Government Says Vote on C-11 By June 18th
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Bill C-11
Well, hopefully this means they can’t shove it through before summer at least. It still has 3 readings to do in the Senate in 2 weeks.
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Well when is summer break for those dick heads?
@CP
I believe they’ll try to ram it through somehow before summer break.
“When the Copyright Bill Will Be Passed and the Not So Positive Aspects of the Budget for Culture”
http://ccarts.ca/in-the-news/bulletin/when-the-copyright-act-will-be-passed-and-the-not-so-positive-aspects-of-the-budget-for-culture/
This “vote” is nothing but a formality. With the conservatives majority, they can automatically get anything they want, regardless of the opposition.
Tell me, what is the difference exactly between what we have now and a dictatorship, albeit perhaps one of limited duration?
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What’s the vote for,if they’re going to have a third reading or not?
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Just get it over with so we can get on with breaking the law with our every day activities.
I’m looking forward to ignoring this when it’s passed.
SOPA
This is just an opening of pandora’s box.
Oh well time to start gathering illegal guns for the big showdown.
Swiss
The Swiss got it right and because I love my file sharing I want to move there now.
http://www.webpronews.com/swiss-government-declares-downloading-for-personal-use-legal-2011-12
@IamNotMe
I agree, if this passes it will almost certainly just be one of many more abuses against the public. I stood up on this many times, as did many others and now it feels like we have been shouting at the deaf.
Mr. Geist has done a tireless job of informing Canadians on this, and the comments here over the years show a parade of vocal Canadian’s merely dismissed. It seems all that’s left to do is shake my head and watch.
I solemnly believe democracy has failed in Canada. I mean, WTF is left besides civil disobedience? I’m starting to feel like “end user” has the right idea.
I think Charlton Heston said it best.
So what does this mean?
Will they round us up for jail time, for just using the internet?
I don’t understand this…I’m so worried.
@Scared
Short term, probably nothing will happen.
Long term, the language and overall intent of Bill C-11 is clear as written. Breaking DRM/TPM without permission will be illegal (to just focus on one aspect).
C-11 gives new powers to copyright holders to enforce their copyrights. Copying without permission was already illegal, but noone really enforces it for personal use.
So why does it matter? The computer hardware and software industries are cooperating to integrate DRM/TPM in all levels of your digital life.
Tablets and smartphones come locked, “for your protection” and this trend is visibly increasing. There may be a time desktop computers might only run “allowed” software (just Google UEFI + “Windows 8”).
While I do not believe there will instantly be an increase in lawsuits, there likely will be an unfortunate few caught under the front of a wave of increased litigation and enforcement from these new copyright restrictions (restrictions from the user’s perspective).
In addition to industry trends, the potentially pervasive surveillance being promoted in Bill C-30 would further extend the opportunities for copyright litigation (not to mention just being batshit crazy for numerous other reasons).
In short: life will likely look the same for a while, but IMHO Bill C-11 (and C-30) constitute a huge step in the wrong direction and yes, has the strong potential to lead to the scenario you are worried about, maybe even within the next for years, or however long we have this government.
For comparison, Ethiopia recently outlawed the use of software like Skype, and they aren’t the first. China beat them to it by nearly a decade ago.
We are Canada, not China, not Ethiopia, and not the USA.
We have to think for ourselves, and I think we deserve better.
@Scared
C-11 and C-30 attempt to articulate a future that, IMHO, would look like something from the movie Robocop, which makes for OK fiction, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
I don’t want to live in a future with the likes of Robocop or Judge Dredd handling law enforcement either.