MPAA's Dodd Secretly Lobbied For a Canadian DMCA

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian government is expected to pass copyright reform next week. The bill's anti-circumvention rules are a mirror image of the DMCA, leading many to conclude that the government simply caved to U.S. led lobbying pressure. Now Michael Geist provides the evidence — a secret series of unreported meetings between MPAA head Christopher Dodd and Canada's foreign minister, heritage minister, and a senior industry official, just weeks after the bill was introduced and days before SOPA landed in the U.S."

Comments

FROSTY P!ZZ

[Anonymous Coward]

This guy is a douschebarg

Re:FROSTY P!ZZ

[neokushan]

Sadly, slashdot doesn't have a +1 stating the obvious.

Re:FROSTY P!ZZ

[cpu6502]

Yeah it's pretty obvious that the MPAA is not strictly a U.S. organization. They are trying to lock-up control over movies all around the world, and kill-off fair use (or fair dealing).

I don't care if they are commonly known

[chispito]

More than one acronym in a story title is confusing.

They didn't cave, they where happy to help

[doconnor]

"the government simply caved to U.S. led lobbying pressure"

It's not like the Conservatives where in any way reluctant to do exactly what large US corporations wanted.

Re:They didn't cave, they where happy to help

[Phrogman]

Give our Canadian politicians - particularly the Conservatives, but obviously including the Liberals in the past - they give good results when properly paid for their services.
You are right though, its merely in imitation of the US model for effective (Corporate) Government :(

Re:They didn't cave, they where happy to help

[Ironhandx]

The difference is the Liberals choose where they get their bribes from rather more wisely than the conservatives. The liberals would bargain away less and get more out of it for themselves, these conservatives are giving away canadian rights hand over fist and seem to be getting very little in return so far.

Criminal

[soundguy]

There's no possible way a guy this scummy was even remotely honest during his time in the senate. Everything he ever did there should be investigated for possible corruption and racketeering. If he EVER had an ounce of integrity, I'm sure he sold it to the highest bidder at the earliest opportunity.

Re:Criminal

[NIN1385]

There's no possibility any senator was even remotely honest during their time in the senate. FTFY

Re:Criminal

[Loosifur]

Well, Chris Dodd was implicated in a lot of sketchy business involving the subprime mortgage stuff. A lot of conflict of interest type things that seem to happen pretty often in Congress. Like he took a bunch of money from Fannie and Freddie, then trumpeted how financially healthy they were, right before they had to be entirely taken over by the Fed. He had some kind of involvement with Countrywide Financial, he had some tie to Bear-Stearns, and there was some flap about the AIG bailout, the details of which I don't recall. But, basically, during his time in Congress he had a lot of ties to a lot of financial institutions that have been under scrutiny for being awful, and he himself has benefited from these ties in ways that look at least a little bit sleazy. Granted, that could describe a lot of Congress, but that's the deal with him in particular. He's been a little bit of a scumbag well before he left Congress, and it's no surprise he remains a bit of a scumbag.

Honestly, if the Pirate Party could pay off his mortgage, he'd probably scupper the MPAA. The nice thing about people who can be bought is that they can be bought by anyone.

Re:Criminal

[dnahelicase]

There's no possibility any senator was even remotely honest during their time in the senate. FTFY

No, it's completely possible. The idea that there could be honest, intelligent senators has been around for years. I mean, think about it, with all the senators that get elected over time - they have to exist!

Just because we haven't observed them yet doesn't mean they don't exist

Re:Criminal

[Shagg]

Honest politicians can't get elected.

Re:Criminal

[the_povinator]

In the book "Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone", the author mentions that Chris Dodd visited his station there, and he devotes a couple of paragraphs to the fact that he thought Dodd was a total dick. Basically his recollection was that Dodd was asking him questions, but they weren't really questions, he had some kind of stupid agenda, and all in all, he was left with a bad taste in his mouth from the encounter.

WTF Canada?

[Das Auge]

I thought you were better than this. You have the best privacy laws in the world.

I hope they find a way to stop it. It's not too late is it?

Disclosure: I'm American and have been jealous of Canada's privacy laws for years. Now I just feel sad for them.

Re:WTF Canada?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I'm a Canadian and very proud of the priviledges I enjoy. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am, and think that the freedoms I enjoy apply to many other free countries around the world. When I read slash, usually I'm shaking my head on rights abuses in China, the USA or the UK. Not this time!

Sadly, all it takes is one bad government to steamroll legislation through and shut down all opposition. Just when I think our politicians can't get any worse, it does.

Our current government is so uncanadian, but I fear few Canadians have the ability to stop this insanity. Foreign corporations own most of Canada, and it seems most Canadians are too nice to stand up and make sacrifices to stop this insanity.
Most that I have met have fallen to the "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" trap, and have sold their souls out of ignorance or despair.

