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Another Stab At a Canadian DMCA
whisper_jeff writes "News has come out that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is planning on bringing the DMCA to Canada. As a Canadian, this disgusts me. Watching Harper sell out Canadians in favour of US lobby groups is an affront. I am hopeful that enough Canadians write to Harper and their MPs to voice their disapproval of this effort."
Wouldn't that be "Another Stab At a Canadian DMC'eh?"
I'm quite disgusted also. I've been emailing the office of the prime minister for over two months in regards to the ACTA. It is quite pathetic they cannot even take the time to address an issue in the active public eye. Even a generic spin would be nice. All I've been asking for is some information on the stance of my own government.
We as Canadians should lobby. This is a disgust that the Harper government is not taking into account the will of the people whatsoever.
Along with writing your MP, you could also get involved in the Canadian Pirate Party.
I hope our US congress claims copyright over the DMCA and files a takedown notice on you Canadians. Stealing our horrible draconian legislation? You wish!
My webcomic
Watching Harper sell out Canadians in favour of US lobby groups is an affront.
If it makes you feel any better, watching our own Congress sell out all of us who live in the United States to US lobby groups was just as bad.
This ain't rocket surgery.
Such a prospect assumes that there exists Canadian IP that is worth protecting.
Ok, looking at what the US DMCA has done, can you really say its improved the US in any way? Lets see here, thanks to the DMCA we now have judges wasting their time on victimless crimes, record companies still screwing artists and a rush of high-tech jobs out of the US.
The DMCA hinders education, harms jobs and makes developing in China and India even better. Why Canada would even consider such a terrible piece of legislation is beyond me.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Such a prospect assumes that there exists Canadian IP that is worth protecting.
Isn't William Shatner worth protecting?
I think Celine Dion, William Shatner, Bryan Adams, and Nickelback would beg to differ!
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
Exactly! We need to protect everyone from the horrors of Nickleback. Perhaps we should give them 300 year copyright?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
a deceptive, plagiarized report on the digital economy that copied text from the International Intellectual Property Alliance (the primary movie, music, and software lobby in the U.S.), at times without full attribution. The report itself was funded by copyright lobby groups (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, Copyright Collective of Canada which represents U.S. film production) along with the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. The role of the Ontario government obviously raises questions about taxpayer dollars being used to pay for a report that simply recycles the language of a U.S. lobby group paper.
You can't take the sky from me...
careful canada, you guy's are dangerous.
Hey, you've obviously never spent any time in one of those wild Canadian border towns. Take in the Donkey Show at West Lynne, Manitoba some time and you'll see how dangerous those Canucks can be.
This ain't rocket surgery.
I became aware of this while reading Michael Geist's blog this morning (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/) - a good resource for information about copyright law, privacy matters and so forth. I'm in the process of composing a letter to my MP right now, and I encourage all of the Canadians here to follow suit. Only by voicing your concerns can you be an agent of change.
It's unlikely to do any good lobbying Harper. Harper's unfulfilled dream is to be President of the U.S.A. He's as much big business, especially big oil business, as any American President could be. Further Harper's modus operandi demands he serve the wishes of the copyright lobby. His use of the media to cast his opponents in the worst possible light is his guiding star as a politician. He's a consummate sophist, seemingly utterly without any philosophy, other than to win and hold onto power. He has done cameos in various popular TV shows in slick, self deprecating clips. A politician who relies as heavily on superficial, mass media self promotion as does Harper will cut a wink 'n nod, tacit deal with big media companies. I think it's critically important to note the heavy use politicians in all countries make of mass media to further their political agendas. In the U.S.A. a loop is closing around the American citizenry. Big government, the military industrial complex and big, mass media corporations comprise an unholy trinity. In Canada the military industrial complex is missing but the possible crippling of the rights of individual citizens remains as much of a threat as corporations are given greater entitlements while being able to shield themselves from just punishments for their wrong doings. Two main problems come from the need to create jobs and compete internationally. Politicians need job creation programmes to bring home the bacon to their constituents and big business can deliver massive job creation programmes as well as threaten massive job losses. Further the majority of advanced, industrialized countries seemed to have opted for promoting mega corporations as a new, privileged class akin to medieval knights whose resources better ensure successful international competition.
ideopath @ play
Anything above zero...is too much, IMHO.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The DMCA DRM provisions are pernicious (though not as powerful as most here seem to believe). The DMCA "Safe Harbor" provisions are not. Takedowns would exist without them. However, without "Safe Harbor" they would not have to follow a prescribed form, there would be no counter-takedown procedure, there would be no 30 day deadline for filing for infringement, and most important of all, service providers would be liable even if they complied with takedowns. The DMCA Safe Harbor does not expand the rights or powers of copyright owners in any way. On the contrary, it reduces them. Without the DMCA there would be no YouTube.
Unfortunately from what I have seen the DMCA-like statutes proposed in other countries seems to only expand the rights and powers of copyright owners without providing any additional protection for users. Don't let them pass. If that puts you in violation of TRIPS, tough. Withdraw from the damn thing: it's crap. If you must enact a local DMCA, at least make sure it goes no farther than the US one does (and insist that it create a fair use right if you don't already have one and does not reduce it if you do).
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
The Prime Minister is not elected directly, he's simply the head of the party that got the most seats.
Currently the Conservatives are the government, but they don't hold a majority of seats in the house of Commons, so to get anything passed they need to convince at least some representatives of the other parties that it's a good idea.
