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The IIPA Copyright Demands For Canada and Spain
Dangerous_Minds writes "The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) is demanding a number of countries be placed back on the special 301 piracy watchlist. One country being recommended for inclusion is Canada (PDF). Apparently, even though Canada passed copyright reform laws, any compromise to protect consumers is reason for inclusion. Michael Geist offers some analysis on this move. Meanwhile, the IIPA is also recommending that Spain be included in the watchlist. In a separate filing, the IIPA makes a host of reasons why Spain should also be included. One of the main reasons seems to be that even though Spain passed the Sinde Law in spite of protests, the courts aren't simply rubberstamping any takedown requests and that cases that were dismissed due to lack of evidence is cause for concern. Freezenet offers some in-depth analysis on this development while noting towards the end that the Special 301 report suffers from credibility problems."
Is this Michael Geist guy the only person between the Intellectual Property goups and the people of Canada?
It seams that if he was out of the picture there wouln't be anyone else in canada who gives a shit.
The Sinde Law is already about as popular as a fart in a spacesuit in Spain, and is incredibly unpopular.
But then, if these cocksuckers want to double down and make themselves even MORE unpopular, then let them -- they deserve all the bad karma they're generating for themselves.
IIPA having childish temper tantrums again, can't we just ignore them? or at least get the US government to ignore them? failing that, we need to get the other 99% of the world to sign a legally binding international treaty forbidding the removal of fair use clauses in any future copyright law land grabs.
Who are the USA going to blacklist then, if 99% of the world are against their copyright pushes? They'd only be hurting themselves in the long run.
So unless they come up with actual proper evidence, they can suck it. Some of our ISP in Canada are actually fighting for their consumers, unlike in the US.
if the population was as the georgia guidestones (1/2 billion) or as suggested elsewhere such as UN agenda 21....
How about copyright and patent holders just pretend the population is that size and the rest of us just don't exist and therefore what we pirate doesn't exist either.
There, problems solved!
Terrorism: the use of violence and intimidation to achieve political goals.
Lobby your congressman to get IRAA, MPAA, IIPA classified as terrorists.
To find their name on the Special 301 watchlist.
Statements issued by the Attorney General in 2006 de-criminalizing infringing distributions of content by P2P networks continued to have ramifications in 2012, having led to a halt in criminal enforcement actions against illegal file sharing. Circular 1/2006 from Spain’s Office of the Prosecutor-General (Attorney General) argues that unauthorized uploading of copyright protected materials over the Internet, including via P2P systems, is not subject to criminal action under Article 270 of the Criminal Code unless such acts are “for commercial profit”, and that unauthorized downloading must be considered an act of private copying.
So, judging from this, for IIPA, "illegal file sharing" does not actually mean "things that are outlawed and prosecuted in respective countries", it simply means "things we don't want other people to do".
Ezekiel 23:20
As a spanish, I do not know why in hell a foreign entity should try to change our legislation. And, btw, the present legislation on the subject, the infamous Sinde law, was created inside the US embassy in Spain, in a meeting between the US ambassor, a RIAA/IIPA representative and our (then) minister of culture.
Is no government in the world sovereign, for the people, by the people, of the people it represents?
It happens when a country's elected representatives use their treaty power to give up some of the country's sovereignty in return for other countries agreeing not to impose prohibitive import tariffs on products from that country.
I could take the safe route and complain about copyright holders. The tougher question which most avoid is why are copyright holders assumed to be evil? I'm not talking corporations, we can all agree they are inherently evil. I'm strictly concerned with artists that are often vilified as greedy. Say I spend a year writing a novel then publish it on iTunes for sale. Why am I evil asking a few dollars for some one to read it? Say you spend a few days or a week reading it in your spare time $2 or $3 dollars seems like cheap entertainment. If it takes me six months to a year to write it why am I expected to work for free and the readers expect to be paid for their time? Before I get shouted down by people claiming that's not what they are talking about I see such posts constantly modded highly that stand up for reader rights and attack the content creators. Personally I have no use for these corporate lackies that are involved with the lawsuits and such but why aren't the readers sticking up for the indy writers and filmmakers that want their work seen and read but also want to feed their families? It's nearly impossible for writers to survive on live performance fees as everyone demands from musicians so what option do they have? I personally have a stack of unpublished novels and at present the only way I know to protect them is to leave them unpublished. If I let a distributor release them they want all the rights and if I release them independently the readers claim they have the rights. The joke is if I leave them unpublished then I keep all my rights and no one can claim them. I'm risking my Karma making this post, I'm at excellent right now, I just feel strongly about this as a writer. I avoid like the plague posting on copyright posts to avoid Karma hits but sometimes it's hard to sit back and hear how evil rights holders are. I've recommended to fellow writers to not publish their works because of the hostile environment but how do the readers benefit when writers fear publishing their work? I know capitalism is a foul word but what's wrong with letting the market decide? If you don't want to pay don't read the work. I have 400 to 500 novels saved off on my iPad all public domain. It'll take me many years to read it all. There's plenty of free material but most want what's hot right now and they still want it free. When I was growing up we'd save up a month or more to buy a book. Now most expect to have hundreds if not thousands at their finger tips. How is this the writer's fault and why do we have to suffer because of current expectations? There has to be a compromise? One that allows writers to make a living and people to have reasonable access. You may have paid $500 for your iPad but not a dime of that went to writers. We just want a fighting chance to make a living. I'm posting this mostly for friends since I have no plans to release any of my current work. After I'm dead the family can decide what to do with it all.
