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US Group Calls Canada a Top Copyright Violator
eldurbarn tips a CBC story reporting that the US-based International Intellectual Property Alliance claims Canada has joined Russia and China among the biggest violators of US copyright law. Quoting: "The group's report is the latest to urge the US government into pressuring Ottawa to reform copyright laws." As we have previously discussed here, the current Conservative government had planned to introduce a new copyright law, but dissent from the privacy commissioner and a groundswell of public protest delayed that action. eldurbarn adds, "What makes this story so important now is that this pressure is being applied at a time and in a manner that may cause the Canadian government to fall, forcing an election." Meanwhile, on the other side of the rapidly heating debate, Michael Geist blogs about the forces arrayed against a Canadian DMCA. The Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright, which includes a who's who of the telecom, Internet, retail, and broadcast communities, has outlined a list of its copyright reform demands.
that US copyright law applies in Canada??
Sig? Where I go, I don't need
They are aware that Canada is a separate country, right? US laws do not apply here.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
It's the British government's job to kowtow shamelessly to American commercial interests. Who do these colonials think they are? They'll be wanting to extradite innocent people next.
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
Please note that Canadian lawyers (who enjoy generally greater social respect) will look at US law and find it similarly lacking. But do not have the insufferable American arrogance to claim their national laws should somehow govern all.
Canada is a different country with different norms and practices. Superficial language similarities mask much deeper fundamental differences. In copyright, Canada has a CD tax to compensate artists for such personal copies. The US does too (Music CD blanks), but it is little enforced.
As long as both the US and Canada conform to WIPO, neither has reasonable complaint of the others' national customizations. Utter arrogance and extraterritoriality to maintain otherwise.
Canadian Group Calls U.S.A. a Top Humans Rights Violator.
There... fixed it for ya
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
Isn't this something Canada should be proud of?
Personally I'd love it if they called the UK one of the top copyright violators in the world. Unfortunately our goverment seems to think right now that copyright is more important than even the people that employ them - the general public.
Canada is one of the biggest violators of US copyright law? That's ok - the US is one of the biggest violators of Canadian tax law. Oh, wait. What's that? The US isn't bound by Canadian tax laws? Oh. Interesting that. I guess that sort of thing tends to happen when your a different country and make your own laws...
... so why the fuss?
./er (not to the general public dare I say...) is that they can't believe anymore in the fairytale of corporate capitalism and what a wonderful world it builds for all of us. They see the signs of a vicious fascism creeping everywhere and how even justice and liberty have become commodities to be bought and sold to the highest bidder... well well well... bonne journée!
It used to be done in secret diplomatic meetings and under a cover of foreign relations when big corporate interests dictated their agenda through government mouthpieces, usually with the threat of military/economic pressure looming in the horizon. Their favorite government of choice to carry their agenda was of course US. Now either because governments are too inefficient to flex rapidly or because vote-counting hasn't been "modernized" yet (Diebold anyone?) and most of all because even the most successful PR campaigns always take a finite amount of time to sway public opinion in desirable directions (e.g. took years to convince americans that Iraq was behind 9/11) corporate interests have taken it upon themselves to apply their gunboat diplomacy.
Who needs official government representatives meeting each other anymore when articles written by a lobby team in the US can bring a foreign government down? What is outrageous to the average
Yam, yam, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade
So?
People pushing for these laws tend to apply flawed common-sense reasoning that intellectual property is strictly analogous to physical property, and then build anachronistic business models around it. The United States economy consists largely (if not mostly) of immaterial goods and services these days, and many believe copying that property is tantamount to stealing goods from factories, for example. You can see how they might believe their interests are threatened and why they incorrectly resort to calling this “theft”, which differs subtly from infringement.
Canada is the top copyright violator (overlooking the 'minor' flaw that the copyright laws don't apply in their country since it is US copyright) according to some US group again? I thought Canada had had this label for years?
I say "good on them" for sticking to their own copyright system (for now). I can't remember the last time our (British) government did something that stood up against the Americans.
You had me up until your "Hymiewood" slur.
I can assure you that the Canadian government won't "topple" over lobbyist pressures from South of the border. We Canadians have been tactfully handling Yankee special interest groups for years and years. If the Canadian government does fall it will be only because the Liberal minority believes they can win an election. A non-confidence vote triggers an election and the conservative government won't table a confidence vote they can lose unless *they* believe they can win an election. It's a bit of a catch-22, and ensures that no controversial and divisive legislation is tabled. Both sides are afraid of an election and this encourages bipartisan solutions. We'll reform our copyright law, but we won't do so because of US pressures, everyone acknowledges that the system needs work, but in this political climate, things like our involvement in Afghanistan, the environment, health care, you know the REAL issues, are the ones that get precedence. Sorry RIAA!
Seriously, isn't that what you want to hear a politician just come out with? I'm so sick of greedy pricks in suits going around attacking anyone and everyone for infringing on their precious IP, and getting quoted in the media. Ignore them, for god's sake.
There are some politicians in the US who don't seem to understand the Canada is a soverign country, not under US rule. Maybe they do understand and are simply peeved about it. As a soverign country we do as we please, and we believe that copyright holders can either charge a copyright levy or sue copyright violators, but not both.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
And my response to both is the same: "tough fucking shit."
This space available.
Canada is no more sovereign than the US is.
With the WTO and other international treaties, no major country can afford financially to piss on the rest of the world any more.
It's like the states and the federal government- technically they can do what they want but the cost is too high.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Seriously, as a Canadian, I say FUCK YOU. Keep your shit south of the border, thank you very much.
We are sick and tired of this kind of arrogance.
Intelligence shared is intelligence squared.
There are many entertainment services available to the US that aren't available in Canada. For instance, iTunes movie rentals, online network TV episode viewing, etc., Pandora's box (hehehe) are not available in Canada. If the US companies could get their sh!t together and figure out how to sell these services to Canadians, perhaps Canadians wouldn't have to seek entertainment fulfillment through other channels.
Chris"You can drive out Nature with a pitchfork, but It always comes roaring back again." - Tom Waits
No.
Simply 'wanting' something doesn't give you the right to have it. As a full-time software developer, and as someone who isn't rich or a giant faceless company; I offer you two choices....
1.) Don't use my software.
2.) Pay me for my software.
But no, I don't want a politician to say, "Yeah - all those hours you spent working on that piece of software...well, a lot of voters like free stuff and since we can copy it really cheaply and easily; well, we're going to go ahead and let everyone do that. No, sorry, you won't be getting paid, these people don't want to pay you...but they want to use your stuff. Thanks for writting it and all'
But hey, that's just me.
Capital punishment comes to mind. They are the killing people while they complain about us downloading a few movies. It's lunacy.
A very apt observation, (I liked the Polar bears too). Personally I believe this 'announcement' has less to do with Canada's real or perceived level of IP infringement and more to do with applying political pressure to help force Canada to tow-the-line by way of passing strict IP legislation. Especially since the last attempt by the governing party was shot down in flames by the public.
'Course I didn't RTA, I jumped right to the point where I start shooting my mouth off.