Slashdot Mirror
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
"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 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
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).