Copywrite laws masquerading as border protection!

Looks like industry Minister Jim Prentice is in the pocket of big US interests. The Prime Minister has been clear - introduce a copyright bill and make sure that the U.S. is happy with it. Changes or amendments to the border protection act would put copywrite out of the hands of legislation and slide it into the hands of the customs. Watch all those Ipod confiscations at the border.

A leaked letter confirms what has been widely feared - the recording industry may have received assurances of a bill, yet the Industry Minister has still not consulted with Canadian consumer groups. Bob Rae (Liberal opposition Industry critic) warns against the potential dangers of ACTA and overly intrusive copyright reforms.

Prentice has sought to project an air of unflappability around the outcry over the Canadian DMCA, it would appear that behind the scenes his staff is working overtime to eliminate any negative comments on Wikipedia. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/

Canadian DMCA bill has been delayed until next week will include a "personal use download" fine of $500 per violation!

Looks like industry Minister Jim Prentice is in the pocket of big US interests. The Prime Minister has been clear - introduce a copyright bill and make sure that the U.S. is happy with it. Changes or amendments to the border protection act would put copywrite out of the hands of legislation and slide it into the hands of the customs. Watch all those Ipod confiscations at the border.

A leaked letter confirms what has been widely feared - the recording industry may have received assurances of a bill, yet the Industry Minister has still not consulted with Canadian consumer groups. Bob Rae (Liberal opposition Industry critic) warns against the potential dangers of ACTA and overly intrusive copyright reforms.

Prentice has sought to project an air of unflappability around the outcry over the Canadian DMCA, it would appear that behind the scenes his staff is working overtime to eliminate any negative comments on Wikipedia. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/

Canadian DMCA bill has been delayed until next week will include a "personal use download" fine of $500 per violation!

We in the US got clobbered with the DMCA. It has, or seems to have, removed our "fair use" of legally owned copyrighted material. I really don't think most American's (ok your in PART of North America) knew the scope of this act or the restrictions of use it imposed, they thought it was just a anti-piracy law. Reading the forums here it is quite clear that many people still think it is legal in the US to make copies of copyrighted digital material as back ups for their own use, it is not if they have a copy protection scheme.

The bottom line is that it is now the studios who decide what is an allowable practice, not the courts. Hope you don't get stuck with the same crap up there. Don't support any sort of piracy, but too don't want the studios charging me every time I hum a tune from one of their "artists."

From what I've been reading... it's bloody scary. Most of the official's I've talked with are going along with this.. to appease the "American's" and let the implementation happen at the border and with an over worked and low budget guard force, coming into Canada will be a breeze but gives them one more tool to indiscriminately press and oppress (The law on the US side has already set the standard). Thinking about Canada as a country of moderation is fine, until that changes and suddenly were looking at very oppressive rules if you go by the book. Federal trade agreements do not require parliamentary approval and this ACTRA trade agreement smacks of NAFTA and quite a few countries are signing on...to form an international coalition against copyright infringement.

Whole lowdown over at:

http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=ae997868-220b-4dae-bf4f-47f6fc96ce5e

The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order. It would force them to hand over personal information pertaining to "claimed infringement" or "alleged infringers" - users who may be transmitting or sharing copyrighted content over the Internet.

Brian Mulrooney must be behind this>

Industry Canada Minister Jim Prentice is about to introduce his Canadian version of America's disastrous Digital Millennium Copyright Act tomorrow. In so doing, he is violating his own party's promise to seek public consultation on all treaty accession bills, he's ignoring the cries of rightsholders, industry, educators, artists, librarians, citizens' rights groups, legal scholars and pretty much everyone with a stake in this, except the US Trade Representative and the US Ambassador, who, apparently, have had ample opportunity to chat with the Minister and give him his marching orders.

Government of Canada to Table Bill to Amend the Copyright Act

the DMCA is messed up here in the US. Keeps us from legally backing up our movies and other "should be legal" things. Seems the trend worldwide is for negotiated treaties to circumvent the home country's laws/constitution....really sad! Guess whatever bug it is we have raging down here infected your politicians up there too.