is a huge net exporter of copyrighted materials. Of course they're going to put the screws to other countries to tighten up copyright laws. Welcome to the real world.
Every week he seems to make a few comments bashing Canada, usually at public events, and typically without any real justification. Some of these comments are patently false, or non-applicable to the Canadian reality, many of them are mean spirited and seem to be designed to damage the historically good relations between Canada and the US. The guy is single handedly responsible for 78% of the anti- american sentiment in Canada.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
Isn't this the same guy who said that Canada should butt out on Arar being on the no-fly list, because it is an internal US matter?
Hmm.. surely he has the same attitude towards internal Canadian matters, right? Otherwise, he'd just be hypocritical. Right? Oh, wait..
I am the maverick of Slashdot
Dear USA, Please keep your ideas to yourself, and leave my country alone. It's better this way. Just because you're miserable doesn't mean you have to go spoiling things for the rest of us. Sincerely, Canadian
"It seems to me (and I know I'll get flamed for this) that the US is only trying to protect its exports. This is not an example of bullying or trying to run the whole world."
6 6216
Yes, that's exactally what it is. (Of course, you expected to get flamed!). Do you not recall the Slashdot story, where the claim that movies are generally pirated in Canada was false? The RIAA's own information contradicts that assertion:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/05/1
So, this is the RIAA, using it's bought and paid for Senators to try to influence politics in another country. Guess how much US Senators like Canadian politicians giving them advice? (Like 'don't go to Iraq'). About the same as we like US 'Ambassadors' telling us what we should do in our own country.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
I used to live in the US, and when I got my driver's license I got summoned for jury duty. Well, you think these idiots would know that a non-citizen has no business dealing in the judicial or legislative process of another country. It's simply not morally right.
But, by the same token, I would ask Senator Feinstein to PLEASE FUCK RIGHT OFF. I didn't serve on jury duty in your goddamned state, so don't ask our Prime Minister to do your dirty work for you.
"I also read that the movie studios are considering delaying the release of movies in Canada to reduce the incidences of movies hitting BitTorrent before they hit the theaters."
So they think that preventing Canadians from paying to see the movies in a theater will encourage them not to download those movies instead?
Oh, sorry, I forgot we're talking about movie studio logic here.
This story was discredited, it's a mess of bad stat's and unfounded allegations that are not supported by the actual facts. The original Canada.com story stated
Thursday, January 25, 2007 As much as 50 per cent of the world's pirated movies come from Canada, prompting the film industry to threaten to delay the release of new titles in this country. (someone note the bolded words, I could write as little as 0 % and not change the meaning of the sentence, why? Because it's a weak garbage sentence that implies far more then it supports.)
The link that you posted was a little more bald in it's assertions, but not really that different. Try reading this link to the Toronto Star to see where reasonable minds dispute the "facts" presented by the American Media Companies.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
The article you are quoting says
So combine
1) the initial reports claiming 50% of movies were camcorded in Canada with
2) the threat of delayed movie releases in Canada and
3) demands for Americanized copyright protections in Canada
And you get a perfect example of bullying.
Never has it been more true than during this shining era of Bush Administration that the world at large has been inclined to take America's advice to change, to "jackboot themselves into line", as an indication they are doing something right. This will only make us Canadians way more likely to loosen, rather than tighten, legislation.
The thing about your World Stage move from friend to bully is that nobody will take you seriously any more, not unless you pull out your big stick. For 'friends' this stick has always been your deep pockets, but thanks to your recent choices in leadership has been whittled away.
Before Bush: $1 US = $1.68 CDN. Today: $1 US = $1.16 CDN (and its been as low as $1.10).
Not such a big stick anymore...top that off with your rough foriegn policy and the increasing ease of global commerce, and suddenly we don't really care so much anymore when you get mad at us.
And, to be clear, dear Americans, this isn't "the politicians" talking, this is America talking...you vote for them, you let them run your country, they are your voice as surely and purely as anything you say yourselves. Only citizens of a dictatorship get to cry innocent.
Sooner or later you guys are going to have to take back what your elected weasels have taken from you. Until then, come on up North, we'll watch some downloaded movies, smoke some fine Cuban cigars, do some online gambling, throw rice at a couple of ladies getting married and freeze our asses off (hey, it's still Canada).
Ok please anyone who knows who to call in Canadian Parlement to tell them that no US Canadians DO NOT want the complete screwup is the DMCA in the US. Considering its done nothing but screw up people lives in the US, why on gods green earth would Canada even think about getting it. so come on who do I call, mail, run up and speak to ??
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/05/barenaked-lad ies-new-album-free-no-drm-now/
Why does it seem like the only effect of the '06 election is that the payoffs go into a different set of pockets?
[Insert pithy quote here]
As a Canadian, I've learned to ignore anything said by U.S. ambassadors. The message from the U.S. is invariably hypocritical.
On the matter of Maher Arar, a Canadian who found himself on a list of suspected terrorists and shipped to Syria to be tortured, a Canadian panel found that mistakes were made and Arar was given a formal apology by the Canadian government and a $10 million compensation package. Our government then requested Arar to be removed from the U.S. terrorist list because the information was shown faulty. U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins said, "It's a little presumptuous for him [our Public Safety Minister] to say who the United States can and cannot allow into our country."
