US Says Canadian Copyright As Bad As China's, Russia's 323
An anonymous reader writes "The US is blaming Canada in a new
report that claims that Canadian copyright and intellectual
property laws are as bad as those found in China and Russia. Michael Geist notes
that Canadian officials have dismissed these findings in the past,
arguing it 'does not recognize the Special 301 process due to its
lacking of reliable and objective analysis.'" (Read more about the annual Special 301 report.)
Thank goodness for Dr. Geist (Score:5, Insightful)
A breath of fresh air in the murky air of pollution spewed by the RIAA/MPAA et. al.
Backhanded Compliment? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Backhanded Compliment? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also the sux0rz.
Re:Comparisons??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Right. Like the Canadian content laws or the hate propaganda laws.
(oops)
Failfacts (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow i didn't know the RIAA and MPAA could lobby the USA to condemn other countries. Have they ever actually bothered to look at themselves instead of being hypocrites telling the rest of the world to do things they themselves are not willing to do.
Look at the http://geo.keff.org/ pirate bay peer tracker and it's clear America and china are the big peer providers for torrents.
sorry Canada is a real democracy not a corporate sponsored illusion. We put laws into place that the people want not corporate powers that run other nations to ignorant to new technology and progression. For starters if we here in the great white north had access to hulu i would not need to download many of the shows i miss well at work. Screw the usa and its overkill laws that allow corporations to exploit and extort their own customer base.
Tit for tat (Score:5, Insightful)
I've said it before: The US government and the IP lobbying groups can go frak themselves ten ways to Sunday on this issue.
In the softwood lumber dispute the US not only flipped the bird at Canada, but refused to accept several judgments against them by the WTO and NAFTA.
If you don't respect international laws and rulings against you, don't expect others to respect the lopsided laws you're trying to force down the throats of more free-thinking countries.
(Sadly, they've come to expect no less; in the end, the newly-elected Conservative government rolled over on the softwood issue, gave the ball to the US, and begged for more. Yes, I'm just as disgusted at the pansies who sold us out)
Great (Score:5, Insightful)
Copyright is too strong in the USA. Anywhere that they say is "lax", must be better then the USA at it.
It was supposed to last just long enough so that inventors and artists could make enough money for their next work. Not an ever lasting deal as is what we get with the copyrights being extend again and again.
Bah (Score:4, Insightful)
The sad part is that now that we've been 'called out', so to speak, Canada will inevitably bend to the will of the USA and change it's laws to be just as draconian, if not moreso.
Well... Canada's basically the 51st state anyway.
Re:They also blame us (Score:5, Insightful)
It was bad enough when the secretary of Homeland Security said last week the 9/11 terrorists came through Canada. To hear John McCain repeat that lie made me very glad he's not your president. Does he also think Iraq was responsible for the attacks too?
Unbelievable.
Here is how I understand the summary, as bad as- (Score:5, Insightful)
It says Canadian copyright laws are as bad as China and Russia.
What it didn't say is that - US copyright laws are even worse.
You cannot see (Score:4, Insightful)
There are WAY more important laws
On the contrary, I would submit that copyright laws are among the most significant in shaping the world as we know it. Copyright laws are not about entertainment, but rather, about thought control.
As a species we are standing on a crossroads never before faced by any species on the planet.
I argue that the single most significant contributor to our supremacy over this planet is our capacity for meme-exchange. We have taken mammalian peer-learning to an unprecedented level. The fact that every member of our species frequently expends great energy in the singular business of meme-aquisition, and that we spend just as much energy in the business of meme-distribution, serves as a testament to its survival-utility and evolutionary effectiveness.
Are we to embrace this freedom, allow the currents of information to flow unrestrained, and see where our exponentially-increasing rate of technological evolution (which, from a more metaphysical perspective, is not so different from our genetic evolution) takes us?
Or are we, on the other hand, going to lock ourselves down and block this flow, all in the name of preserving the economic prosperity of a select few?
Is our future one of wild change and uncertainty, or one of regularity and control?
Information is the currency with which we purchase our spiritual destiny. Copyright law is a manifestation of how we are spending that currency.
I may be a religious nut, but you, sir, are completely blind.
Re:Comparisons??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Canada's laws aren't, I think, generally more enlightened and less restrictive compared to American law. We have some pretty foreboding hate speech laws in Canada and a significant cross-section of the law is still defined in an unwritten common law; but I suppose if your priorities lie in downloading music, marrying other men or smoking pot we must look like quite the utopia.
The scary part about all of this is the comparison to China and Russia. The copyright laws in those countries are pretty far from lenient, they're just almost entirely unenforced. This whole story is another lie from the people who brought you the rather quaint notion that most film piracy comes from Canadians recording movies with camcorders rather than the reality of film pre-release DVDs getting leaked from the MPAA.
