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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.)
Unfortunately, although once a great trading republic, the United States is now a military empire,
WRONG. THe USA has pretty much always been a military empire. Many of our nation's first military actions were to go bomb some town south of our borders to force them to sell to United Fruit Company, which became Chiquita, which became Bonita — and which is still up to illegal tricks to keep their stranglehold on the banana industry in particular.
We are an independent nation, and don't react well to being told what we ought to do by our bankrupt southern neighbours.
You seem to do as you're told the majority of the time.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Indeed, just look at the recent case where MacLean' Magazine (Canada's version of Time) got taken to the human rights commission for hate speech.
Watching that unfold really opened my eyes to just how draconian some of our hate speech laws are. The human rights commission has their own rules, and run a kangaroo court worthy of Stalin.
MacLean's only got out of it because they have such a large readership. A huge part of the Canadian population was watching the proceedings and the human rights commission had to let MacLean's go. Otherwise the public would have demanded their closure. But from what I have read a few smaller companies and individuals have been taken to the cleaners by these guys.
I am generally pretty happy with the laws here in Canada, but there are a few things that make you wonder what kind of clowns are running this country.
On a happier note, the Canadian RIAA pushed for those stupid levees on our CDs to compensate for piracy. They made a good buck on that scam too. But now the tables have finally turned. We already have a system for compensating them for piracy. They can lobby all they want but the legal precedent is in place. Generally judges are less corrupt then politicians, so we do stand a chance.