Slashdot Mirror
US Says Canadian Copyright As Bad As China's, Russia's
An anonymous reader writes "The US is blaming Canada in a new
report that claims that Canadian copyright and intellectual
property laws are as bad as those found in China and Russia. Michael Geist notes
that Canadian officials have dismissed these findings in the past,
arguing it 'does not recognize the Special 301 process due to its
lacking of reliable and objective analysis.'" (Read more about the annual Special 301 report.)
A breath of fresh air in the murky air of pollution spewed by the RIAA/MPAA et. al.
Given America's stance on copyright these days, this sounds more like a ringing endorsment of Canadian copyright law than a condemnation.
Right. Like the Canadian content laws or the hate propaganda laws.
(oops)
Wow i didn't know the RIAA and MPAA could lobby the USA to condemn other countries. Have they ever actually bothered to look at themselves instead of being hypocrites telling the rest of the world to do things they themselves are not willing to do.
Look at the http://geo.keff.org/ pirate bay peer tracker and it's clear America and china are the big peer providers for torrents.
sorry Canada is a real democracy not a corporate sponsored illusion. We put laws into place that the people want not corporate powers that run other nations to ignorant to new technology and progression. For starters if we here in the great white north had access to hulu i would not need to download many of the shows i miss well at work. Screw the usa and its overkill laws that allow corporations to exploit and extort their own customer base.
I've said it before: The US government and the IP lobbying groups can go frak themselves ten ways to Sunday on this issue.
In the softwood lumber dispute the US not only flipped the bird at Canada, but refused to accept several judgments against them by the WTO and NAFTA.
If you don't respect international laws and rulings against you, don't expect others to respect the lopsided laws you're trying to force down the throats of more free-thinking countries.
(Sadly, they've come to expect no less; in the end, the newly-elected Conservative government rolled over on the softwood issue, gave the ball to the US, and begged for more. Yes, I'm just as disgusted at the pansies who sold us out)
Copyright is too strong in the USA. Anywhere that they say is "lax", must be better then the USA at it.
It was supposed to last just long enough so that inventors and artists could make enough money for their next work. Not an ever lasting deal as is what we get with the copyrights being extend again and again.
The sad part is that now that we've been 'called out', so to speak, Canada will inevitably bend to the will of the USA and change it's laws to be just as draconian, if not moreso.
Well... Canada's basically the 51st state anyway.
Planet Zebeth - Metroid with a twist
It was bad enough when the secretary of Homeland Security said last week the 9/11 terrorists came through Canada. To hear John McCain repeat that lie made me very glad he's not your president. Does he also think Iraq was responsible for the attacks too?
Unbelievable.
It says Canadian copyright laws are as bad as China and Russia.
What it didn't say is that - US copyright laws are even worse.
There are WAY more important laws
On the contrary, I would submit that copyright laws are among the most significant in shaping the world as we know it. Copyright laws are not about entertainment, but rather, about thought control.
As a species we are standing on a crossroads never before faced by any species on the planet.
I argue that the single most significant contributor to our supremacy over this planet is our capacity for meme-exchange. We have taken mammalian peer-learning to an unprecedented level. The fact that every member of our species frequently expends great energy in the singular business of meme-aquisition, and that we spend just as much energy in the business of meme-distribution, serves as a testament to its survival-utility and evolutionary effectiveness.
Are we to embrace this freedom, allow the currents of information to flow unrestrained, and see where our exponentially-increasing rate of technological evolution (which, from a more metaphysical perspective, is not so different from our genetic evolution) takes us?
Or are we, on the other hand, going to lock ourselves down and block this flow, all in the name of preserving the economic prosperity of a select few?
Is our future one of wild change and uncertainty, or one of regularity and control?
Information is the currency with which we purchase our spiritual destiny. Copyright law is a manifestation of how we are spending that currency.
I may be a religious nut, but you, sir, are completely blind.
Canada's laws aren't, I think, generally more enlightened and less restrictive compared to American law. We have some pretty foreboding hate speech laws in Canada and a significant cross-section of the law is still defined in an unwritten common law; but I suppose if your priorities lie in downloading music, marrying other men or smoking pot we must look like quite the utopia.
