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U.S. Rejects Canadian Rejection of DMCA
Posted by
timothy
on Sun May 01, 2005 04:00 PM
from the spy-vs-mountie dept.
from the spy-vs-mountie dept.
P Starrson writes "
Slashdot readers may recall that last
month Canadian policy makers rejected the DMCA for Canada.
Not so fast apparently -- the U.S. Trade Representative has released
the annual Section
301 report which each year tells the rest of the world that they
need stronger intellectual property protection. This year Canada is a
particular target -- the U.S. plans to conduct a special review of
Canadian policies and explicitly rejects Canada's rejection of the
DMCA. A good summary on what this means from Canadian law professor Michael Geist."
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Beeing from canada (Score:5, Insightful)
While im sure it will eventually happen, I've certainly been calling local politicians and telling them about my feelings towards the DMCA and copyright legislation change.
The only way to keep things the way they are is to voice to those in charge that this is the way you like it! Come on canadians dont get lazy on this one.
Re:Bee^Hing from canada (Score:5, Funny)
Careful there Anethema. There are 295,734,134 people down there - you'll get a seriously chapped bag.
Parent
Re:Bee^Hing from canada (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Beeing from canada (Score:5, Funny)
Well you know what Condeleeza Rice would say to that, don't you?
"Present them", thats what she'd say.
Parent
Re:Beeing from the UK (Score:5, Interesting)
I am sick fed up of his Brown(Pun not a false capital) nosing to Bush.
John Smith would have been a Truely great leader had he not sufferd the heart attack(Blair got in ridding off of Smiths past achivments) and had he been alive today i am sure he would have told Bush where to shove it(perhaps i over-esteem him , but i really admired the man, an honest politican is a rare thing)...I digress.
The Blair-Bush alliance would suffer some serious problems if it occurs that a political problem hapens with canada and the US, The commenwealth is still a major source of trade and the rest of europe would quickly side with Canada forcing the Labservitives hand
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Re:Beeing from canada (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.
This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.
Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.
Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.
Parent
And, of course (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:And, of course (Score:5, Interesting)
I got the impression most kids didn't know it even exists, and this is on a college campus where liberal ideas are tatooed on your forehead as a prereq for admission.
Even my strctly conservative father doesn't like the DMCA after a brief explaination of its implications. I think people just don't know what its all about.
Parent
This will only get worse before it gets better (Score:5, Insightful)
An example of the American Empire (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing that gets me as someone who lives in Britain and recognises the behaviors of the British Empire in the past is that Americans don't recognise that they live in an empire in all but name.
There seems to be a sort of xeno blindness, nothing outwith the US borders exists and therefore cannot be important. The result being these kinds of strong arm tactics used against sovereign nations. Guess why large portions of the world are antithetical.
Parent
Re:An example of the American Empire (Score:5, Interesting)
We have military personell in over 135 nations. [whs.mil] Most have less than 20 and are probably guarding embassies, but more than you would think have over 1000, including Belgium. The UK has over 13,000. It can be said that the sun never sets on the American Empire.
Many Americans are horified by this. Some are proud of it. Some are both horrified and proud.
Another interesting site
Parent
Re:An example of the American Empire (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with any empire is that the sun does inevitably set on it. Eventually the resources required to maintain it become too large, the leaders become corrupt, the people want bigger, more extravagant entertainment and then the barbarians invade.
Parent
I'm not so sure that's the issue (Score:5, Insightful)
Leaving aside the pitfalls of generalizing about "Americans" (something that's becoming increasingly meaningless as that nation polarizes) and confining discussion to the red-staters, I'm not sure the problem is that they "don't recognise" that the US is an empire. It's more that they don't recognise that it's a bad empire. The British Empire wasn't exactly shy about announcing itself, but jingoistic pride, cultural arrogance and a nationalistic media all combined to ensure that its citizens were generally happy about that empire.
I think the same holds here. Read a topic like this at -1 and you'll find a fair number of posters who like being in the American Empire. They like the "we're number one!" thing, they like the knee-jerk machismo that flows from military adventurism, they really do think they're God's chosen country, and they're perfectly willing to let their leaders trample over a world they see as filled with terrorists, godless communists and spineless Eurotrash.
Parent
and how do the states figure... (Score:5, Insightful)
So... wait... does this mean (Score:5, Funny)
Uh oh
What It Really Meant (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, at least in this particular area...
I don't think anyone is surprised anymore that our lawmakers write laws that reflect the values of lobbyists.
Mark
What? (Score:5, Funny)
We gots us a Bargaining Chip (Score:5, Insightful)
As an American, allow me to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:As an American, allow me to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't even about Bush, per se. This is about corporations bribing the politicians into passing laws that only benefit Corporate America(TM), not looking out in the interest of its own citizens, and wanting to impose the same corporatist ideology on every other country.
