Canadian Gov't Considers Plan To Block Public Domain

An anonymous reader writes "Canada celebrated New Year's Day this year by welcoming the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Carl Jung into the public domain just as European countries were celebrating the arrival of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, 20 years after both entered the Canadian public domain. The Canadian government is now considering a plan to enter trade negotiations that would extend the term of copyright by 20 years, meaning nothing new would enter the public domain in Canada until at least 2032. The government is holding a public consultation with the chance for Canadians to speak out to save the public domain."

Comments

For me, this begs the question

[jtseng]

Who's paying for this legislation? Is it the same cast of characters that does the same shenanigans in the US?

Re:For me, this begs the question

[Anonymous Coward]

This raises a question. Unless you are down on your knees, pleading hopelessly with a language construct. I beg of you to please know what the phrase "begs the question" means. Please!

Re:For me, this begs the question

[doconnor]

Corporate political donations are banned in Canada and individual donations are limited, so it's not the money. It's just that the elected leaders happen to believe corporations should get whatever they want.

Re:For me, this begs the question

[drunkennewfiemidget]

Wait, and you believe for a second that they change anything?

They can't make donations, but they can let politicians into their swanky dinner parties for free.

And they can let the politicians and their families borrow their stately manor in the Muskokas.

And so on and so forth. Don't think for a second our corrupt collection of assholes in parliament aren't still benefitting HUGELY from these corporations.

Re:For me, this begs the question

[SuricouRaven]

Plus this is a media lobby - they can offer discounted TV slots, or better slots, or favorable news coverage. It doesn't even have to be a shady under-the-table deal - any politician can work out that the media will be on good terms with him if he is with them.

Re:For me, this begs the question

[Anonymous Coward]

Language loses value as we stop using it correctly. People can no longer use the phrase correctly. Now politicians can give half answers and people don't know how to describe it. Thanks for making English suck.

You probably also think a "hacker" is a mean guy that steals money from your bank account too, don't you? And that virii is the plural for computer virus. And when you illegally download a Metallica song, you're a thief. I mean, language evolves. Get over it.

Re:For me, this begs the question

[ackthpt]

Corporate political donations are banned in Canada and individual donations are limited, so it's not the money. It's just that the elected leaders happen to believe corporations should get whatever they want.

You've never met a politician who wasn't rewarded for loyalty after they left office. This is the retirement plan for a large share of the US House and Senate.

Re:For me, this begs the question

[Anonymous Coward]

Language loses value as we stop using it correctly. People can no longer use the phrase correctly. Now politicians can give half answers and people don't know how to describe it. Thanks for making English suck.

If that's how you feel, why don't you still talk like Chaucer? You would have to sound a lot more like Dutch and German as well by the way to stick to the "pure" Chaucerian English.

Re:For me, this begs the question

[Anonymous Coward]

Who's paying for this legislation? Is it the same cast of characters that does the same shenanigans in the US?

It's the Extreme Right of the Stephen Harper Conservatives. They are pro-corporate and anti-consumer. Some of the Harper Conservative initiatives:
- eliminate universal health care
- support warrantless internet surveillance
- support Internet Usage Based Billing (reversed stance do to public outcry just before election, though the government passed a watered-down UBB-type measures afterwords)
- increase criminal penalties for recreational drug violations (and spend billions of dollars on new penitentiaries during an economic crisis)
- eliminate and weaken gun control legislation (he stated, for example that people who refuse to register fire arms with the government will make criminals out of innocent citizens)
- supported increased censorship of the Internet and movie industries
- unequivocal support for the state of Israel and rejection of any Palestinian claims
- constantly campaigns to lower taxes on corporations
- wants to eliminate any form of social welfare
- took a leadership role in rejecting Kyoto
- is a global warming denier
- is anti-abortion (and of course, is pro-death penalty)
- likes to do business with the corrupt Chinese government and their corporations
- The Wikileaks people discovered that the Harper Conservatives secretly urged the United States to put Canada on a worst-offenders list of copyright violators and bittorent users (to help with the pro-copyright propaganda campaigns)

Here are some Stephen Harper quotes:

Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.

[Regarding the lies that the second Iraq War was based on, and the terrorism that resulted from it:]
On the justification for the war, it wasn't related to finding any particular weapon of mass destruction.

We should have been there shoulder to shoulder with our allies. Our concern is the instability of our government as an ally. We are playing again with national and global security matters.

===

I believe that all taxes are bad.

In terms of the unemployed... don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.

[S]ome basic facts about Canada that are relevant to my talk... Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it.

Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.

Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status.

Same sex marriage is not a human right. ... [U]ndermining the traditional definition of marriage is an assault on multiculturalism and the practices in those communities.

These proposals included cries for billions of new money for social assistance in the name of âoechild povertyâ...

If Ottawa giveth, then Ottawa can taketh away⦠This is oÂne more reason why Westerners, but Albertans in particular, need to think hard about their future in this country. After sober reflection, Albertans should decide that it is time to seek a new relationship with Canada. â¦Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it. It is to take the bricks and begin building another home â" a stronger and much more autonomous Alberta. It is time to look at Quebec and to learn.