Re:WTF Canada?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought you were better than this. You have the best privacy laws in the world.

I hope they find a way to stop it. It's not too late is it?

Disclosure: I'm American and have been jealous of Canada's privacy laws for years. Now I just feel sad for them.

The problem was that Harper was given a majority government (becaues the Liberals self-imploded).

Now he's shown his hidden agenda - he's no more a conservative than a corporatist hell-bent on throwing Canadians under a bus as long as it makes some corporation a profit. (See oil pipelines, see omnibus budget bill that is probably very little about budget and more about amending environmental laws to shove a pipeline through BC), etc. And of course, nice laws to make sure that environmental groups are heavily audited for "foreign funds" (despite lobby groups taking of said out-of-country money as a good thing).

Of course, it started before when he renamed the Government of Canada to "Harper Government", and the way he's been doing stuff, really "Harper Dictatorship" - Harper's way or the highway. (Note to self: Start Googlebomb for Harper that autocompletes to that.)

Hell, supposedly he's brainwashed his MPs as well - there was one who wanted to vote against the budget (and said there were probably a dozen more Conservative MPs who felt the same way) and got a stern talking to as "Independents never get their way".

Of course, given Harper's majority is a slim one, if there really were that many people wanting out, becoming independent would make them the most powerful people in the House as Harper would have a minority government.

Harper wants it done, and he'll get his way. And he really wants the copyright law, ACTA, SOPA, DMCA, because he's been convinced it's Good for the Economy(tm) and Jobs(tm) because the US says so. I expect the privacy laws to go next because they're getting in the way of doing business. And he must be right because Canada is doing better economically than the US and Europe, and thus his leadership is superior.

Sad fact is politics in Canada has positioned him to be basically the leader for the rest of his life - the Liberals are gone, the NDP has its own issues.

Re:WTF Canada?

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope they find a way to stop it. It's not too late is it?

Unfortunately, the current Canadian government has an absolute mandate by 24% of the population to do whatever corporate multinationals tell them to do.

What?!

[rgbrenner]

What?! Dodd, as head of an organization than wants a DMCA law in Canada, lobbied the Canadians for a DMCA law? You don't say

I've never heard of such a ridiculous thing... It's like he was doing his job or something. Who the hell does that?!

Re:What?!

[whisper_jeff]

It's like he was doing his job or something. Who the hell does that?!

Certainly not Canadian politicians who are supposed to represent the will of the Canadian people rather than sell the country out to foreign corporate interests...

Not worth all the trouble

[cvtan]

Is it really necessary to go through all this to prevent people from stealing songs worth $.99? Surely prevention of bank robbery or sketchy investing is more important. Nearly any crime you can think of is more important! There are so many things that are screwed up and people get worked up about this? Sigh.

Re:Not worth all the trouble

[fluffythedestroyer]

The music industry has been putting pressure on the Canadian (and lots of other country btw) government to use more restrictive laws for years. ironicaly, it is worth all the trouble for them. I say ironically because they still an old system which is barely hanging on life now a days. We've seen it recently with the sales of digital music. It seems that industry is having lots of trouble adapting to either new technologies or new ways to get people to spend money on artist or music. It's a shame really.

Re:Not worth all the trouble

[Shagg]

Is it really necessary to go through all this to prevent people from stealing songs worth $.99?

No, but that's not what the RIAA/MPAA are really worried about. Their model is based on the power that being a distribution monopoly gives them. It is necessary to them to go through all of this to prevent any threat/competition to that monopoly, such as P2P.

Re:Not worth all the trouble

[poetmatt]

No. This is what you do when you want to *go out of* business, not the other way around. The harm these bills have to every nation that passes them is exponentially greater than any amount than any individual recording/music industry stands to gain.

Strange

[JWW]

I always find it interesting how moralizing and condescending the MPAA can be to citizens of so many countries, then they turn around and provide products, which in their minds we "must buy" that glamorize and criminals and gangsters.

I really believe there ought to be a law that bans movie studios from making movies about violating the law.

Actually, no I don't believe that. But I be willing to trade a promise from the studios that they can continue to make movies about criminals ONLY IF THEY STOP LOBBYING FOR LAWS THAT MAKE EVERYONE A CRIMINAL!!!

Re:Seems weird that they can call it copyright ref

[fluffythedestroyer]

Ironically we still do (currently) have a copyright law...if you can call it that. One thing comes to mind, if it works, don't touch it.

"...mirror image of the DMCA..."

[John Hasler]

Do you mean that it is exactly like the DMCA including the safe harbor provision, or that it is the DMCA, reversed? Neither seems likely.

Elected officials are now criminals.

[arthurpaliden]

So it appears that Canadian members of Parliament are about to make themselves and all their relatives criminals. Interesting.

Do they have tar and feathers in Canada?

[Freddybear]

It's a little old fashioned, but those old-timers knew how to get the point across.