The scary part about all of this is the comparison to China and Russia. The copyright laws in those countries are pretty far from lenient, they're just almost entirely unenforced. This whole story is another lie from the people who brought you the rather quaint notion that most film piracy comes from Canadians recording movies with camcorders rather than the reality of film pre-release DVDs getting leaked from the MPAA.
(amenglish)
Y'all can ken go fuck yerselves, ya morans.
(/amenglish)
Canada is the only place I know of where 100 CDRs costs more than 100 DVD-Rs...
We pay EVERY FUCKING DAY massive extra money to the American Ideological State Apparatus and Canadian native culture is pressured into virtual non-existence thanks to the Hollywood/TV juggernaut.
Our only consolation is we have all the water and oil, and the last time you invaded Canada, we kicked your ass.
Please, please, please, we pray that your empire dies so we can sell our resources to the highest bidder and not to you thanks to NAFTA.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
From TFA, "Canada now joins a group of countries designated as being especially lax in protecting intellectual property, including Algeria, China, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Venezuela". So it means "bad for corporations", not "bad for citizens".
please don't blame us citizens for the spouting of our corporate interest paid off politicians. please don't do anything our government says. we're all being held prisoner here.
Even if we, for the sake of the argument, ignore the practical and ethical issues of current copyright laws as a matter of principle, and buy the argument that infringing copyright hurts the producers and not just the pockets of *AA execs, still, the fact remains that Canada (as well as China, Russia, and the rest of the world) is under huge influx of American corporations, who profit from out-of-border sales while not offering jobs in foreign countries, paying anywhere near the taxes they pay at the states, contribute to foreign producers or foreign culture in general, or otherwise benefit foreign countries in proportion to the profits they make, or seek to make, from them.
Reciprocal treaties, aka "you respect my copyright, I'll respect yours", really are not appealing to foreign governments because the US, by far, exports more of what they call Intellectual Property than other countries export to the states. So pray tell us, if you want our governments to spend our own taxpayers money to enforce your copyright laws so that YOUR companies can make a profit... What's in it for us?
Pot is as dangerous as heroin.
Ex-GIs might be terrorists.
Canada is as bad as the commies.
Is it any wonder we tend to not believe anything our government says?
-- Will program for bandwidth
If so, I would like to see the United States added to it. I'm trying to think of an industrialized nation with which the United States is on par, but I'm having difficulty. I seriously doubt Canada's copyright laws (or lack of same, depending upon your viewpoint) have ever been directly responsible for the death of any American citizens. By contrasts, America's laws surrounding guns (or lack thereof, depending upon your viewpoint) have been directly responsible for the deaths of Canadian Citizens. So I'm writing to my MP tomorrow to ask that the US be put on a blacklist to highlight the fact that their legislators' failure to act has resulted in harm to countless Canadians, most of which, I am certain, is more serious than the harm visited upon US rights-holders. I know we are merely Canadians, however we do enjoy living, and your (lack of) gun law is killing us. So once you fix that, perhaps we can discuss our copyright laws. Until then...sit on your blacklist and rotate.
As a red-blooded American who lives in Texas and enjoys making fun of Canada as much as the next guy, I must admit:
I like Canadian music.
Looking at my phone... 4 out of the 22 bands on there (I really need to get my full-sized iPod back) are Canadian. For those who are curious: Arcade Fire, Sloan, Stars, and the New Pornographers. Between the Canadian station on XM and a sister who goes to school in Syracuse, I've rather enjoyed my exposure to it. Maybe I just like awful music though...
Huh?? Yeah, right. I'd much rather listen to Emily Haines than Americas favourite Britney Spears. How you got modded Informative is mind boggling.
Apostle of Hustle, Metric, Feist, and all the other spin-off bands/solo projects off of Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Miracle Fortress...
Loads more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Canada
(Skip the Celine and the Brian)
American media is not usually government owned though.
Actually, American government is media-owned: executive, legislature, and judiciary. Full Stop. End message.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.