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Canada Launches ACTA Bill
TrueSatan writes "In an utterly craven move, the Canadian government has launched a bill to bring Canada into full compliance with the discredited, U.S.-led ACTA agreement — an agreement to which most of the world does not agree. To further pressure the acceptance of this awful bill, the U.S., on the same day, released their Trade Policy and Agenda Annual Report (PDF), which calls on Canada to comply with ACTA obligations. For ACTA to take effect, it would require six signatures from the major economic blocks. Tt appears to have no remaining possibility of getting them, yet the U.S., and now Canada, continue to push it forward. The Canadian bill features claims based on spurious health and safety concerns that have been thoroughly debunked by a U.S. report. Despite these claims being so dubious, they remain a cornerstone of the Canadian bill. Similarly, the claimed losses due to counterfeiting ($30 billion USD) stated in the bill have also been debunked. The Canadian bill seeks to give border guards an unprecedented level of control, without the possibility of judicial oversight. Despite a lack of evidence to suggest that Canada is a major source of counterfeit product, the bill puts at risk the fully-legal parallel import of generic items — pharmaceuticals, for instance. The bill would also change copyright infringement from a civil dispute to a breach of criminal law. Pity Canada if this bill is enacted!"
Something like a poorly made power plug charger should already run foul of electronics certification and trade dress requirements.
Adding yet another layer that the knockoff cloners will blatantly ignore and sell dangerous products at low low prices anyway does precisely dick to resolve the problem.
What I am trying politely to say, is that such counterfeit chargers are allready illegal, and making more legislation won't solve the problem. Only tighter enforcement will solve it, and that isn't profitable.
All legislation like this will do is make more laws for flagrant abusers to ignore, and make life harder for honest people for no measurable benefit.