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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.

18 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Politicans who forget who voted for them... by unique_parrot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...and make decisions with their wallet.

    1. Re:Politicans who forget who voted for them... by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

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    2. Re:Politicans who forget who voted for them... by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, he did it 'cause he believes the copyright industry really, really needs more time than lifetime + 70 years to recover their investment.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Politicans who forget who voted for them... by AK+Marc · · Score: 5, Informative

      There is lots of evidence that the music industry gave bribes, they are just the legal kind, called "donations".

    4. Re:Politicans who forget who voted for them... by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We have more than two political parties in Canada. The choice isn't limited to "Conservatives or Liberals". You can vote for NDP, Green Party, etc.

    5. Re:Politicans who forget who voted for them... by currently_awake · · Score: 3, Funny

      In his defence, a rather large cheque was also in the letter.

    6. Re:Politicans who forget who voted for them... by zedaroca · · Score: 4, Interesting

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

      I think the main difference is that prostitutes keep their promises.

  2. Sure, a "letter" by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 3, Insightful

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

    FTFY.

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    1. Re:Sure, a "letter" by dryeo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well this government has been using copyright(1) to deny citizens access to taxpayer funded research and I'm sure they'd love to keep unfavourable research secret forever, I doubt they're looking that far in the future.
      1. All government stuff is under the Queens copyright in Canada.

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  3. Votes mean nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Votes mean nothing by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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".

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    2. Re:Votes mean nothing by Bert64 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

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  4. What Bothers me Most by Rashkae · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isn't that Copyright protection was extended. That's bad enough, buit is in good company of poorly thought out laws that burocracies and governments have to live with.

    What really bothers me is the Canadian government following the Amerian example of sneaking new laws in completely unrelated bills. A change to the copyright act should have been made in a bill ammeding the copyright act. How can a legal system possibly be sutainable when you have to start looking at annual budget bills of some obscure decade to figure out the copyright statues currently in place?? This practice serves no purprose, other than as a trick for governments to sneak in legal statues they would otherwise not legally be able to do due to opposition, either legislative or public.

  5. You're wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Politicians don't have souls.

  6. Didn't he say "open for business"? by dbIII · · Score: 3, Informative

    Come on guys, you had to see this coming. The "conservatives" of that type are all for change if it's paid for.

  7. Vote left by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

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  8. Re:Does it actually matter by mikeabbott420 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

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  9. Re:Alberta not lesson enough? by compro01 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't know Canadian politics, so not sure what you mean by your comment.

    In the recent provincial election in Alberta (generally regarded as the core of the Conservatives (Stephen Harper's seat is in Alberta). It gets stereotyped as the Canadian version of Texas), the Progressive Conservative Party (who have held government in that province since 1971 (and before them, the also right-wing Social Credit Party held government since 1935) and before the election held 70 out of the 87 seats in the provincial legislature) were swept out by the social-democratic New Democratic Party. It was a really stunning reversal for the province that has been electing right-wing governments for longer than most have been alive to shift straight to our leftish party and, if the recent polling results are to be believed, it has given the federal NDP a serious boost and turned the upcoming federal election (which is expected to happen in October) into a three-way race.

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