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Canada Gov't Censors Parliament Hearings On YouTube
An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian government has admitted
sending cease and desist letters to YouTube demanding that it remove
videos of Parliamentary hearings. Lawyers for the House of
Commons argue that using videos of elected representatives without
permission constitutes copyright infringement and a contempt of
Parliament."
Whether or not that mentality actually will be implemented here in the US remains to be seen--I certainly hope Obama follows through.
I can assure you that Obama is not following that. Just look at the copyright treaty that is classified do to "national security" http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10195547-38.html
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
it is in New Zealand. our parliamentary chambers have designated areas for the press to setup shop and record the goings on. we even have a tv channel called Parliament TV, screens every tuesday when there is a session in progress. not very exciting, i admit, but its a damn good thing it is there. the canadians could learn a thing or two.
This is very disturbing, parody, satire, and political statements should be expressly legal under any sane copyright system. Especially for non-commercial use.
He's probably referring to droits d'auteur which is a continental thing (vs common law) - we don't really have it in the US, Canada does have it to some degree due to their legal system's french influence. One part of such "author's rights" is the right to not have the creation used in a way contradictory to the creator's wishes such as to misrepresent what the creator intended to present. It's pretty ambiguous and the concept of fair use may not even apply, depending on the circumstances.
That's not to say that I disagree with your point, just to explain where the rationalization is coming from since we don't really have the same concept in US copyright law.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I think you mean CPAC not C Span.
If you're going to ask people to look at something you should tell them where it is.
What do you mean, "welcome to the club?" This is one thing the U.S. does right: works of government are not copyrightable by anyone, not even the government.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Finally, news where I can actually stand up proudly and say take a page from the United States on this one, Canada [whitehouse.gov]:
Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.
That's Obama talking, right?
Obama blocks release of torture photos
Obama administration invokes 'state secrets' claim to defend Bush's wiretapping program.
Obama administration threatens Britain to keep torture evidence concealed
I certainly hope Obama follows through.
You have your answer.
I came here for a good argument
US Executive Branch
US White House
US Legislative Branch
US Senate
US House of Representatives
Sorry. I didn't include 'http' in that first attempt, so Slashdot thought it was an internal link.
Works of the Federal government; State governments can still hold copyrights, and have assered copyright over the text of laws, preventing them from being disseminated on the Internet in PDF form (WTF!!!)
Those who would give up liberty to obtain working drivers, deserve neither liberty nor working drivers.
Nope. It means the Canadian Crown owns it. Which is the corporation sole (look it up) that represents the Executive of Canada. If anything it means the Canadian government 'owns' it, but only on behalf of the nation.
And the courts have struck it down and the laws are all freely available now.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Most of the comments that have been made so far are obviously by Americans: not that that's a bad thing, but it's obvious that there is a fundamental lack of understanding by the posters. It's okay, we had a constitutional crisis recently and a majority of Canadians showed quite clearly that they don't understand parliamentary democracy, either.
Canada is a bicameral Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, and continues to be one of 15 Commonwealth Realms (and is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations - the difference between a Realm and a member of the Commonwealth is detailed below). As a Commonwealth Realm, a monarch of the House of Windsor sits as Canada's Sovereign as the Queen of Canada - we are, in effect, personal union with the other 14 realms (The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, etc), and due to our history, we share roughly the same governmental structure as the other Commonwealth Realms: Westminster parliamentary democracy.
In our system, the state is the Sovereign and the Sovereign is the state, in effect; it is through the exercise of sovereignty that all of the wonderful freedoms we enjoy are guaranteed. The constitutional view is very Hobbesian, in this regard: rights are understood to be conventional, and contingent upon the Monarch to exercise sovereignty effectively to prevent those rights from being infringed upon. In common parlance, the Sovereign is understood as being the "Crown."
It is through the Crown that all matters of law and order are conducted - for example, in Canada, we have "Crown prosecutors" rather than District Attorneys, and when prosecutions take place, it is the Queen-in-right of Canada that is making the charge. The Crown is, to use American terminology, the Executive. However, due to various constitutional conventions and historical developments, we have a merged legislative and executive branch.
Parliament is made up of three parts: the House of Commons, the Senate, and the Sovereign. The Queen is represented in Canada by the Governor-General as viceroy, and exercises all powers (so-called "reserve powers") ascribed to the office by the Constitution Act 1867, that is to say, basically all functions of government. But it is only on the advice of the Prime Minister that those actions are ever undertaken. Once again, due to various constitutional conventions, the Prime Minister is a member of the House of Commons, who is best able to retain the confidence of the House. The Prime Minister is then appointed to the Privy Council (similar to the notion of the President appointing all of the people at the White House), who then recommends to the G-G who else to induct. All of these inductees become Privy Councillors, and go on to form Cabinet, the executive body of the country which does most of the governing and forms what is called in constitutional parlance a "Ministry."
Why is this important? Quite simply, because of two traditions: the first, which has been detailed here, is that of responsible government. The Governor-General has vast powers, but only ever exercises them based upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister, who is himself bound to the will of the House of Commons. The second is the notion of Parliamentary supremacy - this is the constitutional doctrine which was solidified after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that established that the Sovereign cannot act against the will of Parliament or undertake action with its sanction, and also established Parliament as the chief and supreme body of governance.
The Speaker of the House of Commons is an officer of Parliament and also a Member. He is the one who controls and directs all debate, and it is the Speaker that establishes and rules on the standing orders. Relating to the televising of Parliament, the Speaker reigns supreme: it is only through authorization of the Speaker that cameras were ever allowed into the chamber, and it is on his authority that they continue to do so.
Second, all copyright owned by the Government of Canada is actually owned by the Cr
They're not trying to hide their proceedings. As other people have noted, there's a Canadian cable channel called CPAC devoted to airing parliamentary proceedings. The point isn't that they don't want the videos to be seen, from what I gather it's more about having them taken out of context, etc. Not that I agree with it, I still think it's stupid. But that doesn't mean it's OK to misrepresent the issue.
Does this mean it's the British Queen who owns all of it?
Actually, up here she's not the "British Queen" she's referred to as the "Queen of Canada." In a Parliamentary Democracy such as ours, the government does it's work on behalf of the people in the name of the monarch. So yes, she does own the copyright on what happens in her parliament. However, there are many statutes and customs which effectively prevent her from exercising her rights of ownership herself.
Officially we are ruled by a Queen and only elect officials to give her advice. Practically they are our elected officials. Still officially the crown owns all government copyright though generally it is freely copy able as long as the source is acknowledged, the copy is accurate and it is for non-commercial use. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_copyright#Canada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Actually, up here she's not the "British Queen" she's referred to as the "Queen of Canada."
She's queen of quite a lot of places...
Sao Tomé and Principe, is that a tyranny? How about East Timor? Ethiopia is hardly a beacon of freedom and democracy, but they at least have multi-party elections.
If you look to the past, you have DR Armenia, DR Georgia, DR Azerbaijan, and DR Taiwan, all of which were apparently reasonably democratic, and destroyed by Russia (first three) and Japan respectively.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Sixteen, actually.