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Why Canada Does Not Belong On the US Piracy Watchlist
An anonymous reader writes "Each year, the U.S. government places Canada on its piracy watch list,
claiming that it is a pirate country similar to China or Russia. This
year, Professor Michael Geist and Public Knowledge teamed up to respond to
myths about Canadian copyright law with a submission
to the USTR focusing on how Canadian law provides adequate and
effective protection, how
enforcement is stronger than often claimed, why Canada is not a piracy
haven, and why Bill C-11 does not harm the interests of rights holders
(critics of Bill C-11 digital lock rules will likely think this is
self-evident)."
The new Majority Conservative government is now bringing in laws to make Canadian laws in like with the U.S.- no need to worry...
If I send a legit copy of something I have the copyright on to a friend, using the internet, and the ISP records a copy of my traffic at the government's behest, aren't they engaging in piracy?
(Posting AC because I'm at work)
The reason Canada is on the piracy watch list is simple - Canadian politicians want us to be there so they can have a reason to craft draconian laws that appease big media's wishes. Really, it's that simple - it's political manoeuvring in an effort to get the public to support legislation that is "clearly needed" because, you know, we're on the US's piracy watch list so things must be bad in Canada! We need to fix it. Now just accept these laws that allow warrantless searches and other things that are obscene so I can get my phat payoff cash from Big Media Corp.
Really, it's that simple. And pathetic.
just playing the blame Canada game
http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=5144516&file=4
it was Bill C-61 first, then it died and was replaced by Bill C-32 which also died. Now its called Bill C-11. Have fun reading this.
Theres also a website which gives lots of information on that bill : http://www.digital-copyright.ca/billc11/
Canadian pirates eh?
end of story
the greedy bastards have stolen 600 million off us and then turn round call us pirates?
FUCK YOU AMERICA.
Countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are very vulnerable to pressure from the USA, who's trade representatives use strong arm tactics to further their ends. They think nothing of inventing issues like this to further their goals. The problems begin with corruption of the legislative process in the USA, and is exported from there all over the world.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1048993--leaks-show-u-s-swayed-canada-on-copyright-bill?bn=1
A U.S. Embassy cable written in April 2009 describes a meeting between
Zoe Addington, director of policy for then industry minister Clement, and U.S. officials.
In contrast to the messages from other Canadian officials, she said that
if Canada is elevated to the Special 301 Priority Watch List (PWL), it would not hamper
and might even help the (government of Canada's) ability to enact copyright legislation,
the cable says.
Days later, Canada was elevated on the piracy watch list.
NOTE: entire post shamelessly stolen from guidryp
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Pfffbbt! Canada! Of course you don't put imaginary lands on watch lists. Canada is an old fairy tell parents tell when they don't want their children to become improv comics or hockey fans.
The real issue is that Canada is not doing enough to be included into all lists like that. Canada, as a raw material and energy exporter, needs to allow its currency to be set by the market and it needs to allows all of its copyright and patent laws to be set by the market as well - which means, the legislation around all of these issues need to be repealed. If Canada allows its currency and regulations to go where the market takes them, it will not only be a raw material, energy exporter, but will bring in tons of new investments and businesses into the country.
You can't handle the truth.
with the mouth of my cannons!
The Canadian Private Copying Collective already collects a levy tax on media "as a way of paying for fair use".
http://neil.eton.ca/copylevy.shtml#what_amount
The things everyone, including politicans, seem to forget...
Canada is now on the "United States's Bitch List" as you guys do what we tell you.
Honestly, I cant believe that my country is strong arming everyone on this planet into catering to a few small Organized crime operations.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Hey canada, want to save money operating your government? Switch over to the US dollar as your currency. It worked for the EU and Euro! Look at how happy they are over there!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Please go fuck yourself.
America needs to be told to fuck off by every damned country which is being pressured by the US to live up to their absurd copyright wishes.
