News

MPAA Wants Obama To Target Canada Over Copyright

The election of Barack Obama has led to considerable speculation about what the change in administration might mean for U.S. pressure on Canada on intellectual property issues.  If the MPAA – the lead Hollywood lobbyist – has anything to say about it, the pressure will only increase.  Eighteen months after MPAA pressure led to a Canadian anti-camcording legislation and just weeks after the first successful conviction under the new provision, the MPAA has asked to Obama to target Canada (along with China, India, Mexico, Russia, and Spain) in its intellectual property trade policy.  

While groups such as the Computer and Communications Industry Association have urged Obama to stop alienating allies by "browbeating its trade partners", the MPAA lobby document makes it clear that the copyright lobby groups will continue to blame Canada, despite the fact that Canada is compliant with its international obligations.  Claiming that Canadian law is akin to China or Russia ought to be dismissed outright, yet the ease with which the Canadian government caved to pressure on the camcording issue has apparently emboldened the same lobby group to demand even more.

22 Comments

  1. Here’s a idea: ignore bullies.

  2. What?
    What could they possibly threaten us with? How far would Obama go just for the MPAA? There is no reason why we should care what they think about our copyright laws at all. No one in our government should, either.

  3. Aunty Nausea says:

    With smart company such as China, India, Mexico, Russia, and Spain and in the face of the great loser and prime cause of world economic demise, i.e.. the USA, we must be doing something right here in Canada…

  4. One-man minority government
    Democracy is funny! You negotiate backroom deals with any head of state and you get the laws you want. No wonder the one-man minority government in Canada loves Democracy so much. It’ll be hilarious when he gets the boot from the coalition, and resign in to obscurity.

    Invite them in for tea to make a PMO deal, and they want the deed to your House of Commons.
    hahahahaha

  5. Dwight Williams says:

    Whether Obama’s onside with MPAA or not…
    …the push is going to continue. Ditto, whether we tell them to shove it or not.

  6. like all idiots
    told ya biden was a great guy

    and heres what i say about MPAA

    lets target them and get rid of all legal representations they are allowed ot have here.

    YOU GOT TO FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY

    and we push back
    do not waiver do not give in
    the longer we live the more of them old chronies die off
    thats right just die already.

    think about greece people thats where it leads innocent deaths as mpaa and govt get in bed that is facism.

    and i’ll add if ignatief or however thats splt does not go forward and secure this coalition then the liberla party is done for
    no more strategic voting then and its all for the ndp
    we the people need a voice not a corporate schi;; out.

  7. and so it is we must follow russian and end MPAA ally microsoft on all our machines and go OPEN SOURCE

    if you want to be free and open this is it.
    when you are rid a them then w have loads a money to get through this problem created by there greed that they wish to continue

    HEY didnt the MPAA just SUE a woman who was bed ridden in a hospital
    YA LETS HAVE THAT YES SUE ALL THE POOR AND DISABLED.
    WHAT A NOVEL IDEA, until you relize they cant pay.

  8. OH and isn’t it considered to be more treasonous to be listneing and getting your policies form a foreign land

    HRM
    yah funny how this coalition will be whats right for canada and thats got them down south scared we actually might do somehtign right here

  9. VancouverDave says:

    MPAA already has experience of the Canadian lawmaking process
    MPAA knows that it simply has to bring its chequebook along if it wants a new Canadian law; the larger the cheques, the faster the implementation.

  10. nope thats coming to an end
    look at the coalition my dear people bring a majority set to govt that has fought agaist it and make
    charlie angus the minister in charge would send a message canada is back on the map for innovation and leadership

    that’s the one post i would like to see form it all and if layton and those copyright mps were real men/women with integrity they would push for that

  11. VancouverDave says:

    As I recall, the camcorder criminalization was passed unanimously – nice payday all around, I’m sure.

  12. ya wasting peoples money on what ONE conviction
    thats like making it illgal on a certain day at certain time say 4AM to be at a sidewalk in middle of winter and spending a billion dollars to get hat made law

  13. and my how times have changed , wasn’t isn’t the coalitio nstill going strong , and the only people speaking against it are the lovely neo cons , if not then login or post your repsonse non anonymous and have that stand otherwise all the non coalition talk was and is BS.
    remember they didnt see this coming either.

  14. The U.S. should be very careful when it tries to put pressure on a country that provides them with 25% of their oil.If we had politicians with any balls at all we could tell the U.S to go take a hike.