Re:Tit for tat (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't respect international laws and rulings against you, don't expect others to respect the lopsided laws you're trying to force down the throats of more free-thinking countries.
Rogue states like the US need to be reigned in. The US government has consistently violated international norms for decades, particularly with regards to bizarre claims of extra-territoriality, which basically means Americans think that they can legally apply their wacko laws to everyone everywhere.
Unfortunately, although once a great trading republic, the United States is now a military empire, financed by debt and spiralling into oblivion. Americans will be hurt by their fall more than anyone else, but the rest of the world really needs to start paying attention and thinking about how to deal with a post-American planet.
One of the things we need to do is bring home to Americans as clearly as possible that we don't care about their parochial laws. Canada is in full compliance with all relevant international treaties on copyright, and any extraneous conditions that the Americans would like to impose on us are irrelevant. We are an independent nation, and don't react well to being told what we ought to do by our bankrupt southern neighbours.
I live in Canada (Score:4, Insightful)
(amenglish)
Y'all can ken go fuck yerselves, ya morans.
(/amenglish)
Canada is the only place I know of where 100 CDRs costs more than 100 DVD-Rs...
We pay EVERY FUCKING DAY massive extra money to the American Ideological State Apparatus [wikipedia.org] and Canadian native culture is pressured into virtual non-existence thanks to the Hollywood/TV juggernaut.
Our only consolation is we have all the water and oil, and the last time you invaded Canada, we kicked your ass.
Please, please, please, we pray that your empire dies so we can sell our resources to the highest bidder and not to you thanks to NAFTA.
RS
Re:Here is how I understand the summary, as bad as (Score:1, Insightful)
From TFA, "Canada now joins a group of countries designated as being especially lax in protecting intellectual property, including Algeria, China, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Venezuela". So it means "bad for corporations", not "bad for citizens".
Re:Dear USA... (Score:1, Insightful)
please don't blame us citizens for the spouting of our corporate interest paid off politicians. please don't do anything our government says. we're all being held prisoner here.
Re:Backhanded Compliment? (Score:5, Insightful)
What really got my interest from the article was this quote:
It was clear that Washington's patience with Ottawa's repeatedly broken promises has run out, perhaps also a reflection of the greater status and power of the digital and entertainment sectors in the era of the net-savvy Obama administration.
Net-savvy Obama administration. I don't know if those are exactly the words I would use.....
Re:Bah (Score:1, Insightful)
And as an added bonus, I get modded flamebait for thinking Canada will bend to the USA. Because y'know, that's never happened before :P
Yeah, I'm sure it was that - stating an opinion of what a political outcome could be - that got you modded Flamebait and not the whole 51st state comment.
Re:Backhanded Compliment? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is this the problem of Canadian customs agents? Isn't it the responsibility of the US customs agents get off their arses to check incoming shipments?
Re:Backhanded Compliment? (Score:5, Insightful)
the problem apparently is that a lot of commercially bootlegged products make it into the US through Canada. The Canadian government essentially permits this, for example, if you drive across the border with a truck full of DVDs, the Canadian customs agents can't stop you without getting a warrant.
Canadian customs agents are not the police.
Like most civilized countries, Canada doesn't stop & search every vehicle & person leaving the country. Canadian customs agents stop & search incoming traffic.
Keeping bad stuff & bad people out of the USA is the job of the US Customs & Border Patrol.
What's in it for us? (Score:2, Insightful)
Even if we, for the sake of the argument, ignore the practical and ethical issues of current copyright laws as a matter of principle, and buy the argument that infringing copyright hurts the producers and not just the pockets of *AA execs, still, the fact remains that Canada (as well as China, Russia, and the rest of the world) is under huge influx of American corporations, who profit from out-of-border sales while not offering jobs in foreign countries, paying anywhere near the taxes they pay at the states, contribute to foreign producers or foreign culture in general, or otherwise benefit foreign countries in proportion to the profits they make, or seek to make, from them.
Reciprocal treaties, aka "you respect my copyright, I'll respect yours", really are not appealing to foreign governments because the US, by far, exports more of what they call Intellectual Property than other countries export to the states. So pray tell us, if you want our governments to spend our own taxpayers money to enforce your copyright laws so that YOUR companies can make a profit... What's in it for us?
Typical Government Extremist Reaction (Score:4, Insightful)
Pot is as dangerous as heroin.
Ex-GIs might be terrorists.
Canada is as bad as the commies.
Is it any wonder we tend to not believe anything our government says?
Re:Backhanded Compliment? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is this the problem of Canadian customs agents? Isn't it the responsibility of the US customs agents get off their arses to check incoming shipments?