I'm fed up with hearing US politicians trying to force every other country in the world to bend over and take it up the ass.
When most of us ask "what have you done for us lately", the answer is that you've mostly become like a dinner guest who has overstayed their welcome.
Assholes with a sense of entitlement. It's wearing thin.
I am Canadian (by one of passports, anyway.)
You can't handle the truth.
Haven't you heard that we harbour (aka: harbor) lots of terrorists too? Code yellow! Blame Canada! Ooooh, that reminds me, I should download that good old South Park movie tonight... um, through iTunes i mean.
We must invade Canada!
Check your premises.
Why don't we focus on just getting the US off the US Piracy Watchlist, before worrying about everyone else?
I'm a big fan of Michael Geist, but I think he's missed it here.
He's talking about declining rates of business software piracy and camcording. But both of these areas have avenues of detection and enforcement. Theaters are on the watch for camcorders (and apparently big bags of M&M's hidden in my wife's purse...), and there are many ways businesses are outed for using pirate software (auditors, whistleblowers, etc...) What the US is complaining about are the infringements where enforcement is lax or non-existent in Canada, specifically music and digitally copied movies (does anyone really watch those awful cam copies?).
When Geist discusses movies, music and video games, he cites growth and sales figures in those industries as evidence that piracy rates are dropping. I'm not convinced. It most likely only shows an improvement in the economy since the economic meltdown of 2008. At any rate, the actual cause cannot be determined from this data alone. This is a classic case of not understanding the idea that correlation does not imply causation. He should know better than to even try this approach.
Canada's laws allow Canadians to pirate whatever they like at will with no fear of repercussions. That absolutely creates a climate that would be considered a haven for pirates. It's great that some are choosing to pay for their IP, but let's not kid ourselves about what it is we have going on here. Citing growth figures in legitimate sales doesn't prove that piracy is on the decrease, it only shows that the industry is doing better.
The USA tops the Public Domain Special Watch List, with Mexico second.
This list tracks the viability of the Public Domain based on copyright terms, what can be copyrighted, and Fair Use exemptions.
You can either stand with the Public, or stand with the Rightsholders. Your choice.
Someone forgetting that it was the liberals who brought us up to bring the law into line in the first place? Besides, I'd have thought that you'd have figured something out. That even with enough outcry the government still listens to the people up here. Otherwise C30 wouldn't be open for discussion being modified, we wouldn't have scrapped the long gun registry. And we sure wouldn't be looking at scrapping S.13 from the HRC(the one that prohibits free speech).
Om, nomnomnom...
I copy everything from my downloading onto yur 26.7 cent paid levy to the cdrs privately thank you....
NICE to make yourself available for stupid comment syndrome.
"You must wait a little bit before using this resource; please try again later."
"You must wait a little bit before using this resource; please try again later."
"You must wait a little bit before using this resource; please try again later."
" Canada, as a raw material and energy exporter, needs to allow its currency to be set by the market..."
What the hell are you talking about?!? Canada's currency is a freely floating one and has been for a few decades. It's one of the few countries on the planet that has a completely floating exchange rate. As for natural resources we have a time honored tradition of selling it abroad. The oil sands in Alberta being the latest.
Piracy here is definitely a problem as I have many friends constantly encouraging me to get my media it the down and dirty way. I have stubbornly been trying to do it the legit way for a long time now. The latest is in trying to get Dexter season 4 and up. Season 1 to 3 is on Netflix Canada but I will be damned if I can rent seasons 4 and up any where. I solved this by using a VPN proxy to the U.S. and some gift card trickery on Amazon to watch it online. I lied to pay for it instead of pirating it.
There is a crap load of content we can never get because some rights holder here in Canada won't allow it to be shown at all here. That's why we can't get Pandora or Spotify. I've seen Canadian indy musicians have their stuff available on iTunes U.S. long before it's available in the Canadian store.