I am from Belgium and I would think it to be an honor to be on the list with other countries that are more interested in the freedom of their people then the wealth of their US owned music companies.
An honor to be on the list. I hope that many other countries will get on that list, so it won't be a privilege.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
By those numbers the amount of piracy in the US should be higher by quite a bit. Hell California has 38,041,430 people. 4 million more than Canada.
Who the fuck are these retards kidding and why the fuck do they get to go around slandering other countries when their backyard is dirty as hell. The countries on the 301 list should do a proper study and create an nice official site stating the piracy rate in the US vs them.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Every time a story like this pops up I find it impossible to not fire up Bittorrent, visit the Pirate Bay, and download something that the entertainment mega corps have already made a gazillion dollars selling.
Three Squirrels
Saves me money... don't want to have copyrighted media in my possession in case it somehow leads to me getting in trouble. I'm in trouble if I rip it, and if I watch it on an oil rig where I work (not licensed for use there according to several of my DVDs). Better to not buy them at all. Thanks for saving me money by pushing for all these draconian laws and restrictions.
Well we're putting the IIPA on our watch list of robber baron copyright trolls! It's time to take our culture back from greedy entertainment conglomerates! It's our culture and we should be able to use it any way we want to once a song has fallen down the charts, maybe a year after release. How do you like them apples IIPA? Yes you can buy laws, but we can band together and have them changed to suit us.
"this Michael Geist guy"
The first you're hearing of Michael Geist just now, huh? I sincerely envy your man-cave. The isolation is nearly perfect. Faraday would have been jealous.
Dear IIPA,
Go fuck yourself. Thank you.
Sincerely, Canada
licet differant, aequabitur
You are making the flawed assumption that just because you want to engage in some particular occupation and use some particular business model, that the world must then adapt to your requirements so that you can profit from your choices.
Sorry, but it doesn't work that way. The world doesn't owe you anything at all, least of all to adapt itself to suit you.
The world is as it is, and if you are a businessman who desires an income then you must adapt yourself to suit the environment in which you wish to do business. The digital revolution has transformed the environment in recent years, such that 1's and 0's have become trivially replicable at practically no cost. That's the environment in which you live, and you cannot mandate that it be different.
The fact that this makes old business models no longer as lucrative as in the days when works were distributed on non-replicable media is an inherent feature of digital technology, and you cannot uninvent it. Perhaps you need to re-examine your chosen line of business, because selling buggy whips may not have long-term viability.
As a Canadian, I would be proud to be back on that list.
Nothing says "fuck you" more to these copyright mongers then being placed on their "naughty list" and being pleased that you're there. I would be quite displeased to find out that my government bent over backwards *not* to be put on that list, because frankly we have other things to worry about that actually matter.
Those scumbag subhuman shits hang greyhounds (Galgos in Spanish) from trees at the end of the hunting season.
If the dog caught a lot, then it is hung from a high branch. Death comes relatively soon.
If the dog was not as successful as the breeder would have liked, then they are hung from a low branch, so low that their feet reach the ground. These dogs take three or more days to die.
Spaniards should be rounded up into cages, then have their feet shot off. After that they can be rented out to the recently rescued Mali people as house slaves.
Obviously they should have to pass the Bull Test (Rabid bull weeds out the slow ones by goring/stomping, to ensure quality slaves reach their future owners) before they are judged fit to serve in a human's home.
That's the biggest problem we have right now in Spain.
Everything else is peachy.
We've done this before. Here's how it goes:
The Conservatives want a new IP law.
They bribe, cajole or otherwise convince some copyright watchdog to call Canada a haven of piracy, even when it isn't
The whistleblower agency obliges
The Conservatives tell Parliament "Look what they're saying about us, we gotta fix this!" and propose some ridiculous IP law
The first you're hearing of Michael Geist just now, huh?
Um, no, that isn't what I said. What I said is that his is the only name I ever hear about in relation to defending the Canadian people from draconian copyright laws.
How the hell did you get "I have never heard of Michael Geist before" out of what I said?
It is possible to consider the IIPA as so far behind the times, that they are still using dial up for internet connections. Their business models have been out of date for so long; they make the old 8-tracks look like new tech.
I think I have seen their kind having a closer relationship with the batch of idiots known as Conservative MPs, than the same MPs have with their own constituents.
The peculiar way you said it: "this Michael Geist guy". That phrase connotes an unfamiliarity with the subject because of the hesitance to simply refer to him by name.
Actually, that's what I thought: Spain's government has its hands full on keeping the country away from the brink of chaos,
so *NOW* might be a good time for foreign organisations like IIPA to give them a kick in the cojones: they're too pre-occupied on internal matters to divide their attention to tell IIPA to fuck off.
I hope someone in the Spanish government writes a proposal to WIPO to change copyright duration back to 14 years as a result of this.
I'm Canadian... and I've tried to stay informed about the copyright reform laws, and I'm completely unaware of any sort of compromise that supposedly protects consumers. Bill C-32, which passed just last year, leaves consumers of copyrighted content with virtually no choices with respect to almost any technology developed since roughly the turn of the 21st century. So... how is buggery considered "protection", exactly?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Suck my nuts get reelected.
Its time that the IIPA, MPAA, RIAA and their fellow travelers be prosecuted for Rackettering under the RICO Act These folks are international terrorists destroying fundamental liberties and democratic values around the world.