Canadians Battling Proposed Canadian DMCA 202
An anonymous reader writes "CTV reports on how Canadians are fighting back against the Canadian DMCA. Led by Michael Geist, the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group is nearing 90,000 members. There are local chapters, a YouTube contest, wikis, and people writing letters and organizing rallies against the copyright bill. Geist said, 'When you get tens of thousands of Canadians speaking out like this, there's big political risk for any political party who chooses to ignore it.'"
Political Repurcussions (Score:5, Interesting)
Does anyone know who in the US elected government caused the US DMCA to happen?
So, if even slashdot users can't remember who caused the original DMCA to happen, what hope is there that any Canadian politicians would be worried?
Facebook group counts ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Have we really entered an age where the number of people who join facebook groups are used as some kind of measure?
Half the people I know on facebook join whatever the hell their friends join, or click anything they can to get the alerts to go away.
Seriously - really?
Re:Political Repurcussions (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, I believe the DMCA was voted on with something akin to a show of hands. In other words, no record of who voted for or against it. I don't have a citation right now, but if I find one I'll post it in a reply to this comment. It also seems to me it was brought in as an amendment to another bill, maybe a farm bill or something. I'm less sure about that.
It was very sneaky, if memory serves.
Re:My MP is ignoring it... (Score:4, Interesting)
You don't want this to be a confidence motion. When you do that, there's suddenly a whole lot more riding on the passage of the bill than the actual legislation. MPs and parties will think twice before voting against it if it means triggering an election, and it greatly increases the degree to which the parties will get their MPs to toe the party line.
With a non-confidence vote, MPs are far more likely to vote on the actual merits of the bill, and what their constituents have expressed to them.
Re:No conspiracy theory here (Score:3, Interesting)
Last I heard Liberals were supporting copyright reform, including the previous Bill C-60 that they themselves tabled before their government came crashing down.
Please provide proof otherwise?
Re:No conspiracy theory here (Score:5, Interesting)
Despite the conspiracy theories you're likely to hear about this, the reason why the DMCA sailed through Congress is the same reason it'll sail through Canada's legislative process... media companies are responsible for a nice chunk of GNP (and whatever they call it in Canada)
That's not really true.
The value of RIAA members' shipments (not sales) in 2007 [76.74.24.142] was $10.37 billion.
The value of MPAA members' U.S. domestic box office and home video sales in 2007 [mpaa.org] was $37.44 billion ($40.92 per person box office + $118.39 per person home video times 235 million adults).
U.S. GDP in 2007 was $13.6 trillion, so together the RIAA and MPAA comprise 0.35% of the U.S. economy. For comparison, the MP3 player market in the U.S. for 2007 [metrics2.com] was an estimated $5.4 billion. That's just MP3 players, never mind accessories, home audio systems, headphones, car stereos, etc.
If they were a Fortune 500 companies [cnn.com], the MPAA's movie-related sales would come in at #62, and the RIAA's members would come in at #256. They wield so much power because they make a disproportionately high amount of campaign donations [opensecrets.org].
Re:No Worries (Score:2, Interesting)
Why should the educated and informed be the only ones represented in parliament? The actions of the government affect the bright and the dumb. You (and I) may think there's a section of the population whose votes we'd be better off without, but the solution is not to discourage them from voting but to encourage them to raise their political awareness. The heart of a representative democracy is every person getting a vote.
When you have compulsory voting politicians are forced to address issues that matter to their electorate (rather than just the subset who are voters) and people who otherwise would cynically ignore elections are forced to pay attention to their choices and how they will be affected by them.
Re:Facebook group counts ... (Score:3, Interesting)
90000 is a far cry from such popular groups as:
"If one million people join I will name my son Batman"
"If ninety thousand people join I will shave the slashdot logo into my pubes"
"Forty million people for anti furry discrimination"
In this modern age, having less than a hundred thousand indicates that nobody really cares.
Re:No Worries (Score:5, Interesting)
We would like for everyone to inform themselves and make an educated decision about the candidates,
I like to think that I'm a reasonably well-informed and educated person. I take an interest (greater or lesser in a great many things, including politics and the world around us.
I have, in several elections, gone to the polling station, taken my ballot to the little booth and after unfolding it, I re-fold it and return it to the clerk for her to put into the ballot box. I vote, but I make no mark on the ballot at all if, in my opinion, no candidate is worthy of receiving my vote.
And I am Canadian.
Re:No Worries (Score:3, Interesting)
How do you know that an "educated decision..." does not equate to "none of the above"? It's perfectly possible to have a set of candidates (even with a large number of candidates) who do not represent the opinions of voters.
Re:Facebook group counts ... (Score:3, Interesting)
>In this modern age, having less than a hundred thousand indicates that nobody really cares.
Canada has a smaller population then the state of California.
Try putting two and two together and see how 90,000 comes together. 200 people can enact policy change in Canada.
Sadly, most people don't seem to get that there are very 'large' countries that have very small populations. I realize this is a large concept to grasp but policies work different in other parts of the world.
Americans need to stop with the cynicism already! (Score:3, Interesting)
In canada, the MSM has given this issue pervasive coverage, and most of it from Geist's point of view (e.g. it's the worst thing since Hitler's Germany)
Granted it's had a little while to cool down since introduction, but that while has been rife with op-ed's and official stories ripping it a new one.
This includes big tv news, and many local print publications.
according to the end of this video [blip.tv], some MP's are actually making this bill a major campaign issue.
Imagine if feinstein were suddenly bombarded for a month straight with nothing but reporters and constituents asking why she's selling them out to hollywood through letters, print, and live tv.
Dont belittle these efforts, they're actuall making headway there!
Re:No Worries (Score:1, Interesting)
In USA, people are afraid of their government. :-)
In Canada, the government is afraid of the people.
Re:It's funny what you get used to. (Score:1, Interesting)
The root cause of the problem is GIGO. In the US, the system is capable of supporting (erring on the high side) 5 people from the 2 parties, including primary season. Expand to fringe parties and you get perhaps 10 people.
That gives you 10 possible values to express your entire range of opinions on economics, technology, education, foreign policy, size of government, etc. There's nowhere near enough resolution there to describe the nuances in a person's opinion on any one issue, let alone all of them.
The problem is with a system that elects representative *people*. We should be electing *ideas*. Have more referendums, have parties from each opinion in each field that have to cooperate somehow. I don't know what such a system would look like, but it's clear with the system we have we have to do HEAVY prioritizing in how we vote; we can't express our full opinions. That's not good enough for me.