Sources indicate that there may be a new business IP coalition on the way, presumably to counter the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright. The BCBC, which includes a who's who of telecommunications, Internet, broadcast, and retail companies, has called on the government to adopt a balanced approach that addresses fair dealing and preserves consumer rights. This new coalition, called the Council for Intellectual Property Protection, is being promoted the Canadian Chamber of Commerce with backing from CRIA, the CMPDA, and the pharmaceutical industry. There does not appear to be representation from many of the companies involved in the BCBC.
The CIPP (not to be confused with McGill's Centre for Intellectual Property Policy or CIPP), which hopes to launch this spring, will likely focus on lobbying the government for a wide range of new IP laws including implementation of the WIPO Internet treaties and increasing penalties for copyright infringement by focusing on jail terms and property seizures. There is also a heavy emphasis on pressuring government to allocate more resources toward IP enforcement. For example, the coalition is likely to call for a new IP Inter-Ministerial Coordination Council. The Council would include high-level representatives from various Ministeries and would (among other things) work to "highlight the relationship between IPR crime and organized crime and/or terrorist activities." It also plans to establish an IP Coordination Council comprised of organizations such as CRIA and the CMPDA. The Council, with a budget of $5 million, would design policy "which would then (in part) be implemented by the bureaucrats in the Industry Department's IP Marketplace Framework Division."
Membership in the CIPP – which comes with involvement in the formulation of policies and meetings with Ministers (the CIPP expects to meet with all relevant Ministers by the end of the year) – would cost $10,000 annually per member, though there are cheaper categories for non-voting memberships. Rights holders obviously have the right to form whatever lobby groups they see fit. The imminent arrival of the CIPP, however, points again to the need for broad and transparent government consultation in which the voices of all stakeholders are heard.
What a shame they won’t just donate that $5m a year to the RCMP instead.
Yep
Chris, good point. That would pay for a bunch of RCMP officers.
Entertainment a bottomless pitt of ca$h
So-oh! What strong message is the CRIA and the CMPDA telling everyone now? Other than they have SO MUCH MONEY they can even form subversive-CRIAs and subversive-CMPDAs and throw even more money into lobbying the same government folks over and over again?
Agree with above, What a waste of money that could be put directly combating “actual” criminal activity.
We need a mole inside CIPP. Prof. G could probably do it, but he would have to wear a disguise. But seriously, there is a goldmine of strategic information to be gained here, and we would also get the opportunity to gauge the Ministers’ reactions during the meetings, and have the opportunity to interact with the lobbyists. Ever watch Intelligence? (Too bad that show was canceled by the way.) It would be interesting. I have often wondered if CRIA and the gang actually believe the BS they are pedaling, or if it’s just about the money. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course it’s about the money. This whole thing will probably just end up being a boondoggle for fancy dinners and expensive vacations anyway. At least it’s not with taxpayer money.
Can we trust them?
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is The Voice of Canadian Business. They don’t represent the people of Canada as individuals, only in as much as it effects business. Perhaps this is as it should be, but when they say: “to ensure that Canadian policy adequately balances the intellectual property rights of producers and needs of users and consumers.” they are just saying that they want to make sure that they get what is best for business, and that the “balance” doesn’t end up favouring the “needs of users and consumers”. Any special interest group backed by them, such as this new CIPP, is not going to stray from those objectives.
Enough is Enough!
I think we are rapidly reaching a point where we, the ordinary citizen, have to say, enough is enough!
I may be over-reacting, becoming a little too critical/cynical, But I’m tired of having my interests subordinated to the financial interests of the affluent
self-serving corporate organizations. I understand that businesses are run to make money, but surely there are other considerations.
We need to express our views, directly and firmly, to our legislators.
We don’t just want them to hear and “consider” our requests, – we want them acted upon, now!
After all we “hired” these people, not to do what they please, ( or lobbied to do) but to serve our interests.
We hired them, we can fire them.
We need a mechanism where by we can initiate some form of national debate/consultation to develop a directive for government action,
rather than asking and hoping that the government will maybe consider hearing our opinion – if they have the time or interest.
It is the people who are the Masters, – we should set the policies and objectives, and it is the job of our elected/hired civil servants to carry them out.
Period.
senior network analyst
This is Nutz! Let’s tell the USA big biz to go back and chew their own slop back in the US or whichever hole they came from.
It’s bad enought they went after our money [gold standard], land [most forested areas confiscated by UN], businesses, in the process of taking away our laws, putting pesticides in our food, creating CODEX and now going after our communications and circumventing our government?
All this smells of Rockerfeller, Bush, Illuminati Cult and other nasties trying to take over Canada. Find and see “Zeitgeist” video or “Endgame”, which are available on any P2P.
In order to see which packets are P2P they need to open packets with deep packet inspection. If anyone knows about TCP/IP, TCP packets have a header which looks close to a letter send with regular [snail] mail. It has info where it came from, going to, packet number and routing info. In order to see what kind of TCP traffic it is one needs to open such letter.
This is mail fraud and should be punishable as such by any entity doing so. We still have privacy laws, let’s use them!
Time to rise up and fight back.
I’ve supported the Chamber of Commerce by being a member for years and I had always assumed they were lobbying for smaller businesses (like mine), but I guess I was wrong.
Unfair intellectual property laws are used to clobber smaller businesses all the time. They are a favourite weapon of large firms to keep new competitors from emerging. The Chamber of Commerce supporting such a thing seems like a real betrayal.
R. Richard Fish
Dr. Geist:
Under the “Newspaper Category” the Toronto Sun is missing, and happens to be one of the Toronto publications conducting current & repeating phone solicitations for weekly subscriptions, and as such I’d like to see this publication added to the Newspaper “Do Not Call” list.
This is a great idea, and outstanding service and I’m surprised you are not charging a “subscriber fee” which would not impede me in any way from signing up. Good luck with this project! (& Thankyou!)
Let’s not forget that Mr. Geist receives financing from many of the companies that are asking for fair dealing and the other “balanced” copyright “ideas” Mr. Geist has.
Coincidence?
Let’s see if this gets posted!