[LINK] Canadians going bad on copyright

[Rick Welykochy]

Roger Clarke wrote:

  > http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1606/125/
> 
> Copyright and Digital Markets
> Thursday January 11, 2007
> Canadian Press is reporting this evening that the introduction of a 
> copyright reform bill is imminent ...

See what happens when you vote in a compliant conservative
party?

The article mentions this:

"Canadians may recognize that they already pay millions every year for the
  private copying levy and thus feel comfortable with payment to artists via
  that alternative compensation system"

I believe the UK has a similar system: a small but very visible charge
is added on to the purchase price of recordable media. Makes sense
to me. Tax it at the source. Although, it is unfair to those who
are using the media to create original content, but that must constitute
a very small portion of entire recordable media sales.


> http://www.680news.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n011061A
> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070112-8607.html
> 
> [Roughly, it may be as bad as the atrocious sell-out by the Australian 
> Government - US-corporate welfare under the guise of 'free trade']


Here is the source of the rot:

"The legislation is being spearheaded by two government ministers,
  Maxime Bernier (Industry) and Bev Oda (Heritage), who are ranked numbers
  two and three on a recent list of underperforming politicians.

  Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, noted last
  year that much of Oda's fundraising, in particular, could be traced to
  copyright lobby groups, record labels, broadcasters, and cable companies."

Canada introduced a legislation outlawing donations larger than $X
to political parties (X being a rlaitvely small number). But it seems
that funds are still allowed to funnel in via lobbying to individual
pollies. Sounds rotten to me.

What will it take to get *our* politicians to get back on track and
work on *our* behalf for better democracy and society?


cheers
rickw




-- 
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Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

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