Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

US Group Calls Canada a Top Copyright Violator

Posted by kdawson on from the got-tubes-and-not-afraid-to-use-them dept.

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.

17 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. FUCK copyright law. by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    1. Re:FUCK copyright law. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You and the MPAA/RIAA seem to be missing the thrust of cultural interventionism. Expecting foreigners to pay for the honour of receiving culture whose primary purpose in foreign countries is to encourage pro-American values throughout the world just seems silly. Either (a) stop sending us propagandistic garbage or (b) don't expect us to pay for it. Their choice, really.

    2. Re:FUCK copyright law. by alan_dershowitz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There are some politicians in Canada who don't seem to understand that their country is a signatory to the World Intellectual Property Organization treaty and are under obligation to meet a minimum criteria for copyright law harmonization with other signatories. Maybe they do understand and are simply peeved about it. As a sovereign country they are free to do as they please, but we believe that they can either remain signatories to the treaty or disregard treaty obligations for their own standards, but not both.

  2. End this by gx5000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't it time we end this crazy nonsense ?
    IP reform my buttcheeks ! we need to scrap the whole system.
    The last decade has seen to many idiots trying to claim that an idea
    is a palpable, coherent and legitimate "object" that can be protected.
    I'm not paying to type a smily or say "It's rumbling time"...
    Get a job and go scr@$ yerselves! Ideas should be as free as you are.
    Mind you, Democracy and freedom are myths, but if you're using them as buidling
    blocks to create a society....

    --
    End of Line.
  3. Do you smell that? by MonsterTrimble · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I call it bullshit. First thing that popped into my mind after I RTFA was that 'Canada is considered a pirate (along with Russia and China) but Sweden (and the Pirate Bay) isn't? Did I miss the memo?'

    Secondly, how did these guys come up with these numbers? $511 Million? Between China & Canada that's $3.4 billion dollars in piracy. In music and movies. Think about that. $3.4 billion at $20 per movie/CD (assuming that's the average) is 170 million movies and CDs not being sold this year. Do they even have the capacity to manufacture that much?

    Whatever. I'll gladly pay caesar what he is owed and have my downloads.

    --
    I call it 'The Aristocrats'
    1. Re:Do you smell that? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Economists love to talk about "loss" due to an item not being sold. Yes, according to economists, accountants, and the companies they work for, you can turn a profit and still take a loss. You could sell your entire stock, but it would be considered a loss if you could have sold it all twice as fast.

      It is basically changing the meaning of the word, "loss." The record companies "lose $511 million per year due to copyright infringement" actually translates to, "had all the songs that were downloaded in a given year been purchased at the current market rate, the record companies would have made $511 million more than they did." For someone who is aware of the economist's meaning of "loss," this is obvious and the record companies don't seem that badly off (imagine if they said that they were actually spending $500 million more than they were taking in; they would be going bankrupt). For someone who is not aware of it, it is deceptive -- it makes it sound like the record companies are in serious financial peril, which is about as far from the truth as claiming that 2+2 = -8 i. That's what the companies want, of course.

      Of course, even the economic sense of the word "loss" is dishonest, because the sales probably wouldn't have happened, especially in the case of students or people living in China (where the price of a CD is, for some people, equivalent to 1 week's pay).

      --
      Palm trees and 8
  4. CD Tax in Canada by Aokubidaikon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't the Canadians pay extra tax to cover lost artists' revenue when they buy a blank CD?
    Doesn't that mean that they have the right to copy all they like since it's already been paid for?

  5. Re:Non-sense by mabhatter654 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    no but you have to remember NAFTA takes affect also. I read before that Canadian Copyright is still shorter than US. So works are falling into PD in Canada, then thru the free trade agreement cannot be stopped from import into the US. They only way to "fix" that is to force Canada to adopt our laws exactly.

    Of course, it's not about adopting the SAME terms, they are pushing for even more egregious terms in Canada so they can come back to the US and "align" our terms to our neighbors.. it's only neighborly!!

  6. Though fucking noogies by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 1, Interesting
    With the RIAA demanding mandatory filters be installed on **EVERY** computer under the sun, it's no secret that copyright cartels have totally lost it.

    Remember the proposal of several years ago to have **EVERY** storage device check, at the harware level, if the bits it was copying were not copyrighted? It's the same kind of brain-dead thought that makes the copyright cartels call Canada a rogue copyright country.

    * * *

    In any case, the government will not pass that copyright bill. It may present it to the Commons, but the bill will not make it to the upcoming elections.

    The current minority government will be toppled within the next few weeks (it may be as early as in two weeks, for the budget), and none of the Tories or the Whigs have enough karma to be able to secure a definite majority. So the next government will likely be a minority government.

    * * *

    There is an additionnal factor in Canada that is extremely different from the US, and which may very well trigger a massive civil disobedience for an eventual CDMCA: multiculturalism (that is, no "melting pot").

