News

Clement Launches National Digital Economy Strategy Consultation

Industry Minister Tony Clement has launched a national digital economy strategy consultation.  There is a consultation paper, online forum, and roundtables planned.  The deadline for comments is July 9, 2010.  Copyright merits a specific section on the consultation website, with a reference to the 2009 consultation.  The consultation document includes a several paragraphs on copyright, with a heavy emphasis on compensation for creators.  It is the 2009 copyright consultation, however, that may leave some skeptical.  As Rob Hyndman quickly tweeted "I wonder if the Tories will pay as much attention to the digital economy consultation as they did to the copyright consultation."  I suspect many would-be participants are wondering the same thing.  I'll post much more on the consultation in the days ahead.

10 Comments

  1. I don’t wonder if they will pay as much attention to the digital economy consultation as they did to the copyright consultation – I am now entirely certain that they’ll completely ignore anything that doesn’t coincide entirely with their agenda… just like they did with the copyright one. And I feel that last year I just was foolishly naive for believing that there was anything to the consultation but a pretense to care what the public thought.

    The disappointment I feel over the virtually unanimous consensus from the 2009 consultation being apparently utterly ignored is so overwhelming that I don’t even have the words to describe it.

  2. Michael Biggs says:

    Canada 3.0 conference
    Also please note the “Canada 3.0” conference in Stratford, Ontario occuring today and tomorrow (May 11 – 12). It’s one of the forums where big business (in particular) is telling the government what its digital strategy should contain. ugh 🙁

  3. Michael Biggs says:

    Re: Canada 3.0 conference
    Oops, I mean to say that the conference is May 10 – 11 (today and tomorrow).

    Please check their website: canada30.ca and note the timetables and list of speakers.

  4. pat donovan says:

    web 2.0 + c61-2010
    idiots. A quick scan of the paper doesn’t include even 70’s tech (ie:fingerprint ID; the defacto biometric standard)

    boy, we’re gonna get far on this front.

    Digital services? How ’bout an online judge (96% accuracy these jurimetric days. It’ll take MORE than a revolution to get THAT going, thou)

    creation of HUGE databases locked to corp needs, yes. (the hospital records stuff)

    locked out users, yes. No mention of freedom of info, speech, use or anything practical

    canadian content? The current gov’t is TRASHING the cbc, not using it to it’s full potential….

    (ie: the idiot user content-generation. (have you ever seen the cbc “waiver of rights”? (BEAUTFUL phrase there. gotta remember it)

    “we make money, you’re out of luck.” about sums it up)

    groan. i munch thru this stuff and submit some rage. Doesn’t seem to anything advanced in it, thou.

    packrat.

  5. The Cons have proven themselves to inept when it comes to technology I wouldn’t trust them to send an email on my computer without mucking it up.

  6. I wonder
    If they want more compensation for creators, then why don’t we put forth legislation to reduce the percentage of money the record label makes from album sales. Maybe we make it 50% to the label, 50% to the creator? With record sales going down as they are, we should make sure that artists are being adequately compensated.

  7. Former Conservative Voter says:

    Of course they don’t care what we think. “after exhaustive public consultation, we’ve decided to do what we want”

  8. Dinonet Economy
    Clement uses a lot of buzz words in his speech, and he acutally blamed the fast development of technology while claiming “the [Conservative] government” wasn’t at fault for Canada’s lag in the digital realm. Canada was near the top in internet infrastructure when the Liberals were in power, but now we’re in the stoneage. Hello Mr. Clement, Canada’s internet max speed is about 1/10 of Japan and other countries. If the government had regulations to encourage competition and net neutrality, maybe we wouldn’t be in a Dinonet realm of low services and support with high prices. It would be more appropriate to call it Dinonet Economy because we all know who will own it, namely the *IAA.

    These consultations seem more and more like annual fundraising rallies for the Conservatives.

  9. maebnoom says:

    Pattern?
    Yup – they’ll ignore the results of this, too, and do whatever the heck they feel like doing, while claiming “hey look we got the public involved so it’s OK”

    whatever

  10. Scott Watkins says:

    They deleted my response
    I posted an ‘idea’ in the Digital Infrastructure section, stating that they should listen to and respect the results of the copyright consultation – as copyright is an integral part of our regulatory regime and thus infrastructure – and enact a balanced copyright reform.

    Went back two days later and it had disappeared.

    (I posted in another story about this, but here seems more relevant)