The Conservatives were largely elected because of a happen-stance of how electoral boundaries are drawn. For instance, I myself live in the city but my electoral district includes a lot of rural area. The rural area tends to vote Conservative, so my own vote for _any_ other party is basically worthless.
To the contact provided on this web link and I bet this will put a fat dent in it coming to fruition:
Mr. Harper,
Speaking as an American citizen, I'm glad you are selling out to our interests. I love having more slaves indebted to our system and YOU especially make a rather appropriate addition to our collection of sockpuppets with no real power or intelligence.
Keep up the good work, and bring me more slaves to do our bidding!
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Yes, actually, it is. Now that doesn't mean actually doing it is awesome, or that I in any way agree with doing such a thing. In fact, most people find such speech highly offensive (and that includes many who are not members of the minority in question).
However, it means I can also say things, without worrying if people find them offensive. I can say "Religions are fairy tales for adults" or "The last president was a sack of shit and this one's only marginally better if at all" or "I wish all corporations larger than a certain size would be broken up". I cannot be prosecuted for saying any of those things, even though there are people who will strongly dislike each of those statements.
In exchange for that right, I'll gladly accept a few idiots wearing their white hoods and going around spouting crap. If anything, that educates the public on just how ridiculous and ignorant those people are. And a lot of people exercise the right they do have in that scenario-to point out just how stupid it is.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
Yeah..but if you go up there and and say publicly that "I think [insert racial, sexual orientation, etc type slang] suck" and you can actually get busted for "hate speech".
No you can't.
Hate speech requires that you make actual threats against a given group. In fact, even saying 'All ${FOO}s should die!' isn't enough to get you busted. It has to be clear that you are actually advocating for their collective demise. You could even say, 'I'm going to kill that ${FOO} right now!' and not be guilty of hate speech, because your hatred was aimed at an individual whom you incidentally were calling names.
But way, way before you get to the point of being arrested, you'll be shunned for being the bigot that you are, if you don't get punched in the face for your efforts. See, we Canadians value free speech so much that we try[*] to be polite and respectful when we use it.
If you want to be a know-nothing, racist fuckwit in Canada, you can. But it'll be a pretty lonely existence.
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[*] All bets are off at a hockey game.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Actually, there are many barriers to entry into the Canadian marketplace. Taxes, ownership restrictions, tariffs, operational regulations, etc. are all important considerations. In fact, for many products and services, entry into the Canadian marketplace faces more barriers than many other EU or Asian countries.
One of the first and most restrictive factors is the ownership and management restrictions. Take the wireless industry for example. A wireless carrier has to have at least 50% Canadian ownership in order to operate in Canada. This means that T-Mobile, for example, can't just waddle over across the border and start buying frequency, putting up towers, and offering a service. We've had a recent case where it was debated whether or not a certain wireless carrier (Wind Mobile) actually met that ownership requirement. There's also a general requirement for all corporations that the Board of Directors is comprised of at least 25% Canadians (or a minimum of 1 Canadian if the Board has less than 4 Directors).
Many of our industries are much more tightly regulated than are your industries. As I've briefly mentioned in a previous comment, Canada really is more of a socialist country with a market framework. The skeletal infrastructure of our economy is based on market economics, but we flesh that out with quite a heavy load (comparative to America) of social regulations that protect consumers from power asymmetry that arises from market failure, e.g., information asymmetry, natural monopolies,etc..
Many of these regulations are restrictive enough such that a company may consider that an investment in complying with such regulations would not really be worth it for a shot at the comparatively smaller marketplace. Since American companies design products and their respective distribution plans with American regulations in mind, it would take a significant investment to create another roll-out plan for the Canadian marketplace. We only have 30-odd million people, 1/10 of the American population, and our buying power for non-essential items is generally lower because of the way our consumption taxes are structured*.
On the one hand, we don't get many of the new and sparkly fancy gadgets right away. But that's okay, I'm pretty patient for the most part. It's not that big of a deal. Companies big and successful enough will eventually bring their products over the border. On the other hand, we as consumers and taxpayers are protected from many of the perils that arise from market failure. The biggest recent example is the global financial crisis. While many global banks and companies required bailouts, our financial institutions continued to post modest profits and showed a remarkable ability to quickly recover.
So yeah, there are many barriers to entry into the Canadian marketplace, mostly because of our traditional approach towards market economics that's more skewed towards the socialist side. But even though we may not get the latest cool gadgets or the cheapest deals, we're very well protected from many potential disasters that result from market failure. I wouldn't really call this a fault. I'm a patient guy. I can wait 3 more months for that iPad, or another 6 months for that HTC phone. Small price to pay, in my book.
* It's worth noting that our minimum wage is higher than in America, the last time I checked. The general minimum wage is $10.25 an hour in Ontario, and the average is over $9 across Canada (with only 2 provinces falling below $8.50). However, there are a few factors that influence buying power. The first is that non-essential items are almost always taxed higher throughout Canada. For example, groceries, utilities, etc. are exempt from the federal consumption tax. Alcoh
One of the most disgusting things about this situation is that assholes like Harper can just keep introducing DMCA-style laws over and over again. Didn't make it through the legislature? Too much public opposition? No problem! We'll give it 6 months then we'll just start all over again. Eventually they will succeed in sneaking it through, and once it's through it's pretty much there for good.
Sometimes I just hate the world we live in.
Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.