How long do I put up with this before I become a total pirate? Right now I pay a proxy service to pretend like I am American so I can buy the content. I want to pay and be legit but at some point it's just easier to pirate the stuff.
... fuck off? What are we going to do? Go to war? Make an embargo against Canada?
Of course, Canada can be playing the "sure, we'll sort of go along with you" card, while waiting for us to continue fucking up, so it can swoop down and take what it wants.
But me? If i was Canada, i'd say, Fuck You USA. What are you going to do about it?
We can bully on 3rd World Countries, We can bully Middle East Countries. Shit, we got Australia as our testing ground. But if countries like England, or Canada stood up and said, You crazy USA and fuck you, we'll do what we want. And if you don't like it, we'll just sell our energy and natural resources else where.
But Canada is too polite and has no balls, so that will never happen. Really sucks also, because Canada could start changing everything for the better.
Face it. The USA is a bully and we need someone to stand up to us and put is in our place.
Be seeing you...
Software piracy just across the American border is an FBI no-go, so where do you think stolen web property relaunches after leaving the confines of the U.S.? ...Canada earned it place rightly
As far as I'm aware, there are precedent cases in Canada spanning almost 40 years which provision Canadians with the right to make backups of the media they own, and that such format shifting and backup making has been a Canadian right since the late 1970's to early 1980's. At the time, what was dealt with was making cassettes or 8-tracks of LP records for listening to in cars and elsewhere, and to protect the consumer from loss of the recording should the fragile LP become scratched or otherwise damaged.
Apparently Bill C-11 finally codifies those rights in law rather than just precedent cases, but the DMCA-like provisions fly in the face of existing precedent and should NOT be allowed to move forward. I do understand that this article is to explain to US authorities why Canada is not a pirate haven rather than to raise objections to any offending portions of C-11, but I think it's disingenuous to tout such an "advantage" of the new legislation when many Canadians are doing their damndest to see that clause struck from C-11 (myself included.)
But it's typical of the American government. They bleat whatever the media companies tell them to bleat; they don't actually analyze the legal landscape or alternative views and legislation of foreign nations. Essentially, if you don't do things "the US way", you must be a pirate nation.
A situation not all that dissimilar from Vic Toews claims that anyone who objects to the government spying on them in Canada must be siding with paedophiles -- it's a spurious and disingenous attempt to insult the public into obedience. And the US employs that pathetic and shameful tactic ALL THE TIME in their so-called "negotiations" and policies on international trade and agreements.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Silly title. Of course Canada belongs on a watch list. Any nation that doesn't bow down to the will of Corporate America belongs on the watch lists. If you don't want to be on the watch lists, then get on our knees, and start licking our boots. What's that? You say real men and women don't lick boots? Well - we have a few more watch lists to have you listed to!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
There are other countries that have switched to the U.S. dollar: stable democracies like... Zimbabwe.
Next time you need to buy military aircraft, keep this in mind and look across the Atlantic for some non-US options. Just sayin'.
Arrr, eh!
The nature of Copyright Piracy has changed but the laws haven't.
Back in them olden day. For a severe copyright infringement it took a good amount of resources. For books you needed a printing press, for music you needed to be able to grind and duplicate records. It needed expensive equipment, and experience labor to really cause a big infringement. And the laws penalties where heavy because the fine needs to big enough to make sure people don't want to go down that path and invest so much in an illegal activity.
Today it takes more work not to commit a Copyright violation. Near every consumer has a computer which can make duplicate copies of information, it is more convent to Rip a CD and store it on your drive, or when looking for some media to just download a copy, and if someone wants a copy you can just send it over to them. No copies of tapes where after the 3rd or 4th copy it becomes near unusable. Or photocopies of photocopies.... You get Mint or at least second copy perfection every time over and over again. It is cheap and your 6 year old kid can do it. But the laws are still based on the old way, and its fines are weighed as such.
