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Copyright and the Obama Visit to Canada

The Globe and Mail focuses on President-elect Obama's plans to visit Canada as his first foreign trip.  While economic issues will obviously be central, the degree to which copyright enters the conversation is worth watching.  The Bush administration focused heavily on copyright in its Canadian discussions, leading to the anti-camcording legislation and Bill C-61.  Obama's approach will have a significant impact on the look and timing of the next Canadian copyright bill and will provide the first indicator of whether he plans to continue aggressively linking trade policy and intellectual property protection with countries around the world.

16 Comments

  1. pat donovan says:

    grunt
    on US relations with canada
    softwood lumber.
    should be lumbar, eh?
    pat

  2. Sounds similar
    Sounds similar to MPAA and RIAA members. Just like Sony, Virgin, Time Warner, and all the other ‘middle men’ publishers, universities, and colleges need to get used to the idea that the internet is here, is not going away and they need to change their business model to compete. Attempting to sell books for stupid amounts of money, then trying to enforce companies to stop copying it won’t work. They will be online and probably are already. I remember when I was a student trying to make ends meet. Choice is to go even further into debt, so you can feel moral? Not realistic and never going to happen whether it is right thing or not.

  3. Common thieves
    Your readers are crooks and you seem to encourage it under the guise of who knows what.

    M Dundas writes: *I remember when I was a student trying to make ends meet. Choice is to go even further into debt, so you can feel moral?*

    So should they grab a roast and a bag of milk at the grocery store? Those damn grocers need to change their business model too.

  4. Yeah… We should also hunt down everyone who copies a jpeg file to their computer and put them in jail!!! I mean, the photography film industry is pretty much done. All those thieves out there!!!

    I bet if there was a magical star trek replicator machine out there, the guy that posted above would put all the hungry people in jail that were duplicating roasts & milk… Cause you know, all those farmers would be out of business.

  5. Calling M Dundas
    Mr. or Ms. Dundas…

    Have you ever retold a joke that you heard somewhere else? Did you know that every time you do that you are committing copyright infringement?

    Why is it OK for you to break the law and not OK for others?

    If you think about it, I think you will have to admit that your hard line stance is resting on a very soft line indeed, and there is actually no logical way to live in today’s society and support the copyright laws without being a hypocrite.

  6. Digital media distribution should mean much lower prices, especially in books….
    Consider the cost printing, shipping and retail presentation alone.

  7. “Digital media distribution should mean much lower prices, especially in books….
    Consider the cost printing, shipping and retail presentation alone. ”

    No it means higher prices, just ask th RIAA and the MPAA.

  8. sometimes, people need to go out of business..
    Especially in capitalism. Our present economic philosophy and progress in general both say “Hey, this is how people communicate now, adapt or die” The companies are saying “Hey, we don’t have to adapt OR die, we’ve got lots of money! Progress has to stop and wait so we can re-establish our death grip monopoly on this industry.”

    What musicians like Trent Reznor(Nine Inch Nails) have demonstrated is that the internet is actually a great way for them to cut out the middle man and get more money for their art–EVEN IF THEY DISTRIBUTE IT FOR FREE OR BY DONATION.This indicates two things for me:
    1)Sony(and other companies) makes way too much money off of artists if they can make just as much money(or even just a satisfactory amount of money) without the services of these companies.

    2)These companies’ purpose in this business is to distribute and promote artists. If they can’t do it as well as the internet(which can do it for free) they’ve lost. That’s business. Businesses will break all sorts of laws to compete with each other. OVER USED EXAMPLE:Car companies will fail to report defects in cars if the cost of the anticipated lawsuits is less than the cost of a recall.

    The international LEGAL ABUSE and UPHEAVAL Sony and other companies have caused is only a sign of the UNDUE INFLUENCE they have on our legislation and government. Sony is being replaced by server/webhosting companies, it’s not our fault that they can’t adapt.

  9. 3 strikes laws and why they are faulty
    OK folks heres a very easy defense for ANY ISP
    two things a landlord renting you a room, and Canadian Tire selling you a hammer.
    Scenario one that will carry too scenario two: BUYING A HAMMER
    OK so some nut gos and buys a hammer form a retail outlet and murders 50 people with it.
    The way Hollywood would have us believe here legally is that it isn’t the person with the hammers fault its the store that sold him the hammer and thus we have them suing the retail outlets to prevent ANYONE form getting hammers. Interestingly home sales dropped all of a sudden and a bridge collapsed killed 200 people ( 4 times what the hammer nut did in 1st place)
    Scenario two, landlord:
    DO you think that landlords would tolerate someone saying that due to the possibility that your home can be used for storing hammers that they cant rent to you? ALSO because you bought that hammer and have it in your home its not YOUR fault your a homicidal maniac and murdered 50 people NO NO. its the hammer retail outlet and maybe even the manufacturer. What’s the saying guns don’t kill people, people kill people.
    So here we have you getting removed form a home as your not the hommicidal maniac your a carpenter and because you have a hammer you cant rent a room.

    Doesn’t it sound great to be the mpaa and riaa. What happens when your wrong and someone dies because of your actions?

    So if Hollywood can do this then i would say we should immediately go after gun manufacturers , hammer makers, pencil makers, anything we can get rid of that’s a weapon or thought of and anyone who has a cdr writer YOUR now going to be homeless, you have a dvdr or blank cdrs your homeless now. GET OUT your evil aren’t you? heh. Stupid try and its because they realize they cant prove people do things so go after isps , well the other thing an isp MUST realize is that millions use p2p and if you really want to get screwed and go out of business then i highly suggest capitulating.

  10. AND whats illegal ?
    since when is me copying a file form source to another file illegal.
    OH ya hollywood tells everyone that, and charges you what 50 billion $ and screws the already bleak economy more FUCK YOU ARTISTS go sue some more disabled hospitalized people and then come and tell us how your lawsuits are stopping the day later you launch what 200 more and also try to kill peoples ISP accounts.

    nothing but a bunch a greedy twits dirtbags that leech off our money.
    REMEBER WHO YOU SERVE PAL, with OUT US PEOPLE YOU ARE NO WHERE.

  11. Micheal you need to take a look at this …
    The arrogant monster called Bell
    http://www.p2pnet.net/story/18153

  12. Devil's Advocate says:

    @wow:
    It’s not the ARTISTS that are suing.
    It’s the trade organizations that represent the LABELS (RIAA mostly, and the MPAA).
    You can bet the artists aren’t seeing a penny of any settlement money some were extorted into paying (to avoid an expensive trial they couldn’t afford).

  13. “It’s not the ARTISTS that are suing.
    It’s the trade organizations that represent the LABELS (RIAA mostly, and the MPAA).
    You can bet the artists aren’t seeing a penny of any settlement money some were extorted into paying (to avoid an expensive trial they couldn’t afford).”

    Well, you finally figured it out the “ugly truth” about suing people over this so-called “copyright” issues.

  14. I dont see the screen actors guild sayiing no to lawsuits
    I dont see the screen actors guild sayiing no to lawsuits, nor do i see anyony artists banding together and say actually starting there own p2p site that would rattle the big morons and ya might put a button beside the downlaod as in donate to this artist and get ( some thing extra) and using tours and the theatres to make cash is one way to do htings if the theatres werent such a rip off htemselves
    whens the last tme someone on welfare or a poor person could afford a movie? the 30”s????

  15. Net Neutrality & Better Broadband
    It will be interesting to see if either Net Neutrality or the need for better broadband in Canada are raised during the visit.