Slashdot Mirror
EU Demands Canada Rework Its Copyright, Patent Law
An anonymous reader writes "The draft intellectual property text of the EU - Canada Trade Agreement has leaked, with news that the EU is demanding that Canada fundamentally alter copyright, patent, and trademark law. The laundry list of demands includes copyright term extension, WIPO ratification, DMCA-style legislation, resale rights, new enforcement provisions, and following patent, trademark, and design law treaties. The net result is that when combined with the ACTA requirements, Canadian copyright law may cease to be Canadian." Reader TheTurtlesMoves stresses the "first sale doctrine" aspect of the Canada - EU negotiations. Once an artist sells a creative work, should she get a cut of any future resales of that same work? The EU says yes at least for some types of works, and it wants Canada to see things its way. "Europe's Directive 2001/84/EC says that the right covers only 'works of graphic or plastic art such as pictures, collages, paintings, drawings, engravings, prints, lithographs, sculptures, tapestries, ceramics, glassware and photographs, provided they are made by the artist himself or are copies considered to be original works of art.'"
Actually a few countries in the EU have passed DMCA-like legislation. But from the article:
Anti-circumvention provisions. The EU is demanding that Canada implement anti-circumvention provisions that include a ban on the distribution of circumvention devices. There is no such requirement in the WIPO Internet treaties.
This sounds pretty much like wanting DMCA-style legislation.
If you are as pissed off about other countries trying to write our laws write your MP and the following Ministers.
Tony Clement
Minister of Industry
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ic1.nsf/eng/00093.html
minister.industry@ic.gc.ca
Bev Oda
Minister of International Cooperation
http://www.bevoda.ca/
Oda.B@parl.gc.ca
The reason it would have been modded down if it were by an American is that the American Government is over there mucking about in other people's Countries before getting its house in order, making the statement completely hypocritical.
Canadians on the other hand, do very little besides peacekeeping, and combing the hills of Afghanistan.
Honestly? Speaking as a Spaniard, I see the official and populist line in Spain is that the EU is A Great Thing. Why?
(1) After Franco, Spain was way behind the rest of Western Europe in terms of infrastructure and social justice. When it joined the EU (then EC) in 1986, it received huge sums for investment in large scale programmes. Before this time, the big money had often come from US private investment (Spaniards were cheap labour!), which certainly provided jobs but wasn't going to build roads and railways or take care of the very sick. ...queue a couple decades of investment and the rising middle classes...
(2) Then after Aznar's monumentally stupid blaming of the local terr'ist group, ETA, for bombings in Madrid the day before the election, the pendulum swung from pro-US back to anti-US sentiment. The prevailing impression in Spain still seems to be that the EU stands as some great body to counter US influence, even though it's by and large motivated by special interests which often lie in common with the special interests of the US elite.
(3) (perhaps slightly prejudiced) Spaniards like patriarchal government. The legacy of Franco is still there, obviously. They're obsessed with a veneer of political correctness, still compensating for their once genuinely macho culture, but ultimately they don't like the idea of a nation of independent individuals, preferring a very detailed, united conception of morality and society. This sentiment is easy to take advantage of.