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Behind the Scenes of Canada's Movie Piracy Law
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist's latest Toronto Star column features a behind-the-scenes look at how Canada got its movie piracy bill based on internal government documents obtained under the Access to Information Act. Few will be shocked to learn that Hollywood lobbyists provided draft legislation months earlier as part of their barrage of lobbying, though the documents show that advisers to the Minister were skeptical that the proposal would accomplish anything. From the article: 'The industry's lobby efforts were clearly successful. Ignoring the inconsistent claims, the absence of evidence that Canadian films are being affected, the contrary internal advice, and the bracing reality that Hollywood has acknowledged that the U.S. is by far the largest source of illegal camcording worldwide notwithstanding its movie piracy legislation, Bill C-59 is expected to sail through Parliament. In doing so, Ottawa is sending Canadians two messages. The first is what drew the industry standing ovation - unauthorized camcording will not be tolerated in Canada even if it means diverting law enforcement resources from health and safety issues to movie theatres. The second is that private meetings, foreign pressures and lobbyist drafted bills is how law gets made in Canada.'"
"even if it means diverting law enforcement resources from health and safety issues to movie theatres"
I'd rather not do that... to me, health and safety is worth more than money.
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And this is news? Come on, you don't really think Canada (or any other "civilized" country is soverign, do you? What Hollywood (or any big business, for that matter) wants, they get, governments be damned. Face it, the only vote anyone on this planet really has is measured by how much money they have in their wallet.
All it means to me is that it will be harder to smuggle food into the theatres.
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)
A film maker's job is to create an alternate reality and make it believable. They've just done that in real life.
The bill, at Bill C-59 says that it's only a crime if the theatre manager says so.
This allows the manager to set his own camera up in the projection room, which is conveient, but not as convenient as running the film through a scanner or the DVD through a duplicator.
Perhaps the drafters think that theatre managers can't be bribed?
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
They bought it.
No one should be the least bit surprised. Its how governments work now.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Really. What the industry wanted was a DCMA type act in Canada. They didn't get that and they won't get that. Instead they settled for an anti-camcording law. Not many people will argue that camcording in the theatre is good. Not even the pirates like it, makes for lousy copies. In the end the industry gets a sop, and the government says, okay, we did our bit. It will make no difference to piracy in the end (Canada is not the major source of pirated movies in the world).
No, cops won't stop doing policing over it. They are certainly not going to drop a car chase or a stakeout to go pick up a kid with a camcorder. That's just silly.
As for the thin edge of the wedge, the conservatives are not doing well in the polls, and they only managed a minority government last time after catching the liberals in what they billed the scandal of the century. They are not going to be around for much longer anyway. Then we will get the do-nothing liberals, and that's what htey wil do - nothing.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper? Isn't he the guy who, when IDF warplanes killed UN Canadian Peacekeepers said "Well, what were they doing there anyway?"
Wonder if he's going to give the Canadian people back their CD levies? ($0.29 per unit for Audio Cassette tape (40min or longer); $0.77 per unit for CD-R Audio, CD-RW-Audio & MiniDisc; $0.21 per unit for CD-R, CD-RW (non audio) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy )
Stop voting for people like this. It only encourages them.
I thought this whole business was remarkably clever of the Canadian government. They managed to sidestep a messy showdown with Hollywood by outlawing something that isn't a problem. Seriously, our movie theatres are not giant igloos, and pirating movies on a camcorder hasn't been an issue for a decade or more (has it ever been?). These days pirated movies usually come from stolen or "borrowed" cinema masters.
Given the choice between having Hollywood lobbying against something stupid, like a camcorder ban, or something more serious, like a DMCA equivalent, I'd much rather pacify them with the stupid stuff.
my friends went to the movies on Saturday, and guess what the police is hired to do? The police is hired to check everyone's bag as they enter the theatre to make sure there is no camcorder. That is the most idiotic thing that Canadian politicians did - cave in to a foreign country's lobbying group, at the expense that each teenager and older person has his or her bag examined.
Greater lineups? You bet! However, it's not so much the lineups as the feeling that a little bit of dignity is robbed away from you.
Don't you know that the most egregious and offensive crime you can commit is stealing (back) from the rich?
You're using her as bait, Master!