Because the USA imports on such a massive scale, they have no hope of nspecting even a fraction of what comes in, so they do their best to fob off responsibility on other countries.
Kinda like how Federal agencies barely test imports or they would have caught tainted [everything] from China.
The money and willpower just isn't there.
Re:Thank goodness for Dr. Geist (Score:3, Insightful)
wow are you are big idiot or just a fan boy of the RIAA. You know if it were for Canadian copyright laws sites like youtube would not exist. So let the US spew there BS but don't say its good. We don't have CR laws the same as the US and its a good thing.
How can you say that with a straight face when the DMCA is purely an American law?
I can say it with a straight face because I believe that Canada has way better laws on copyright then the ancient historical laws of the US. But keep your Copy rights away from me.
Re:Backhanded Compliment? (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. I'm really quite embarrassed that my country would actually criticize another regarding their copyright law and enforcement.
Is there a 'firearms laws' blacklist? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I live in Canada (Score:5, Insightful)
And Canada was what? Oh that's right: a Colony of Britain. So, by definition, there were no "canadians" to begin with. However, Canadians have always been distinct from the UK and the USA. So, you're wrong both ways.
A good majority of the troops came from England.
See above.
Secondly, both armies invaded each others' territories and were repelled.
Which invasion? The USA rebels invaded Canada in 1775, and again, got their butts kicked.
Thirdly, the war ended because BOTH SIDES had no reason left to fight (it was indirectly caused by the Napoleonic wars and directly by the British impressment of US sailors among other things).
Again, which war? Oh, that's right - the USA invaded Canada MORE THAN ONCE. And you wonder why no one trusts Americans? Invade Canada. Twice. Get asses kicked twice. Practice genocide on abouriginals and constantly lie and betray treaty obligations. Destroy Mexico. trump up a war with Spain to expand the American Empire (the USA has been an imperial force for over 100 years). Iran, guatemala, El Salvador, nicaragua, Cuba, Phillipines, Israel, etc. etc. etc. It's a long and murderous list.
Canada has PLENTY of problems and PLENTY of its own set of evils, but nothing compared to the USA.
You are wrong on every count. Next.
rS
Re:Comparisons??? (Score:4, Insightful)
As a red-blooded American who lives in Texas and enjoys making fun of Canada as much as the next guy, I must admit:
I like Canadian music.
Looking at my phone... 4 out of the 22 bands on there (I really need to get my full-sized iPod back) are Canadian. For those who are curious: Arcade Fire, Sloan, Stars, and the New Pornographers. Between the Canadian station on XM and a sister who goes to school in Syracuse, I've rather enjoyed my exposure to it. Maybe I just like awful music though...
Re:Comparisons??? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Tit for tat (Score:3, Insightful)
You mean Canadian citizens are expected to obey Canadian laws even when not in Canada? Shocked, I am. It's almost as if the laws are a reflection of what is considered acceptable behaviour by the members of a society and those members are expected to maintain those standards at all times. Crazy talk, I say.
Re:Comparisons??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apostle of Hustle, Metric, Feist, and all the other spin-off bands/solo projects off of Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Miracle Fortress...
Loads more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Canada [wikipedia.org]
(Skip the Celine and the Brian)
Media owning (Score:5, Insightful)
American media is not usually government owned though.
Actually, American government is media-owned: executive, legislature, and judiciary. Full Stop. End message.
Re:Backhanded Compliment? (Score:1, Insightful)
I call pure BS on this.
The fact that the USA is such a big importer is no excuse. We are a big exporter, so we should check what goes into your country from China via Vancouver? Oh please!
Then remember that we have only a tenth of the population, thus proportionally a tenth of border patrols. So in addition to checking what comes in we are responsible to check what get's into the US from the North or any of our ports? Makes no sense.
Finally I oppose the GP. Our border guards can stop and search any truck full of CD/DVD and make sure thy have the proper import paper (payed the proper taxes) and let them in! What is the problem? I see plenty of blank CD and DVD in numerous stores.
Re:Backhanded Compliment? (Score:3, Insightful)
Copyright law in the United States is a perverted abomination, mutated over decades by powerful corporations to benefit only themselves to the detriment of the people on whos backs they've built their gargantuan regimes.
****
I'd also like to add that when the U.S. was trying to grow and expand in its early years, we blatantly stole and copied everything that we could get our hands on. If you want to innovate and get ahead of the competition, a policy of ignoring copyrights and patents and so on is a very smart move.
China is kicking our butts right now because of it. There was an article yesterday about new stem cell advances. Buried in the article was a mention that they were recruiting scientists and biologists from the U.S. We're slipping behind precisely because we are mired down in too many rules.
I know if I was a new grad student and just wanted to work on the cutting edge of my field, I'd be awfully tempted to go to China, because I could probably do the same things in half the time.