On the matter of the U.S. ignoring World Trade Organization rulings and our North American Free Trade agreement and taxing our lumber exports, David Wilkins dismissed our ministers' complaints as "emotional tirades". That's $5 billion dollars in illegal tarrifs. Any country would get a bit emotional...
David Wilkins also questioned our claim to some of the Arctic waters bordering Canada's north. Wilkins objected to Canada placing military icebreakers up in the north. What, the U.S. thinks it has greater access to the Arctic than Canada??
And now he's telling us that our technology laws are too lax for America's comfort... So we can't tell the U.S. how to interpret international trade laws and we can't tell the U.S. that a man's rights were violated because of flawed intelligence and we can't tell the U.S. where our northern geographic borders lie... Yet David Wilkins believes the U.S. has the right to tell us how we listen to our music???
David Wilkins lacks the smooth rhetoric required of an ambassador. He's not willing to look at compromises. He's not a U.S. Ambassador to Canada. He's Bush's pitbull to keep the troublesome Canadians in check.
30M Canadians includes kids too, which represent a fair portion of the population. Statistics Canada says family size is about 3.3 right now. So that's 30B for ~9M families, or 3300$/family.
So piracy means every single family - poor and retired folks included - 275$/month worth of entertainment, every single month, year-round? Ludicrous.
Yes, piracy has cut in my spending somewhat (not buying crap not worth buying anymore, but I still support my favorite artists), but it's not like I was even spending that much in the first place, even if you include things like cable TV and Netflix.
Please keep up your heavy-handed and insulting efforts to force Canada to change their laws. Where a gentler, more nuanced approach using the Canadian copyright interests might have succeeded, this sort of bullying is likely to inspire Canada to resist, and poisons the well for future lobbying attempts. May your tyranny always be tempered by incompetence.
Really I think what's going on is completely backwards. Canadian MPs and Senators should be lobbying the American congress and senate for looser copyright laws. Encourage the the United States to switch from its current witch hunt lawsuit enforcement system to instituting blank media levies or something similar.
Oh, a lesson in history from Mr. I'm my own grandpa.
It might be interesting if Senate and House legislators were to have all of their bank accounts (foreign and domestic) audited, pre election, post election, during term, after term. Oh, let's not forget the President's, and all of his cabinet member's accounts as well...
It might, just might, get rid of a lot of the "corporate influence" that seems to run through currently.
Who is general failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
Of course, the USA put import tariffs on Canadian lumber , in direct violation of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade) and GATT rules. Fought tooth and nail against removing them for 7 years. Collected billions in illegal tariffs. Refused to abide by one tribunal decision after another, determining the duties were illegal. (Even though they signed the treaties to agree to abide by these tribunals' decisions).
In the end, they pressured the Canadians into signing away their right to export lumber to the USA duty-free, in exchange for the return of 40% of the duties they had already illegally collected, at the threat of 5 more years of the same...
This is just LUMBER. It's not even a major industry for the USA, but they still felt the need to fight dirty and nasty and long. It's just one example.
And they wonder why Canadians don't like being told how to run their country by Americans...
Despite the rhetoric designed to get us to implement DMCA-type laws, the copyright law in Canada is quite good. You cannot make copies for resale. You cannot even give away copies.
But if you're going to sue someone over this: (a) you better be prepared to set precedent, the details aren't ironed out yet, so you better have a good case (b) we pay a blank media tax for artists, the presumption obviously that some private copies will be made (c) if you sue and lose in court, you likely pay their lawyer costs (d) if you want to find someone's details from an ISP, you have to prove it to a judge in court, not just sign a paper allegation for a clerk (e) you can't demand usurious compensation, you have to prove real damages (f) there's no guarantee you'll get legal costs if you win.
I do know some guys from the early days of the internet here in Canada, who were nailed by Playboy for selling CD's of copyrighted pictures. Playboy didn't get rich of a bunch of kids, but they did make sure these guys would not take the risk of doing it again. Our legal system does work.
Somehow, the RIAA's trained senators don't seem to like fair rules.
Harper is (ideologically) close to George Bush (but infinitely smarter).
That said, they'd need do something about the fair-use rights consumers have (you can make a private copy of a music CD that you borrowed) and stop charging the tariff on the blank media we currently pay. That or work it into the system.
Canada does a lot of things to keep the US happy. Most Canadians aren't against marijuana, and while there are laws in place, being caught we substantial quantities rarely amounts to much more than a slap on the wrist.
Unfortunately, the only thing more diverse than our respective takes on guns, drugs and fair-use-media is the size of the two economies. Sometimes Canada has to pay lip service to something that we'll never take action on. This is probably going to end up as one of those issues.
However, I don't think it's the industry's decision how much legislation should be applied to be considered protection. That's the local authority's job. Another problem is the roundabout way the industry attempts to strongarm other countries into doing their bidding. Sure, submit your proposals to the government of said country asking for what you want, but it's disgusting to use your local government to strongarm the foreign government into passing laws for you.
Especially since any government perporting to be democratic should be putting the interests of it's own people before those of foreign corporations. (This is something the US has historically been very poor at respecting.)