Give me a break! The Democrats and the Republicans seemed to get bribed at every turn by the RIAA and the MPAA. The DMCA was passed under the Clinton administration, and I heard that not a single Democrat voted "no" on that bill. The RIAA and MPAA are taking away our freedoms piece-by-piece. No, I don't condone copyright infringement, but why must the *AA pass laws that restrict legal fair use (for example, the DMCA)? The DMCA only benefits the RIAA, MPAA, and Disney, and is a major blow to our rights of fair use. Why should the government tell me what to do with my own DVDs? How come I can't legally rip the contents of my DVD to another medium?
The corporatism here is getting sickening and maddening. Both the Democrats and Republicans have failed at curving this rampant abuse of the government, and most of the citizens seem to be ignorant about all of the rights being taken away. We need to start boycotting the RIAA and MPAA, and never buy a new CD or DVD, purchase online media, download media legally or illegally, visit a movie theater, or do anything else that profits these media cartels until they stop bribing the government. We need to get people to start getting informed about the DMCA and rally average citizens to start writing letters and doing protests against the DMCA and other abuses of our copyright laws.
Copyright and other forms of "intellectual property" is supposed to "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." What ever happened to "fair use" and "limited times to authors"? Copyright is life + 95 years now (thanks to Disney), and our fair use rights are being trampled over by the DMCA and some other newly passed laws. We need to restore copyrights to what they used to be. This government has gotten too corporate, and we need to make it work for the PEOPLE!
Parent
Yankee Go Home (Score:5, Insightful)
Canada rejects Bush.
The Canadians Are On Notice? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do US policy makers assume that every country needs to have the exact policy as we have? One of the founding priciples of US conservatism is the preservation of sovereignty. That principle has meant that the US has ignored the call for a Canadian-style medical system, or the foreign policy goals of the EU. For good or ill, US conservatism demands that countries decide what is in their own best interests and guide their foreign and domestic agendas accordingly.
Now these conservatives are demanding that Canada abandon sovereignty and model all of their intellectual property laws after the US?
US 'conservatives' have the intellectual consistency of baby shit.
'all other developed countries' (Score:5, Insightful)
Riiiight- all other developed countries. You'll notice how they stress this like it's the norm and the baseline everyone has. Canada isn't the odd man out, but rather the US is in this case.
Note most Eurpoean and Asian countries, and even in Canada-like Austrailia, have IP laws nowhere near the stupidity of the DMCA.
The US is not the norm. The US is trying to impose it's views coming from CORPORATE AMERICA and project them not only on the individuals but also on the individuals in other countries (all 6 billion of them). The DMCA only removes rights from individuals and gives it to corporations.
-M
what about softwood f***ing lumber (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope the government of the day has the balls to tell the US that we refuse to talk about IP until the US honors the NAFTA rulings re softwood lumber.
Please write your MP on this matter - IMPORTANT (Score:5, Informative)
Send your letter for free (no postage necessary), to your MP at the following address:
[your MP's name] M.P.
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
Find their email address, but write by paper mail too. http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/ho
Dear Mr. Breitkreuz
To summarize the issues in this letter:
1. Internet Service Providers should not be required to keep extensive logs of private and legal online communications.
2. The government must not stop Canadian citizens from making personal-use copies of their legally purchased software, music, and movie media.
Background:
http://pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/progs/pda-cpb/reform
Here is the reasoning:
The purpose of the Copyright Act is to support creativity and innovation in the arts and culture. To design a new Act on the failed and draconian Digital Millenium Copyright Act of the United States of America, would be a disaster for Canadian culture, and innovation. Also our court system could become clogged with law abiding citizens who make personal use copies of their music, software, and movie collections for no personal financial gain. An implementation of the proposed changes to the Copyright Act would unleash another "Gun Registry boondoggle" onto the Canadian people - creating criminals out of law abiding citizens at the expense of Canadian taxpayers.
Internet Service Providers like Sasktel should not be made to keep extensive client usage logs for possible future prosecution by various copyright-based industries. I don't want to pay for that system to be put into effect, and I don't think most people do. The phone companies are not forced by the government to record the content of phone conversations, only police can do that with a proper warrant. ISP logs are going to be equivalent to phone-taps, and that's a violation of my privacy. It's doing the job of the police, and is for the sole benefit of an industry basing its profits on an outdated business model that is no longer realistic for the Canadian government to protect.
It is completely unfair to be paying a levy to artists organizations for purchasing blank CD media to make home-use private copies of legal CD music, and now to also be unable to legally copy the music I've paid for off of Digital Rights Managed CDs. If copying CD music is going to be illegal, why is the government collecting money from the product for an illegal activity? I'm satisfied that the current levy is helping to compensate artists from illegitimate copying, and no new law is required to prevent me and other people from making sensible backups of our legal music, software, and movie collections.
