While we have Don Drummond proposing his evisceration of Ontario's public service, we seem to have a glimmer of good news for once from Harper's cronies.
Apparently, they have come to realize that there is no political hay to be made copying the (hopefully) aborted Stop Online Piracy Act bill in Canada, at least as is. So, for now, they taking the stance that they will be taking a softer tone on online copyright.
After all, they are publicly wavering a bit on the online snooping bill (now facetiously called Bill C-30 "Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act") they want and they could push that as a part of their myopic "law and order" agenda that could work relatively subtly in the background. While I have some misgivings about airing Public Safety Minister Vic Toew's personal dirt in protest of this bill, the fact that his yammering of such childish absolutes as "You either with us or the child pornographers," deserved some kind of answer. After all, he is implying in that statement that every privacy commission in the country is in support of that kind of crime.
By contrast, there is no way that a copy of SOPA could be overlooked by the Canadian online public if they are suddenly and arbitrarily denied access to YouTube, Wikipedia and Facebook because of copyright violation accusations. Furthermore, the business community would be complaining of the telecommunications and technology industries being put at a severe disadvantage for innovation compared to the Americans, which means businesses like Research In Motion could find themselves in even greater difficulty with foreign competitors. Those kind of changes would cut across all the demographics nowadays and alienate everyone while making the Harperites look like whimps for bowing to foreign pressure so blatantly. That is a combination that even a majority government as arrogant as Harper's would fear.
So, while I am still going to be wary with the upcoming copyright reform, at least now there is some basis for some hope that they will not ape the American copyright hysteria and cripple the internet.
Until, check out Openmedia.ca's efforts to keep the pressure on for some online sanity in our country.
Showing posts with label copyright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copyright. Show all posts
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, June 16, 2011
I was just listening to The Current on CBC Radio One, I just had a dramatic reminder of the threat of the pending Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that has been neogiated in secret by Canada and numerous countries around the world.
Imagine an international treaty that essentially mandates ISPs to spy on your online activities to detect anything that could be simply alleged to be a copyright infringement, and distribute their finding internationally for any complaining copyright owner while you don't have a legal recourse to defend yourself. Furthermore, this treaty proposes that any electronic device such as your laptop, MP3 player etc. can be searched at will at any international border for infringing material by customs personnel, coming or going.
Worst of all, this treaty threatens our sovereignty as it practically mandates tougher copyright law and public opinion while opposition can simply be overruled on the matter because of an international treaty that was deliberately kept secret from the public in the first place. As much as Harper and his cronies are certainly cheerleaders to continue this intellectual property assault on the public good, this means they can be made capable of passing draconian and unfair legislation with the old excuse "We have no choice." This is called policy laundering and it's a fundamental attack on the basic tenet of democracy for the public to have open access and a say on our own legislative process. Furthermore, the treaty has backdoor clauses that can allow it to be modified to be even more draconian, and we the public will have little that the powers that be would consider worthy to contribute in such matters.
If there is any other reason you need to be suspicious of this treaty, it's very secrecy is enough of a red flag. For instance, The University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic filed an access to information request but received only a document stating the title of the agreement and everything else was blacked out. That alone is damning about the risks of ACTA if they have to hide its content that completely.
You're free to read up about this yourself. I just thought I should to remember and act on the advice that it's always the quiet activities that can be the most dangerous.
Imagine an international treaty that essentially mandates ISPs to spy on your online activities to detect anything that could be simply alleged to be a copyright infringement, and distribute their finding internationally for any complaining copyright owner while you don't have a legal recourse to defend yourself. Furthermore, this treaty proposes that any electronic device such as your laptop, MP3 player etc. can be searched at will at any international border for infringing material by customs personnel, coming or going.
Worst of all, this treaty threatens our sovereignty as it practically mandates tougher copyright law and public opinion while opposition can simply be overruled on the matter because of an international treaty that was deliberately kept secret from the public in the first place. As much as Harper and his cronies are certainly cheerleaders to continue this intellectual property assault on the public good, this means they can be made capable of passing draconian and unfair legislation with the old excuse "We have no choice." This is called policy laundering and it's a fundamental attack on the basic tenet of democracy for the public to have open access and a say on our own legislative process. Furthermore, the treaty has backdoor clauses that can allow it to be modified to be even more draconian, and we the public will have little that the powers that be would consider worthy to contribute in such matters.
If there is any other reason you need to be suspicious of this treaty, it's very secrecy is enough of a red flag. For instance, The University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic filed an access to information request but received only a document stating the title of the agreement and everything else was blacked out. That alone is damning about the risks of ACTA if they have to hide its content that completely.
You're free to read up about this yourself. I just thought I should to remember and act on the advice that it's always the quiet activities that can be the most dangerous.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)