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RCMP Won't Go After Personal Filesharers
mlauzon writes "The RCMP announced that it will stop targeting people who download copyrighted material for personal use (Google translation). Their priority will be to focus on organized crime and copyright theft that affects the health and safety of consumers, such as copyright violations related to medicine and electrical appliances, instead of the cash flow of large corporations. Around the same time that the CRIA successfully took Demonoid offline, the RCMP made clear that Demonoid's users don't have to worry about getting prosecuted, at least not in Canada. 'Piracy for personal use is no longer targeted,' Noël St-Hilaire, head of copyright theft investigations of the RCMP, said in an interview. 'It is too easy to copy these days and we do not know how to stop it.'"
The RCMP don't speak for other police forces in Canada--in particular, the provincial police forces (e.g., the Ontario Provincial Police). While I suspect that they won't be aggressively pursuing individuals either, this is no guarantee. I believe the OPP has fairly extensive technology-related policing resources, but I can't substantiate that...
This is a bit ot but hasn't been reported here and my submission was rejected http://www.socan.ca/jsp/en/news_events/news/Tariff22_07.jsp
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
"Illegal file-sharing is not proper theft but it is without a doubt a fraud, as you are getting a service (entertainment) without paying for it."
Wrong. Canadians DO pay for it, via a levy on recording materials (blank CDs, etc) that goes back to the recording industry, so its not even "fraud."
Kevin Smith on Prince
We tried to decriminalize pot but the USians objected and we decided selling them stuff was more important.
Canada's got way more land mass than the U.S. Only country with more land mass than Canada is Russia.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
Not so, actually. The US has more land than Canada; Canada is the second-largest country in the world only when water that is part of the country is considered as well.
Certainly doesn't seem that way on a map - but most map projections are incredibly deceiving. CIA factbook figures:
RUSSIA
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html
total: 17,075,200 sq km
land: 16,995,800 sq km
water: 79,400 sq km
CHINA
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html
total: 9,596,960 sq km
land: 9,326,410 sq km
water: 270,550 sq km
USA
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
total: 9,826,630 sq km
land: 9,161,923 sq km
water: 664,707 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia ( add some for the all the islands, if counting )
CANADA
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html
total: 9,984,670 sq km
land: 9,093,507 sq km
water: 891,163 sq km
Reasons to move to Canada:
1. You won't get prosecuted for piracy
2. Our dollar is now worth more than the US dollar
3. We don't have perfect leaders, but most if not all are more intelligent than Bush
4. We still have some degree of privacy left (aka. our telcos dont spy on us)
5. We have beautiful natural wonders
6. We have much greater diversity of cultures, weather & landscapes.
7. Our beer is much better (& stronger)
8. You can throw a rock in urban cities and hit 3 starbuck locations.
9. We rule at ice hockey
10. You get to wear a tuque, pet a beaver, eat maple syrup, and say eh? instead of huh?
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
Area
Total: 9,984,670 km (2nd)
Water (%): 8.92 (891,163 km)
Thus, Canada has 9,093,507 sq km of land mass.
United States
Area
- Total 9,826,630 km [1](3rd2)
3,793,079 sq mi
- Water (%) 6.76
Thus, the United States has 9,162,350 sq km of land mass.
9 093 506 sq km (Canada's land mass) is less than 9,162,350 sq km (the US land mass), therefore your statement seems incorrect. Canada does have more total area, but more of that area is water.
"According to a study by Industry Canada [michaelgeist.ca], file sharers actually buy more music than non-file sharers. All file sharing allows people to do is to find music that they like much easier. The more stuff they find that they like, the more money they will spend on music. If you've only ever heard of Britney Spears, because that's all the radio ever plays, then you can't buy that many CDs."
This study was torn to bits when it was first covered on Slashdot a few weeks ago. The non-file-sharing group includes people who have no significant interest in music; they don't buy music anyway. But 100% of the music file sharers are music fans and thus there's a possibility that they'll buy music. It's a bit tricky to explain here; this is one of those instances where Venn diagrams come in handy. It's all too easy to confuse correlation with causation here, but it's not the case.
A more useful study would compare two groups of music fans; one made up of people who acquire their music via P2P; the other made up of people who do not. I doubt that the end result would be the same.
Either way, there's a false dichotomy here: if you're a P2P fan you have lots of ways to find new music; if you don't pirate music as a "try before you buy" mechanism, then you do not. Yet I (and plenty of people like me) have absolutely no trouble finding new music and exploring new artists and genres, without resorting to piracy. iTunes is set up quite well to encourage this sort of exploration; there's also Pandora, last.fm, and countless alternative streaming radio stations. While I've no doubt that there are P2P fans who've used P2P to find new music, anybody who attempts to imply that piracy is the only way to find new music is simply trying to justify their behavior, at the expense of honesty.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
You can drive 140 on the 401?!?!!? I can barely go up to 40 most days!! :)