Your representation in the House of Commons on this matter is greatly appreciated by me, and other supporters of personal liberty and innovation in the arts. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
my name
The difference between US and Canada. (Score:5, Insightful)
Canada/US Relations (Score:5, Insightful)
As for softwood, an International Court has ruled that the US is illegaly charging tariffs on Canadian Softwood lumber crossing the border.
As for the live cattle ban, what a farce, the border is not closed, Americans are buying the cattle here in Canada, having them processed, and then shipping the products over the border, to their huge profit gains. And dont get me started on the lax USDA' BSE testing. Sad to say, but you Americans are eating some very tainted beef products. Some of you are crazy enough as it is, now you get to sue your beef provider chain. Have fun. Lawsuits work for you, not for the rest of the world. Especially not us Canadians.
So, how does this lead to Canadian law not recognising the DMCA, well, our asshats think your asshats made a pretty stoopid law. So we wont put into place the same thing. We have laws protecting copyrighted works. nuff said. Copyright theft, is copyright theft. We have laws for that. We don't need the rest of the totalitarian threats behind the Act. Besides, in Canada, its not illegal to download copyrighted works, partly because, that act is not against the law here. It is against the law to upload copyrighted works. And that works for us.
Much akin to your Patriot Act. What a crock. Its called "Freedom of Speech". Besides, the terrorists we do have here, are probably tax paying citizens anyway, they drive our cabs, our busses, and they clean our offices. We don't have many Mexicans or Puerto Ricans here. Something about the cold...
It's bad enough that SOX got rammed down our throats. This is just another way for Canadians to say "Not in our Land"
My local danish exprience. (Score:5, Interesting)
I am lucky that I cannot get jailed for viewing a legally purchased DVD under Linux. Our parliament didn't directly implement that in the law, but put an exception in the law comments that (I hope) will keep me out of jail while viewing legally purchased content with an non-approved DVD viewer.
That legislation was imposed on the EU from the US and US corporations.
Another law change was imposed specifically on our country after a threath of US trade restrictions through the WTO. This law change makes it possible for copyright holders to raid my private home if it is "probable" that I may have violated a copyright (or patent, or trademark). No need to get the police involved, a "probable violation" for a non-criminal offence is enough to get my private home raided.
In particular the last law change made it clear to me why so many people around the globe hate the US because they think the US tries to impose their views on them. This gave me a better understanding of why a lot of US-foreign people think the US is imperialistic, and condome terrorist actions.
I still do not concome terrorist actions, but I hate the US government now (fortunately not the US people although they are supposed to have democratically have selected their government), and understand why some people want to retailate against the US.
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Insightful)
They can continue ruining their own country, and we'll run ours the way we want to. We're a sovereign nation that decides it's own affairs, no matter how much they may have difficulty with the concept.
Parent
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Interesting)
How about you just give Ontario back all the money you've, uhh, "borrowed"?
Parent
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Informative)
The US has been living beyond its means - that is, it has a huge current account deficit: net capital inflow to the US far outweighs capital outflow. In and of itself that isn't necessarily bad, and is certainly no reason to panic: it has happened before, and will likely happen again. The issue is more about the reasons for the current account deficit. In a large part it is due the continued budget deficits of the current government, but is also due to US consumers appetite for imported goods without a similar growth in US exports. In theory this situation is naturally correcting via a falling US Dollar: imports become more expensive, and exports become cheaper more attractive to foreign buyers. The US Dollar has been falling (quite significantly) against world currencies for the last year or more. This drop hasn't yet caused a turn around in the current account deficit - it has continued to grow apace.
Mix a falling Dollar (via pressure from the current account) with the current growing demand for oil from China and the resulting increase in oil prices, and you have a powerful recipe for inflation. Again, this is an issue that can be dealt with: the Fed can raise interest rates to combat inflation, as they have been doing very steadily for the last 6 months or more. The risk is that raising interest rates too high will put serious pressure on an already slowing economy, and has risks for the (rather bubble like) US Housing market.
US consumers, and the US government, have been abusing the line of credit offered on the strength of the US economy (and the expectation that the US can grow its way out of the debt). Things are beginning to look a little tight, and the Fed is now walking a very fine line trying to combat inflation without killing the economy in the process.
The nest year or two could be very interesting indeed.
Jedidiah.
Parent
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Insightful)
damn straight. in particular, it can go fuck itself with it's IP law.
I can't begin to get over the gall of a country, "reviewing" other countries laws and - get this - rejecting them!! I bet it will now apply political and $$$ pressure until it gets its way.
American IP law is the US's worst export. What it fails to realise is when the Chinese rise in the next 20 years, it's going to come back and bite America on the ass
-- james
Parent
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Insightful)
What will really bite foreign businesses working in China in the ass is when the government marches in and takes all of their IP and tells them to just deal with it.