  15. Stephen Harpers UNSITING govt with no confidence puts 18 senators into senate
    Hail hitler er Harper
    Stephen Harpers UNSITING govt with no confidence puts 18 senators into senate

    ctv.ca
    notice how they dont want a discussion on that topic

    watch holly wood get some seats in our house of the senate
    and harpers quotes are almost slanderous that he is claiming htese “elected” members of the house are not so. That a coalition has no right to govern when it legally does.
    AND the governor general made a HUGE mistake. as those senators do not have the confidence of the house to get appointed.

  16. …and what, questioning the newly-found relationship between us and Obama?! Don’t they have something better to do like finding ways to cope with this issue instead of going on a shooting rampage onto everybody who somewhat download a movie or two…or picking on us like a bunch of childish bullies for their “lunch money”.

  17. Sorry, but has the MPAA ever been to China? If the have, then the must have been blind folded.

  18. its called extortion and go around to all the place sya can bully and try to GRAB as much as ya can.
    BUY a few TB HDS and go crazy get it all
    screw them
    they deserve it acting like a bunch a nit witts

  19. wow power leveling
    Our wow power leveling professinal workers will level your character fast,cheapest power leveling.wow power leveling when you are at work or sleeping,pleae review our website:12 power leveling . wow-power-leveling.org….

    What does wow-power-leveling.org do?After you choose one of our wow power leveling services, we will level your character 24 hours a day with nonstop power leveling,Once payment is confirmed, your order will be submitted for processing,power leveling cheap we will start your order within an hour or two.during the services,We assign 2 or 3 professional players to work on your character.(wow power leveling ,www.powerleveling2000.com

  20. PetFoodz.Info says:

    Hopefully Obama will turn a cold shoulder..
    I hope Obama turns a cold shoulder. As we do meet International obligations.. The RIAAMPAA has alot more to worry about down south..

  21. Stay focussed (and do a little research)
    @guess – try to control yourself. You are spouting off crap that has very little to do with the subject at hand. It’s called verbal diarrhea.
    Do a little research and present facts (put brain in gear before typing nonsense(.
    Perhaps have a look at the Patry Copyright Blog (reference February 13, 2008 article) – and NO that is not PARTY Copyright Blog. You can dispense with fascism, death of Greece people (?wtf?), billion dollar backroom deals, coalition governments, etc. These things are better left to low-ball opinion sites and forums where,I’m fairly certain, verbal diarrhea such as yours is welcomed.
    MPAA has a right to protect their copyrighted works and the law made to charge those with camcording in theatres is the correct approach. To put Canada on 301 watch lists is, however, sheer protectionism of an outdated business model. The copyright owners had every chance to bring a proper model to the market place but failed miserably. Their only tact was to attempt to get full control into their own hands. Silly buggers.
    Their attempts at control in the US has failed (suing 35,000 of their own customers is a failure IMHO) and now they want to control the Canadian market. Bad news for Canada if they get their way.

  22. Piracy Who? MPAA Enjoys Record Overseas Profits – AGAIN!
    Piracy Who? MPAA Enjoys Record Overseas Profits – AGAIN!

    Despite repeated dire predictions for the health of the movie industry and the welfare of the people it employs, is estimated to surpass last year’s all-time box office record of nine and a half billion dollars.

    The MPAA would have you believe that these are tough times for the movie biz as it faces the scourges of physical and digital piracy amidst a global economic downturn.

    “If you look at the situation, the current economic crisis makes this problem much more serious than before,” MPAA head Dan Glickman recently told a forum. “If we don’t protect IPR (intellectual property rights), our economic losses will be far worse.”

    Apparently Glickman either hadn’t looked at the overseas box office tallies so far or is keeping them to himself for a recent report indicates that the MPAA is about to enjoy record overseas profits, surpassing even last years all-time record of $9.4 billion!

    So why exactly all the fuss? Money. The MPAA, just like the RIAA, suffers from the delusion that each instance of piracy equates to a lost ticket sale, which it does not. How many of you file-sharers would have paid to see “Twilight” or Disney’s “Bolt?” Good movies, like “The Dark Knight” for example, will always lure people away from P2P networks and services and convert them into honest moviegoers because they want to see it on the big screen and not on a 19″ laptop screen.

    Record profits last year, on top of those enjoyed in 2007, prove once and for all that the MPAA’s fears of piracy and its clamoring that it’s destroying the movie biz is now proven to be the falsehood many of us already knew it to be.

    Sources:

    http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9935/Piracy+Who?+MPAA+Enjoys+Record+Overseas+Profits+-+AGAIN!

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3i935003166745e37d31538318d07eb7e6?imw=Y