"activist judges" [I can't seem to find a direct quote, but there are references to Harper complaining about "liberal activist judges".]

And finally, not Harper himself, but one of his henchmen calling pe

Re:For me, this begs the question

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention that Brian Mulroney was caught taking envelopes full of hundreds of thousands of dollars, cash, in shady hotel rooms.

If he was caught doing it, they are all doing it, just not getting caught. The laws don't really mean that much in this regard.

Re:For me, this begs the question

[Mashiki]

Wow. You're really taking things out and out and got modded for it too huh?

Long rifle registry. The 5 billion dollar liberal boondoggle that has done nothing but cost tax payers money, caught no one, and hassled no one but farmers, and hunters.

The HRC, who's done nothing but turned around and hassled citizens who give their opinions on things and run them through kangaroo courts parallel to the legal courts, with no due process? Tell me AC, how is it fair to go on 'trial' but have no legal recourse in defense. It only gets more fun, when you have someone who works for the HRC who deliberately posts inflammatory martial, and works for the HRC, then sues the person.

Same sex-marriage is not a human right. It's also not the preview of the federal government. It's a provincial decision. In Canada, the provinces have in general more control over what's said and done than the feds.

Kyoto is a scheme to suck money from wealthy nations. Europe figured it out. Japan figured it out, too. Canada was simply the first nation to pull out of it.

Well Americans sure don't seem to want to do business with Canada. After all, they seem to still be bell aching over the Keystone XL pipeline that would create jobs that you sorely need, but China is willing to buy our products and resources. You tell me. If there's an open market, who do you sell to?

Oh as for Israel and the palestinian thing? That's about the right of it. After all, how does one support a non-entity that technically doesn't exist in the first place. Remember. Israel was supposed to be all of israel+jordan, but ended up as jordan and israel. And the only reason why there's palestian refugees in the first place, is because they sided with arabs, when the arabs launched their first war to commit genocide against the jews(aka israeli's) and lost, and then a second time, and a third time, and when arafat tried to overthrow the kingdom of Jordan, and got his ass tossed out.

Meh. There's enough to debunk in half truths and half claims I can go on. There is some truths, but like all politics, half is bullshit, and half is truth.

Re:For me, this begs the question

[cforciea]

I get what point you were trying to make, but you couldn't have picked a worse example. Do you have any idea how many new words Shakespeare coined?

Re:For me, this begs the question

[Hatta]

If you think that "raises the question" isn't a good enough synonym for the incorrect usage "begs the question" feel free to use one of the other phrases you came up with. "Begs the question" is taken.

Asking the public to save public domain

[Anonymous Coward]

The public domain needs to be defended from the government? That thing that supposedly represents the will of the public?

Holy shit, what a world we live in.

It is the money

[betterunixthanunix]

It is the money being used to buy off US politicians, who then put pressure on Canadian politicians. The US is Canada's biggest trading partner and visa versa, so what the US wants has a big impact on what the Canadians do.

at some point

[nimbius]

America has forgotten something important about canadian parliament. Namely, that it is a wholly divorced entity from the united states and free to make laws, rules and regulations sans-input from it; which is coincidentally completely divorced from the concept of 'soverign nationality.'

if the wikileaks cables expose anything, its the fact that america hasnt just been instructing the cadence to which the world will march, its been fitting the boots and tightening the slacks in which the world marches as well.

So as an american taxpayer who believes in a free and democratic, soverign nation for all those who seek it, I can only hope canada will through consideration completely disregard this attack on the rights and freedoms of canadian citizens.

Re:at some point

[Nugoo]

America has forgotten something important about canadian parliament. Namely, that it is a wholly divorced entity from the united states and free to make laws, rules and regulations sans-input from it; which is coincidentally completely divorced from the concept of 'soverign nationality.'

More importantly, so has Canada.

it's fscking retroactive you tw@ts...

[advocate_one]

I'd have less objections if the legislation changed the length of term for NEW items, BUT didn't change the length of EXISTING copyrights...

If you need an argument...

[Froggie]

... consider this one, which is purely economic:

If copyrights are extended by 20 years, the entire Canadian public is deprived of value, which is handed mostly to holders of existing copyrights. What are you getting in return?

If the answer is 'nothing', then why would your MP, whose sole job is to represent the Canadian public, vote for this?

If the answer is 'more creativity', then that statement would need considerable backup before it's worthwhile changing the status quo, considering the loss involved. Last I checked there was no shortage of new novels, films and so on, and no indication that more money for the creators in the long distant future would change that.

And if the answer is 'appeasing other countries', then someone needs to justify the value of such appeasement.

Anything else would seem to be a dereliction of the MP's duty.

Save Your Breath

[rueger]

The government is holding a public consultation with the chance for Canadians to speak out to save the public domain."

Tee hee. It's so cute when people think that they can make a difference. The Tories have majority, which means that they will do exactly what they want, when they want, and only what they want.

This thing is a done deal, and no amount of punditry and internet petitioning is going to change it.

Consultation, the Canadian way

[spaceyhackerlady]

We all know the drill by now.

The government will listen intently to everybody, then do exactly what Big Copyright told them to do.

...laura