Slashdot Mirror
'Canadian DMCA' Copyright Bill Dead Again
An anonymous reader writes "Like some kind of B-movie horror series, the latest attempt to revise Canada's copyright law and introduce DMCA-like provisions, Bill C-32, has again died on the order table as Canada's minority government has fallen after a non-confidence vote. This makes it the third copyright revision bill since 2005 to have died. Although this version was regarded as better than previous ones, it still contained awkward anti-circumvention provisions. We can be confident that some kind of DMCA-style copyright bill will be resurrected, but it will have to wait for the next government sequel."
When did choosing politicians become just about their bad qualities?
Actually, I think the Bloq are probably the best of the bunch. Except for that part about wanting to tear the country apart. I live in Ontario and would vote for the Bloq if they ran a candidate in my riding.
The conservatives are nothing more than a bunch of freedom-loathing ass hats. Remember, this is NOT the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. It's the Reform Party, with a new name specifically designed to confuse voters.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
Any of the parties would, but there have been minority governments for the last seven years, so this bill, which perpetually gets stalled before third reading, keeps dying on the order paper. Get a majority government, regardless of which party forms it, and the legislation will pass.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
we were just discussing how the USA could benefit from some of the design of canadian law, and it was decided that canada has safeties built into the system so that in the event that the government does something "batshit insane", that it can be dissolved almost instantly. And that's what has happened in Canada. Lie to parliament and refuse to disclose information, BAM you're outa here. Their parliament is a bit like our congress, but our congress neither has the balls nor the power to pull it off.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
They can fail a thousand times, they only need to pass once. They will probably try again in a year and keep trying till people get tired of hearing it or they are distracted by something else until it gets passed and then the government will just refuse to repeal it or drag it out till people forget about the old ways.
What they need to hurry up and pass is a bill that makes it a law that ALL bills made past that point must have an expiration date where it must come up for review at least once every 10 years and if they miss the review or deny it, it is automatically taken off the books and will put a 10 year time table for all the current laws on the books so they must review each and every law passed and renew/revoke them as needed and check them again every 10 years and make sure they votes are on public record on every issue.
It would really cut down on the bad, useless and redundant laws already there and force politicians to reevaluate their laws every 10 years under the public scrutiny and their vote will be public knowledge.
http://www.pirateparty.ca/
When did choosing politicians become just about their bad qualities?
When they stopped having any good qualities.
While I think it's good the bill died.. as a canadian I'm a little pissed that we're having another expensive election.
Expensive election? Give me a break. I'm hearing numbers like 200 million dollars to run an election for the whole country.
In 2008 there were 23,677,639 registered voters in Canada. If the number of registered voters remained the same (hint: it has likely increased!), that puts the cost per registered voter at about $8.50.
I don't know about you, but I would pay $8.50 to have a say in my democracy any day.
The media in Canada has gone into "nobody wants an election, waaaah waaah" mode for each of the past four elections. I'm a Canadian, and just about everyone I know wants an election. Everywhere I turn online though, someone is bitching about how nobody wants one.
I know that the media is largely run by conservative businesspeople, but this broad-based attempt at reducing the duties of citizenship to an inconvenience is sickening.
Stop complaining and vote responsibly. It's all we have. We've had lots of elections in the past 7 years, and that's because the government is weak and Canadians are divided. It's a good thing we keep getting to weigh in.
And that's what has happened in Canada. Lie to parliament and refuse to disclose information, BAM you're outa here.
Not really, no. The financial figures were a red herring - you don't dissolve a government over something so minor. I started receiving election fliers and phone-calls about two weeks earlier, so that tells you how big a surprise this was. All the parties wanted an election; the claims about the financial figures are a convenient excuse.
I'm one of the very large group -- one might say the majority, by the way -- who refuses to vote. This is another great example of why that's the case.
Certainly each party promisses something different, and has differing priorities and differing desires. But in the end, the actuall end-result difference between one party and another is totally and complete insignificant. A few more dollars in this direction, a few less in that direction.
In the end, at the end of the year, my taxes sumto roughly the same amount plus or minus 5%, the roads have roughly the same number of holes, there's about the same amount of construction, public transit still begs for money that I don't think it should have, the same number of hookers are on the same corners, and the same rocket-powered homeless person manages to get from the theatre performance to the stadium faster than I can.
With no difference of any substance, I care, but don't see any value in voting.
Actually, I think the Bloq are probably the best of the bunch.
I think you should be aware that the Bloc says that the "3 copyright infringement claims and you're off the internet" is too lenient, they think 2 complaints should be enough to have someone cut off. They think that schools shouldn't get a rebate when using copyrighted work for educational purposes, and they think that money should be taken from all sales of devices capable of storing music and given to the industry.
The bloc's position on copyright is: Whatever the industry want, we give.
You can't take the sky from me...
The public financing laws in Canada are responsible for this, not the politicians. Any donation over $20 is a matter of public record (and can't be anonymous), politicians are not allowed to accept more than the personal contribution limit ($1184 last time I checked), and it's illegal for a corporate entity to make a campaign contribution.
The US could really benefit from rules like that.
Seeing as I'm Canadian as well I'll give up modding in this thread to say this. We have fresh blood in the green party. (witch happens to agree with a lot of what pirate parties have traditional stood for.) Win or lose, voting the party you truly have the most ideals in common with is more important than ever. In Canada each party now receives funding based on what percentage of the vote they receive. As opposed to the way it was a few years ago, where they only got funding based on the number seats they won. No vote is a throw away vote any more.
The upside to minority governments is that they get so busy fighting and posturing that they have little left to go about interfering with their countrymen. Anything that gets passed has to be done with some consensus from the other parties. Eh, can't get along well with others then down you come.
We get a regular chance to vote the b*stards out, which of course is the main purpose of any election: vote out the incumbent before they get too ensconced in their positions of power. Even if they get back in as a minority, they still have to mind themselves or they have to go back and roll the dice again.
The only downside is the cost of each election. That is an issue... but a lot of out of work folks make some money working temp for Elections Canada. Better than other money hand-out programs.
Canadian campaigns tend to be limited in length, from min 36 days to the record of 74 days. Usually about six or seven weeks. No year long brain damaging onslaught of political party dogma and drivel.
And we mark paper ballots with pencil. No voting machines. Close results have meaningful and accurate recounts.
Here's hoping for another minority government! Cheers!