Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

US Says Canadian Copyright As Bad As China's, Russia's

Posted by timothy on from the but-very-courteous-just-the-same dept.

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.)

18 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Backhanded Compliment? by CountOfJesusChristo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given America's stance on copyright these days, this sounds more like a ringing endorsment of Canadian copyright law than a condemnation.

    1. Re:Backhanded Compliment? by BabyDuckHat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Copyright law in the United States is a perverted abomination, mutated over decades by powerful corporations to benefit only themselves to the detriment of the people on whos backs they've built their gargantuan regimes.

      It's also the sux0rz.

    2. Re:Backhanded Compliment? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the problem apparently is that a lot of commercially bootlegged products make it into the US through Canada. The Canadian government essentially permits this, for example, if you drive across the border with a truck full of DVDs, the Canadian customs agents can't stop you without getting a warrant.

      Canadian customs agents are not the police.

      Like most civilized countries, Canada doesn't stop & search every vehicle & person leaving the country. Canadian customs agents stop & search incoming traffic.

      Keeping bad stuff & bad people out of the USA is the job of the US Customs & Border Patrol.

    3. Re:Backhanded Compliment? by InsertWittyNameHere · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's the problem with the slow-to-adopt-new-technology Americans. In Canada we use digital methods of content distribution. While they continue to look for these fabled and elusive shipments of DVDs and CDs.

      Devious, I know.

    4. Re:Backhanded Compliment? by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why is this the problem of Canadian customs agents? Isn't it the responsibility of the US customs agents get off their arses to check incoming shipments?

      Because the USA imports on such a massive scale, they have no hope of nspecting even a fraction of what comes in, so they do their best to fob off responsibility on other countries.

      Kinda like how Federal agencies barely test imports or they would have caught tainted [everything] from China.
      The money and willpower just isn't there.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    5. Re:Backhanded Compliment? by nametaken · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Agreed. I'm really quite embarrassed that my country would actually criticize another regarding their copyright law and enforcement.

  2. They're not even a real country anyways by Weedhopper · · Score: 5, Funny

    With all their beady little eyes
    And flapping heads so full of lies

    Watch out, here comes the RIAA. Maybe I should have posted this from Canada.

    1. Re:They're not even a real country anyways by skine · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dear Mr/Ms Weedhopper,

      It is the duty of the RIAA to protect the intellectual works of Atlantic Records, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. You have violated the copyright of the track "Blame Canada" off of the album "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," specifically using the following lines:

      "With all their beady little eyes
      And flapping heads so full of lies"

      This usage does NOT fall under fair use, and thus you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows, including financial compensation for lost revenue do to your illegal use of said content.

      Agent Skine
      RIAA

  3. Dear USA... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dear USA

    We really don't give a flying fuck what you think. Come up here, drink some beer, smoke some pot, chill the hell out and go back home with a little less of that pole stuck up your ass.

    Your friends and Neighbours

    Canada

    P.S. When you guys come for the party can you bring me some white castle, we don't have that shit up here and it looks delicious.

  4. Failfacts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. Tit for tat by quacking+duck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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)

    1. Re:Tit for tat by radtea · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      Rogue states like the US need to be reigned in. The US government has consistently violated international norms for decades, particularly with regards to bizarre claims of extra-territoriality, which basically means Americans think that they can legally apply their wacko laws to everyone everywhere.

      Unfortunately, although once a great trading republic, the United States is now a military empire, financed by debt and spiralling into oblivion. Americans will be hurt by their fall more than anyone else, but the rest of the world really needs to start paying attention and thinking about how to deal with a post-American planet.

      One of the things we need to do is bring home to Americans as clearly as possible that we don't care about their parochial laws. Canada is in full compliance with all relevant international treaties on copyright, and any extraneous conditions that the Americans would like to impose on us are irrelevant. We are an independent nation, and don't react well to being told what we ought to do by our bankrupt southern neighbours.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    2. Re:Tit for tat by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.'"
  6. Actually... by DJGrahamJ · · Score: 5, Funny

    does not recognize the Special 301 process due to its lacking of reliable and objective analysis

    Actually, it's because we don't give a fuck.

  7. Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:They also blame us by quacking+duck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  9. Here is how I understand the summary, as bad as- by sam0737 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  10. Re:Comparisons??? by inhuman_4 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.