    Immigrants are encouraged to retain their culture; there is no definite effort to force immigrants into making them into WASPs. So, ethnic communities are not something marginal (go see the chinatown in Toronto for a good example).

    When all those people will be told by the law that they cannot have non region-1 DVD players in order to watch (legally-purchased) movies from their country of origin (China, India, Philippines and even -gasp!- Britain or, heaven forbid, France), they will make sure that in the future, Hymiewood will never again tell them what they can watch at home.

    (After extensive discussions of that subject with my lawyer, it boils down that Parliament can never prohibit non region-1 players because watching a foreign movie cannot be by any remote and twisted interpretation of any kind of law whatsoever be construed as being contrary to the public good; so it is quite likely that such a provision will be struck down by courts).

  7. This is just gold! by Necrotica · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So Canada is accused of being one the greatest violators of U.S. copyright law. So what? We're Canada! As long as we're not breaking our own laws, I could care less what the U.S. thinks. We're also guilty of not giving the people the right to bear arms. Are you going to criticize us in the press for that too?

  8. What does sovereignty mean anymore ? by Potatomasher · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This lobbying and pressure has got to stop. We're a sovereign country with our own laws for crying out loud.
    You don't like how things work around here, just don't "export" or do business here. Lets face it, if it wasn't profitable for them to operate in Canada they wouldn't.
    So mind your own business, try as best you can to make a buck if you so choose, but let us worry about how we run our own country. </rant>

    --
    A million monkeys and this is the best sig they could come up with...
  9. Sweden by rdradar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Did they forgot Sweden? In Sweden, even politicans back up The Pirate Bay. On the other hand, we have polar bears roaming in the streets so maybe they're just afraid.

  10. Re:What makes them think... by Tuoqui · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Good, then the US and Mexico can standardize their IP protection laws to suit Canada... Might make the US laws more sane and balanced if they're forced to acknowledge fair use rights once again.

    --
    09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
    +2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
  11. Re:What makes them think... by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Indeed. I live in Canada, and am governed by Canadian law. Not U.S. law.

    I was recently on a tour in Costa Rica, and the U.S. folks all automatically assumed that the movies on my iPod were somehow illegal, even though I ripped them from legitimately purchased DVDs for my own personal use, and haven't the slightest intention of putting them on BitTorrent or any similar network (which is not fair use). Fair Use seems to have disappeared from the U.S. psyche.

    Circumventing CSS to rip DVDs isn't a crime in Canada (yet...), but I wonder what the legal/DMCA status is of such an ineffective, discredited system.

    ...laura

  12. Re:how is it that a country of 33 million by aevan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sheer talent? :D

    Honestly, I know people who have(had?) boxes with multiple drives of stuff they never watched...just to share at some monitored torrent site. That way when new stuff was out they'd have 'first dibs' on what they really wanted. Know a few others who download all day, since 'if I have to pay for all this bandwidth, I'm damned well using it'. Lastly I know people who are too lazy to rip their CDs and find it easier to just download it again...and if they change their playlist and then change back, redownload it all again.

    It's rather prevalent overall: from primary schoolers to retired grannies, seems every computer has some sharing program installed (in my experience). Also do believe that while China has 967 million more people than us, most of ours have access to internet, generally high speed. I do not believe they share that same situation.

  13. Re:What makes them think... by quacking+duck · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This issue is that lobby groups in the US are trying to influence trade policy, to force Canada to fall in line. Canada has had to keep up with alot of WIPO / WTO copyright changes over the years just to stay a member. The US could easily say "well if you don't honour our IP, we won't let you trade lumber...".


    The softwood lumber dispute showed just how fucking hypocritical the US government is in world trade matters. Almost all WTO and NAFTA rulings went against the US position and told them to pay back the billions they've stolen from Canadian lumber companies in the form of tariffs. The US refused, refused, refused, and eventually the incoming Conservative government fell into line and kissed the Bush administration's ass.

    If the US gets to flip the bird at treaty obligations that it ratified (which are usually weighted in the US' favour already), Canada has no obligation to follow the letter of the WIPO treaty which it signed but not yet ratified, especially when the WIPO is so out of whack with reality.

    Canada is in fact one of the last western countries to stand up (even if by inaction) against the special interest groups that want to destroy human culture by locking it up for insane copyright times.

    When the US starts respecting international trade laws and treaties, then I might start thinking we should do the same for matters concerning US interests.
  14. Re:Sovereignty is overrated. by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You make a good point actually... Canada should respond with the fact that the US is in violation of Canada's gun laws, and that most illegal weaponry found inside Canada has been smuggled in from the US due to their shoddy (or in some cases absent) control regulations. It should further be pointed out that this actually affects people's lives, not just their livelihoods like IP violations.

    THEN the discussion can turn to such harmonious issues as softwood lumber, fish and steel :)

    When all that has been straightened out, there might be place for some discussion about harmonizing BOTH US and Canadian IP laws with WIPO (and not by changing the WIPO rules to reflect US law like has been done in the past).