US Group Wants Canada Blacklisted Over Piracy

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on an earlier story, the IIAA wants to add Canada to a blacklist of the worst intellectual property offenders. A powerful coalition of U.S. software, movie and music producers is urging the Bush administration to put Canada on an infamous blacklist of intellectual property villains, alongside China, Russia and Belize. 'Canada's chronic failure to modernize its copyright regime has made it a global hub for bootleg movies, pirated software and tiny microchips that allow video-game users to bypass copyright protections', the International Intellectual Property Alliance complains in a submission to the U.S. government."

tiny microchips

[QuantumG]

As opposed to those huge microchips you get from Intel.

Cue the music

[esampson]

Oh, sure.
 

Blame Canada

They are part of *that* lot.

[stimpleton]

A friend and I have discussed whether Canada is part of the Axis of Evil.

We concurred Yes. And reading this article just confirmed it, eh?

OH NOS!!!

[Frogbert]

Don't put us on your list! Whatever will we do if you put our countries name on a list? I mean I might fly to another country and the people there could say "Hey! That guys country is on a LIST! Kill him!"

It could, and probably will, happen.

Re:I speak for all Canadians...

[alexandreracine]

Because they are always right! Right? Just like in the case of those WMD. Right? *duck*

Re:tiny microchips

[PhrostyMcByte]

They could be comparing it to this [com.com].

Re:They are part of *that* lot.

[Anonymous Coward]

No dude. Wrong axis. Canada is the Axis of Eh-vil.

What are your GPS coordinates?

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Dear Sir/Madam

You are a lucky winner in our "Win a Tommahawk Cruise Missile" competition.

Let's start adding them up...

[Kjella]

...but I don't know where to start, by size or notority.

SE Asia is pretty much one big pool of piracy all around.
China is a huge one, they don't seem to care about IP at all.
Ukraine seems to be the most fucked up of the former Soviets.
Russia isn't far behind, with allofmp3 and all.
All the remaining ex-Soviet states are notorious too.
East europe in general has a long track record of piracy.
West europe got the fastest lines and places like The Pirate Bay.
South America is quite rampant too, last I checked.
Australia banned the region coding crap, didn't they?

Anyone know if the Middle East and Africa qualifies? Haven't heard much but I bet they do. Now they want to add Canada to this "exclusive" list? I have a much simpler proposition: Take the list of countries. Remove US and maybe their pet dog, UK. The remainder is their list of copyright villains.

I can see this as only good.

[Lordpidey]

By allowing pirates within their shores, Canada is surely helping alleviate global warming. I thank them.

Re:What are your GPS coordinates?

[8-bitDesigner]

Man, thank god that's not a Tom Cruise missile. I hear those things are deadly.

""Chronic" failure", you say?

[Jon.Laslow]

I live in BC, the pot capital of North America, and all I can say is the only Chronic failure that I ever see is when someone tries to light up and either their out of Butane or didn't roll properly. Then again...

(catchpa: underway)

Re:Let's go over this slowly

[rumblin'rabbit]

Inuit, not eskimos, you insensitive clod.

Do we refer to African-Americans as "negroes"? Or Microsoft as "scum-sucking patent-hoarding competition-crushing market-manipulating idea-stealing monopolistic capitalistic bastard offspring of leprous apes"?

Okay, bad example.

Re:Cue the music

[Anonymous Coward]

Shurb is the internal problem. Well, at least a significant part of it anyway.

In other news...

[spammeister]

15 million Canadians still agree that "Starbucks" should be blacklisted.

Time to fight back

[G1975a]

How's aboot we withold Canadian bacon, maple syrup and cheap pharmacy drugs from Americans?

Re:OH NOS!!!

[ceoyoyo]

Except that it's the US's blacklist that we're getting put on. So I'd expect something more like "Hey! That guy's country is on the LIST! Quick, buy him a beer!"

Re:Cue the music

[Anonymous Coward]

Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Avril Lavine, Nickelback, Alanis Morisette, Shania Twain...

Surely they should be blacklisted for the above atrocities to mankind.

Re:My Favorite quote

[Anonymous Coward]

"The problem of unauthorized camcording of films in Canadian theatres is now nearing crisis levels," the group complained.

Yes, cinema patrons are now having to jostle each other to get the best positions for their camcorders. All those tripods are also causing a safety hazard.