Laws need to be redefined for fare use and copy. Make sure the fines appropriated for the crime... 10000 downloaded movies and songs... $100.00 fine. If you are being more active and have a dedicated server pushing that data to the general public you will expect to be fined more. Appropriate take down grace periods with rules that puts more pressure on the accuser to prove that they are the victim.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
That even with enough outcry the government still listens to the people up here. Otherwise C30 wouldn't be open for discussion being modified, we wouldn't have scrapped the long gun registry. And we sure wouldn't be looking at scrapping S.13 from the HRC(the one that prohibits free speech).
I believe you mean 'selectively listens to the people up here'. The LGR is a good example - I was vehemently opposed to that massive money pit but polls put support for it at 2/3rds and greater. Scrapping the S.13 was a private members bill put forth by a Liberal. And let's let the dust settle on C30 before declaring victory - the Cons aren't at all the libertarian leaning party many make them out to be.
It's on America's tortured brow, That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
It's fine to blame the Liberals (or the most-recent government of a different party) for laws they passed and screwed up and the current government has to fix, but stop blaming the Liberals for legislation that never passed. If the Conservatives thought it was a bad bill, they wouldn't have resurrected it.
And FYI, many Liberal supporters fought against those bills when the Liberals introduced them. Why can't Conservative supporters stop blindly supporting bills and laws just because they're backed by Conservatives? Are they that blind that they MUST unwaveringly follow their leader in all things?
C-30 was backpedaled on not because of massive public outcry, because the Harper Conservatives are used to ignoring that. What they AREN'T used to is a significant number of their base vocally and publicly turning on them. Even Sun News, the far-right news outlet that almost always supports the Conservative agenda, called Toews "an idiot" and said the bill was indefensible ("in its current form").
What a terrible thing to say; my girlfriend is from Canada!
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.
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What?
Yes, the only reason they were on the list is because the US government (a wholly owned subsidiary of BigMedia(tm)), wants draconian laws, just like in the US, and putting Canada on the list puts pressure on the Canadian Government to pass these stupid laws. Its all about money for nothing. Its a racket, not unlike the Mafia, except they use laws to screw the populace.
The Canadian dollar is, at the moment I'm writing this, worth more than the US dollar.
We'll keep our different-coloured bills and dollar/two-dollar coins, they are far nicer and more convenient to carry around anyway, and they don't smell like unwashed body :-P
As a Canadian I would like to avoid using the American Peso, thank you very much.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
And how, exactly, does that work?
First: I am not talking about exchange rate between two fake currencies, I am talking about allowing the market to decide what real money is and what interest rates are (you know, price on money). Second, I said that Canada would invite huge amounts of investments it if started repealing its regulations and stopped the money printing and setting interest rates.
You can't handle the truth.
Software Piracy is rampant in Canada, not because there are not enough laws preventing it, but because the police are too under funded. Bill C-11 is useless unless it mandates police forces in Canada spend a certain amount of resources on the problem. As a self employed Computer Technician I am basically out of work because my conciense will not allow me to work on pirated software. I live in Waterloo Region Ontario about 50 percent of the companies I have worked for are using pirated software, some of these companies are very productive in term of capitial, but won't spend 800 a seat for Microsoft Office but instead expect me to install a pirated copy.
Since there is no enforcement my competitors always get more calls than me. I will not say I am perfect but there is a huge difference between bending rules and breaking them. We are talking about companies with one to twenty employees that have The latest version of Microsoft Windows and Office on their computers but have no licenses for any of them. 10 years ago you may have been able to justify that but with Linux, Gimp, and Libre Office you can no longer say you have no alternative. There are new computer Vendors selling fake COA's and Windows in Waterloo, Check for the hologram. I used to sell custom built hardware but I can't compete with pirated software.