I find it funny that celibs think that because the can sing a song or make a movie, their opinion is more important than the opinion of other people...Bono is hypocritical when he expects governments to increase their AIDS funding to Africa and continue down the road of debt forgiveness using tax payer money when he moves his business out of Ireland because he was paying too much tax...I am getting very tired of being told what I should think and feel from people who just happen to be an entertainer!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!!!
Almost daily there is news in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) of crimes, including murder, committed with hand guns. Legally obtaining a handgun in Canada is very difficult (and has been since the mid 1930's), so the vast majority of these hand guns are illegal imports from the USA.
:(
I wish governments and big business on *both* sides of the border would devote as much attention, time and money to the issue of illegal handgun imports into Canada as they do about movie piracy. I don't know about the rest of you people, but I am a lot more afraid of somebody walking into a local movie theatre here in Canada with an illegal handgun than an illegal camcorder. Are movies worth more than lives anymore?
The other issue to me, one that Hollywood & the studios and others never address, is that for me and my family (two adults, two children) to go see a movie in a theatre today, with admission, parking, car gas, popcorn, drinks, etc, etc, I'll spend at least $100. I don't have that kind of money to go as often as I would like too. Sorry Hollywood, but this month the car needed fixing and the kids needed dental work. I am sure most of you have similar stories. I am also pretty peaved that the very fews times I do go to a movie theatre, I have to sit through several minutes of commercials for an event I PAY to attend. This turns me off completely. Are you guys litening out there?
But I will and do buy DVDs.
With everybody buying larger and larger TVs, home theatre systems, etc, etc, why not release DVDs of new movies at the same time as they are released in theatres? I imagine you would kill off a lot of piracy right there and then. I don't have the big screen LCD TV myself (yet), but someday when I do, I'd rather stay home and watch movies in the comfort of my own house.
Movie distribution today is bascially a very flawed business model due to many factors, including some of those listed above,a nd trying to place the blame on piracy will do nothing to help. Wake up and smell the coffee.
I hope you know something I don't. With regards to the anti-camcording bill, the head of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association[2] said it "is really the first step - not only for the movie industry - where the government has shown it will seriously address the whole area of intellectual property theft." Reports are that the government intends to go ahead with a DMCA-style "reform". Bev Oda, one of the two ministers responsible for copyright, has previously said Canada will ratify international treaties, implying that includes the WIPO treaty on which the DMCA is based[1]. The 2007-2008 Report on Plans and Priorities lists "copyright reform" as a priority to which the government has "previously committed". Given the
On the up side, now is not the time to give up: the significant opposition to stronger copyright provisions seems be having an effect. While the RPP's statement on the issue points towards anti-circumvention legislation and a flawed conception of copyright as a simple conflict between creators and consumers (when in fact there are creators on both sides, and citizens and the public interest are directly affected), it avoids committing to any paricular course of action:
I wrote to her in January and received a similarly ambiguous reply: "the Government is continuing to consider the concerns of all Canadians . . . The Government wants to ensure that the rights of Canadian creators are adequately protected by law, and that these rights are balanced with the ability of the public to access works."
[1] I should point out that Canada is under no obligation to ratify the WIPO treaty. Even if we do, the treaty's anti-circumvention provisions don't require all of the excesses of the DMCA:
[2] For the most part we don't make Canadian films, we distribute American ones. For the distributors, maximalist intellectual monopoly laws are in their interests even if they inhibit the production of Canadian films.
How is listening to foreign lobbyists over your own people and banning something that isn't a problem a "clever move"?
It is a clever move to toss them a bone rather than having them agitate for your entire skeleton, especially when the bone you toss is meaningless and costs you nothing.
What inferno? The MPAA can't do jack against another country, and they aren't going to stop releasing movies in Canada if this doesn't pass.
Did you honestly just say "the MPAA can't do jack against another country" without giggling? Why don't you ask a Swede how they feel about the MPAA's influence in their country? You might come away better informed.
Canada's exhibitor industry exists only by the leave of the various American movie associations who sell them content. I've been e-mailing back and forth with a friend who works for one of the major studios here, and I can tell you that around their office they're damn thankful at how this turned out because the alternative meant possible industry action, which threatens their paycheques directly (she's in exhibitor relations).
In this situation, the Americans hold all the cards. They own the movies, and in most cases they own the movie theatres.
Negotiating with bullies so that they're under the impression you've conceded to their demands when in fact nothing has changed is a clever move. It's called diplomacy, and it works.
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