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Environics Releases CRIA-Backed IP Survey

Environics has just released an IP survey that shows its obvious bias from the first two paragraphs. Partially funded by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, it begins by claiming that

"over the past several years Canada has fallen behind the international community when it comes to the protection of intellectual property and products of the mind. The gap between Canadian laws and international standards in the area of counterfeiting, piracy, and illegal downloading is growing ever wider. Canada has been maintained by the U.S. Trade Representative on a special watch list specifically because of its laxity in the realm of protecting intellectual property." 

While it is true that Canada is on the USTR list, we are joined by 70 percent of the world's population. Meanwhile, these other claims are simply untrue. For a survey company to repeat lobby group claims is not a particularly effective way of demonstrating its credibility.

9 Comments

  1. Anonymous says:

    Surveys: Best way to shape public opinion in your favor using the sheep mindedness of a group of people.

    “Hey! Most people thinks that, I should think that way too.”

    Hopefully, this joke of a survey will just stay on the down low.

  2. Anonymous says:

    “They consider illegal downloading to be a serious crime, and believe that ISPs should block users who download illegally.”

    There’s such a thing as “illegal download”? Some people needs to check court records.

    Also, why are the writers of the survey being subjective?

    Wow reading further they brought up religion…

  3. An Impressionable says:

    \”Twenty years ago, these Canadians might have ignored their seat belts or exposed their children to secondary smoke from cigarettes. But they would never dream of doing so today because social standards have changed: laws have toughened and peer pressure against these behaviours has increased.\”

    AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ever think it might be because not wearing seat-belts and smoking kills people? Apparently it was the toughened laws that changed the behavior though.

    What a joke of a survey.

  4. What Rubbish!
    Canada’s “obligations” under the WIPO treaties are purely those we chose to make obligations.

    Whether or not Canada even ratifies the WIPO treaties is entirely voluntary according to Howard Knopf:

    “Canada may or may not choose to ratify the 1996 WIPO treaties. That is for the elected Government of the day to decide, and to be accountable for according to domestic law, accepted procedure, practice, and ultimately, politics.

    However, Canada has not yet ratified these treaties. We have only signed them. Certain politicians may or may not have made certain statements and promises to certain lobbyists and ambassadors. But that is not the same thing as an “international legal obligation” in respect to the 1996 WIPO treaties.”

    What is important to remember here is that Canada does currently meet our WIPO obligations and Mr. Prentice and other Tory shrills are confusing corporate obligations with legal obligations! Plain and simple!

  5. It would be nice if Environics published the questions that were asked, as it is simple to engineer a survey to give the answers that you want. And since this was (partially) funded by the CRIA, and the results of the survey mirror what the sponsor wants it to say, the questions that were asked need to be looked at to see if the questions asked, in the order asked, were set up to generate a pre-determined set of results.

    Unfortunately, I have yet to see a survey publish the questions asked, so that the public can look at it and judge whether the reported accuracy is bollocks.

  6. Anonymous says:

    for Kevin
    Of course they won’t. It’d be like shooting a gun in their feet (hmm that sounds better in french :P)

    And CRIA being the sponsor, probably being also the ones asking for this survey didn’t say, ask these questions, they just paid them so that they’d get this very result.

  7. Research topic is not important
    “What is important is not the topic of your research, but who is your supervisor.”

    (unknown)

  8. fair_n_hite_451 says:

    What a crock of a survey
    Where is \”The Informed\” as a category? As in the folks who answered the survey question on illegally downloading music files with the answer \”Oh, you mean the ones covered by the tariffs applied to blank media?\”

    Oh right. All those people\’s answers were mysteriously lost before the survey results were published.

  9. Yes, the use of a “survey” to try to drive public opinion, rather than reflect it. What was I thinking? 🙂