Canadian Prime Minister To Music Lobby: Here's Your Copyright Term Extension

An anonymous reader writes: The Canadian government's decision to extend the term of copyright for sound recordings in the budget may have taken most copyright observers by surprise, but not the music industry. The extension will reduce competition, increase costs for consumers, and harm access to Canadian Heritage, but apparently all it took was a letter from the music industry lobby to the Prime Minister of Canada. Michael Geist reports on a letter sent by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the music lobby on the day the change was announced confirming that industry lobbying convinced him to extend the term of copyright without any public consultation or discussion.

Comments

Politicans who forget who voted for them...

[unique_parrot]

...and make decisions with their wallet.

Re: Politicans who forget who voted for them...

[Anonymous Coward]

Who voted for them? Does it matter? You have to vote for someone and there is nobody the industry cannot buy. No money, no politics. Now open that pretty mouth wide while we shit into it.

Re:Politicans who forget who voted for them...

[Opportunist]

Like there is an option to vote for someone who isn't a corporate whore.

The main difference between a prostitute and a politician is that the prostitute only sells her body, not her soul.

Sure, a "letter"

[fph il quozientatore]

all it took was a cheque from the music industry lobby to the Prime Minister of Canada.

FTFY.

Votes mean nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

When all the candidates on the ballot are bought and paid for by the corporate interests

Re:Votes mean nothing

[Dunbal]

Democracy is just a sham anyway. It only really works to your advantage if you happen to be one of the dumbest people in the country. Then you can trust that the "majority" are smarter than you and will make a better choice than you. If you are of average or higher intelligence then enjoy the fact that your leaders will always be picked by people stupider than you, since you will be in the "minority".

Re:Votes mean nothing

[ultranova]

Democracy is just a sham anyway. It only really works to your advantage if you happen to be one of the dumbest people in the country.

...I think someone needs to read up on world history and the relative performance of various political systems.

If you are of average or higher intelligence then enjoy the fact that your leaders will always be picked by people stupider than you, since you will be in the "minority".

Which is far preferable to leaders who are picked by birth, rule by divine authority and are answerable to no one. Or to violent chaos. Which are the only known alternatives to democracy.

Re:Votes mean nothing

[Bert64]

Leaders picked by birth are basically 50/50 wether they are power hungry despots or benevolent dictators...

Politics on the other hand almost always attracts a specific kind of person, those who want power and will do whatever is necessary to acquire it. Succeeding in a democratic system requires getting enough people to vote for you, which requires sufficient media coverage otherwise the voters won't even be aware of your existence. With such a system, it's no wonder that large media companies hold so much power.

Vote left

[rsilvergun]

What I do is just vote for the most left leaning candidate I can get my hands on. It's better than nothing.

When you don't vote then that's a signal to the rich and powerful that they can get away with even _more_ than they did the last time around. What do you think happens when their lap dogs win in a landslide? Same thing as anyone who wins an overwhelming victory, it emboldens them.

Vote the most popularist person you can get. Here in the States I'll vote Hilary even though she's a a corporate douche because at least she won't gut the last round of medical reforms (which I have several friends/family dependent on).

Moreover we're adults. We shouldn't pout and cross our arms and say if I can't have everything I'll take nothing. Take what you can get. The Phrase "it can always get worse" really _does_ mean something...

Re:Does it actually matter

[mikeabbott420]

We're building a deep international surveillance state combined with growing capabilities in machine learning and pattern recognition. I expect the laws we ignore today will be enforced internationally, effectively and draconianly as part of "trade" agreements with a side helping of "Terrorism!" and Who will think of the children!" in the future. I don't know what will happen but I expect ownership of copyrights will be even more valuable in the future.

It's far fetched, but possible to imagine a future as extreme as one where a combination of listening to a song in public, facial and other recognition. persistent public tracking and law enforcement linking to corporate databases might get you sanctioned for listening to a song you aren't paying a fee for.