Canadian Labour Congress Considers Reversal On IP Policy

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian Labour Congress is considering a dramatic reversal of its stance on copyright and IP policy. CLC is comparable to the US AFL-CIO, but Canada is over 30% unionized. The campaign 'we must change copyright and IP law to fight evil counterfeiters and copyright pirates' is actually succeeding in Canada. Quoting the CLC's new policy resolution: '... this critical issue requires a far-reaching response involving legislative and regulatory reform, policy change, and allocation of proper resources to combat the problems. The Canadian government must be given the structure and resources to mount a sustained attack on this pervasive problem, both within Canada and internationally. The criminal and civil laws in Canada must provide adequate deterrence. And consumers must be educated that counterfeiting and piracy are not victimless, nuisance crimes, but instead strike at the heart of our long term economic security.'"

Comments

Re:Too much kool-aid???

[erbmjw]

Michael Geist's comment is about the potential about face by the CLC to be announced this upcoming Monday Feb, 9th.

He referenced a 2007 CLC document to show that their latest positions on Copyright and IP are not in line with their previous positions.

It's a very timely comment by Prof Geist.

I always got music without paying

[mangu]

And what percentage of your music is paid for?

In my case it's difficult to estimate, but it has never been above a few percent and I'm 52 years old. When I was young, we mostly listened to the radio, recorded a few songs on tape, and not very often bought a record.

These days, the radio is mostly shit, a consequence of a monopoly owning the radio stations, but we have the internet to get music without paying directly for it.

I see a lot of FUD thrown up on how artists don't get compensated but it sounds kind of hollow coming from a group of people that's been stealing music anyway.

Not stealing, I've never stolen anybody's music, I have higher moral standards than some people who sell music.

Where was all the concern about "artist compensation" before enforcement started getting serious?

That "enforcement getting serious" is just the media industry bosses realizing they fucked up, but not admitting it. They had a business model based on getting a very small return per item where the production of each item had a very small cost. When they tried to raise the return per item the market said "NO". That's how capitalism works.