Most of the problem is how police forces are run in Canada unlike the United States local the RCMP must go to the local regional forces as it is their's not the RCMP's juristiction. What Canada need is a police agency like the Federal Bureau of Iinvestigation that has control of National and International crime, a true federal force with ultimate jurisdiction. Not the current hodepodge of police forces the currently exists in Canada. The police in Canada already have the tools, we do not need more laws except for mandating a true national police force with ultimate jurisdiction like the United States of America .
To err is to be human, to really screw up takes a computer and a human.
I'm not actually blaming them. I'm pointing out a fact that the liberals brought forth the original legislation, despite their "anti-american" stance. They happily ride the line of hypocrisy until it bites them in the ass. Oddly enough, anyone can promote a bill outside of the rider. Though here's the odd part, there's nothing to say that backroom deals haven't gone on to support the reintroduction from the conservatives for liberal support either. And that has happened before in politics here too.
The liberals also happily supported it. Along with blowing billions of dollars, remember adscam? Following their leader blindly right off a cliff and taking tax payer money along with it...right.
I guess you don't watch much sun news. They're far more critical of the Harper government then the Star was of the Chrétien or McGuinty governments. Or the Globe was of either of them. In fact, if you look at the articles of the day, both papers were sucking at the tits and still do of both parties, and the sun has been critical of the conservatives when they haven't been conservative enough(i.e. acting more like liberals).
Om, nomnomnom...
i.e. acting more like liberals
What, you mean like balancing the budget? Keeping the GST at the quite sensible level that that outrageous liberal Brian Mulroney set it at? Or retaining the brutal simplicity of Mulroney's tax policies?
The Cretien Liberals and the Mulroney PCs were not that far apart on many policies, and the Liberals gave us balanced budgets for over a decade by maintaining the key reforms that the Mulroney government introduced: income tax reform, free trade, and the GST.
The current lot of fiscally irresponsible Big Government Conservatives aren't either "Liberal" or "Conservative" in anything like their traditional Canadian forms.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
And I'm proud to be a "pirate".
I'm proud to say that it's legal in my country to rip DVDs to a media centre and serve them up within the confines of my private property. I'm proud to say that I copy my legally purchased CDs to both my workstation, laptop, and iPod/iPhone/iPad. I'm proud to say that none of this is illegal under our current (albeit slightly whacked) government.
I, for one, LIKE being on this "piracy watch list". It means that we're still sane as a country.
If we weren't, then I'd be worried.
-AC
Yes, they are that blind, and they want to be that blind. For a stunning read on why they want to live in fear, check out Robert Altemeyer's "The Authoritarians" (freely available online). It outlines the narrow world view these cretins inhabit and how they interpret any challenge of their leaders as an attack on home, family, and community.
The bill is indefensible in any form. This has to be the largest Overton Window I've seen hereabouts in the past decade.
If opportunity came disguised as temptation, one knock would be enough.
3^2 * 67^1 * 977^1
for ownership, i mean repeated view license...$5/movie? i wish. if that's the case, why haven't the creators set up a shop and sold me drm-free $5 movies? simple: they still think that the ~$20 retail, with all its middleman bullshit (pressing, packaging, distribution, retail store's cut) should be factored into the infinitely copyable digital file, which especially shouldn't in purely digital films. that's why movies currently sold via itunes, vudu and the like are as much, and in some cases more, than their physical counterpart. i would gladly pay $5 for a drm-free movie in the latest resolution (with $1-2 updates for next-gen's res or like $10 for lifetime: all future resolutions/features), because that's what i feel the average cost of a movie should be, after cutting out the middle. too bad it'll never happen. even if they had full control over the content (no more retailers or secondary markets), and the more costly logistics gone, i highly doubt the prices would drop and there'd be DRM up the wazoo. sure, they'd have the occasional sale but never near clearance prices. they'd literally be the [un]limited-time monopoly that a copyright grants with none of the not-mandatory-to-be-accessed fair use features. it's what they want so badly, so per-view pricing becomes the only method. 2056, i'm looking at you. now to get back... to the future.