China is the far side of the issue. If American bussinesses thing that their CUSTOMERS pose big IP problems for them, the Chinese will really teach them a lesson eventually.
Parent
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Insightful)
did the dot-com bubble not teach you americans anything?
you CAN'T make money off ideas!!!!!! you need to produce something.
americans are so high on hollywood hype, do they not know anything about what really puts food on the table, what really counts in the global market? putting up real product, not just "ideas", oh so precious, is the new rule for global trade.
China is good at that. America is shit at it.
Parent
As an American... (Score:5, Informative)
Looking at the old 301 reports, I see mention that Canada has been on the "Watch List" since 1995, along with a host of other countries.
Parent
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it is way past time for Canada to point out to the UN that the US is in violation of UN resolutions, has had questionable elections, and should be invaded by a U.N. force to restore democracy.
If Conoleeza Rice and Tom Delay are part of the collateral damage we will learn to live with it.
Parent
Re:For St Peter's sake (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:For St Peter's sake (Score:5, Insightful)
This could drive an even bigger wedge between our two countries, but the shit the US has been pulling under Bush makes me wonder why I would care what they think?
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Re:For St Peter's sake (Score:5, Insightful)
The US and Canada have incredibly tightly integrated economies. BOTH countries export and import 80% of their goods with each other. Mutual dependance.
The US wants the same laws as often as possible. It makes commerce easier. What if canada suddenly made oranges illegal. We dont grow any oranges up here, so only the importers would be affected. But believe me, some orange producer down in the states would be hopping mad.
If our IP laws are more lax, it makes canada a better place to do buisness in certain cases. Lost american jobs, lost american revenue. Of course they're pissed.
Maybe they should fix their IP laws instead of trying to fuck up ours just as badly as theirs are.
Parent
Re:For St Peter's sake (Score:5, Informative)
The US and Canada have incredibly tightly integrated economies. BOTH countries export and import 80% of their goods with each other. Mutual dependance.
Huh? Surely this can only be true for Canada as there aren't enough Canadians to buy 80% of U.S. exports?
Let me quote the CIA World Factbook.
Parent
Re:For St Peter's sake (Score:5, Insightful)
Or what if the US made Canadian beef illegal? Or Canadian lumber? Or Canadian wheat? Well, the last two aren't banned, they're just heavily tarriffed despite a "free trade" agreement between the two countries. But that's not the point.
America doesn't care about the effect it has on other economies. It just wants its way. And because Canada needs the US more than the US needs Canada, they can use that leverage to force us to change our policies to benefit their industries.
And in this particular case, American jobs and American revenue aren't lost, because the industries affected are reimbursed by the taxes the Canadian government collects on the blank media people use to copy the stuff that the DMCA is supposed to protect. The RIAA just doesn't like it that way and wants to have laws that force us to buy new copies of the same stuff every time the technology to play it back changes.
Parent
Maybe they need others to follow... (Score:5, Insightful)
Some smart people in the US must know that their IP laws will put them at an economic disadvantage... all they have to do is get the whole world to adopt them, and then the party can continue indefinietly!
Parent
Re:For St Peter's sake (Score:5, Interesting)
What I find a bigger "fuck you" is feeling that he can push his internal policies on other countries, even if they stand to hurt that country and its own internal policies.
It is a bit like trying to turn countries from socialism/communism using mulitary coups and CIA involvement, even when it is against the will of the people. (sometime at home as well)
Oh wait...that already happened....many times...
Parent
Re:For St Peter's sake (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:not much they can do about it really (Score:5, Funny)
*Awaits down moderation for tastelessness*
Parent
Re:NAFTA? (Score:5, Insightful)
For those that don't know, the US has ignored every, single ruling against it on the softwood lumber issue.
The US seems to only like free trade when it is in the US's favour. Otherwise, f*** it.
Parent
Re:As a Canadian... (Score:5, Informative)
Here [typepad.com] here [about.com] here [emergence.qc.ca] here [samesexmarriage.ca]
Here is a quote from one of the stories:
Powerful U.S. religious groups are sending money and support to allies in Canada to fight same-sex marriage.
Patrick Korten, vice-president of communications for the Knights of Columbus head office in New Haven, Conn., said no limit has been set on the help his organization is prepared to offer. "Whatever it takes," he said. "The family is too important." Mr. Korten said the U.S. headquarters of the Catholic men's group paid $80,782 to print two million postcards being distributed in Catholic churches across Canada. "It has been extremely enthusiastically received in Catholic parishes all over Canada. As a matter of fact we may have to print some more -- there was a great deal of interest in it. It offers a quick, simple but effective way for Catholics
What the hell is wrong with the USA, when they have to force their religious beliefs on other countries? Canadians hate being told what to do by Americans, and we usually will do the opposite of what they want, just to spite them.
Parent