Also, does anyone in Canada know who that person is that always walks in front of the movie 20 minutes in. They have ruined several of my DVD's now.

Re:Cue the music

[Original Replica]

Voting doesn't seem to work so well anymore.

We could throw the complete inventory of a franchise music store into Boston Harbor. and maybe a few politicians as well.

Re:Cue the music

[Quantam]

I just fail to understand why we should care (from a Canadian point of view). Why should we let the Americans control our internal policy?

One word: nukes. The US has them; you don't.

Re:Cue the music

[cpt kangarooski]

That would be a pain in the ass. There aren't any that close to the harbor. There used to be a Sam Goody in Quincy Market, but I think they're gone now.

Re:Cue the music

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it obvious thats Al Gore posting!

His super serial!

Re:OH NOS!!!

[dangitman]

I mean, NOW whose flag are we gonna sew onto our backpacks when we're spending a summer travelling across Europe?

The Jolly Roger.

Obligatory Canadian Bacon quotes

[cpghost]

- "Let's send the Omega Force!"

- "There's a time to think, and there's a time to act. And this, gentlemen, is not a time to think."

- "Canadians are always dreaming up a lotta ways to ruin our lives. The metric system, for the love of God! Celsius! Neil Young!" ... and now Piracy!

and last, but not least:

- "Stop piracy, pronto! Or we'll level Toronto!"

Re:Cue the music

[shadowbearer]

Throwing the politicians in would be even worse - the transport costs alone would be daunting. Still, as a nation at war, we must accept any sacrifice.

SB

Re:Cue the music

[Robber Baron]

John Howard is so far up Bush's ass he wont be able to taste anything but shit till his 80'th birthday

Actually no, it should be "he's so far up Bush's ass he can see Tony Blair's feet".

Re:Cue the music

[Robber Baron]

Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Avril Lavine, Nickelback, Alanis Morisette, Shania Twain...

Surely they should be blacklisted for the above atrocities to mankind.

Oh yeah? Britney Spears. That alone is reason enough for your country to be thoroughly nuked so it can't ever happen again.

Re:OH NOS!!!

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Don't laugh. They might carpet bomb the whole of Canada with Britney spears CDs.

Re:Cue the music

[Anonymous Coward]

We've apologised for Bryan Adams on several occasions.

Re:Cue the music

[VJ42]

Things like the whole "Freedom Fries" incident, may have been cute over in America, but was treated with disbelief over here in the UK. We in the UK, have decades of non-serious Antagonism with the French (though deep down, we do respect them). However, we would never as a whole do that.

Absolutely right, to be precise only the English have the right to insult the French (The Welsh, Scots and Irish are all Celts like the French). No one else is allowed to do it for two reasons; fistly only the English spent the most part of the last millennium at war with the French. Secondly, as the Americans showed, no one else can do it properly.

The Germans would have a good case, but the last time we let them, they took it a bit to far. By having to prove that invasion is not an acceptable form of insult, we also gained sole rights to insult the Germans over the war.

In contrast the only people allowed to insult the English (along with the French. The Germans are still barred from the whole thing) are the ex-colonies. Unfortunately, this includes most of the rest of the world...

And Canada preemptively retaliated with:

[nietsch]

Celine Dion.
That will give you pause.

Re:Cue the music

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

The transport costs would be negligible. Politicians, being full of hot air, can float independently over land or sea. They require a bit of a push to get them out over the water, but then one well-placed shot each to deflate them would drop them in.

Re:Cue the music

[skogula]

Wouldn't throwing politicians into the harbor violate international laws? "Permanantly polluting the harbour"

This could be a worse ecological disaster than the Exxon Valdiez

Re:Cue the music

[S.O.B.]

We've hidden a nuclear missile silo under very Tim Horton's built in the last 10 years. Get us angry and we'll bombard you with a billion radioactive Timbits.

Re:Piracy is a problem with video games?

[A_Non_Moose]

Don't forget about porn, which accounts for something like 60% of all P2P traffic.
By far, porn is the most pirated form of IP, yet does not seem to be in any danger of disappearing.

Well, in order to have the law enforced, you have to be caught red handed...errr...there has to be
a smoking gun...ummm *coff*...dang, too hard (shit, did it again) to phrase it just right.

(/quietly exits thread)