Canadian Movie Piracy Bill cometh
p2pnet.net news:- In the same breath as it reports eye-popping revenues the likes of which have never been seen before, the corporate movie industry claims it’s being wrecked by counterfeiters and file sharers.
Now Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger he’ll muscle the government into terminating so-called movie piracy in Canada, says Canadian Press.
Notes respected Canadian law professor Dr Michael Geist drily, “given that this marks the culmination of a torrent of pressure from US politicians and US lobby groups on Canadian officials, first notice appropriately goes to a US politician, not the Canadian public”.
Harper raised the issue, “and one US official said Schwarzenegger was pleased to hear Canada address a problem plaguing his state’s film industry,” according to CP.
Hollywood has been trying to claim Canada is the central source for movies which have been illegally camcorded in cinemas, particularly in Montréal, and which later show up online or on DVDs, which are sold on underground markets around the world.
But America itself is the principal home of ‘pirated’ movies, says online data collector Havocscope.
Nor is Schwarzenegger the first heavy-duty US politician to lean on Harper. US senators Dianne Feinstein and John Cornyn contacted him on the half of the big six studios, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney and, “If we can be of any assistance to you or your cabinet ministers, please do not hesitate to contact us,” they said generously.
Geist was one of the first to point out the glaring inconsistencies in statistics Hollywood is using to justify its demands that Canada criminalises people caught camcording movies without permission.
Here’s what he has to say into current blog posts, the most recent first:
The First Step
Over the past few months, I’ve often been asked why the movie industry would pursue anti-camcording legislation if the data was so inconsistent. My response invariably focused on the notion that this was the thin edge of the wedge – an attempt to paint Canada as a piracy haven and push for a whole range of new intellectual property law reforms. With yesterday’s confirmation that the government will introduce an anti-camcording bill tomorrow, the Globe and Mail asked Doug Frith, the president of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association for his reaction to the news.Frith responded by stating that this “is really the first step – not only for the movie industry – where the government has shown it will seriously address the whole area of intellectual property theft.”
PM Harper Confirms Canadian Movie Piracy Bill On the Way
CTV is reporting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper today will confirm what has become increasingly obvious – under pressure from the U.S. and Hollywood studios, Canada will introduce anti-camcording legislation.
Harper is using California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s visit to Ottawa to serve notice of the proposed bill. That approach really says it all – given that this marks the culmination of a torrent of pressure from US politicians and US lobby groups on Canadian officials, first notice appropriately goes to a US politician, not the Canadian public.
Further, the CTV report continues the trend of providing a one-sided (and arguably misleading) perspective. It claims that “if the bill passes next fall, cheap and readily available copies of popular current releases will presumably be less frequent in Canada and on the worldwide market.”
The reality is that there is no evidence to suggest that the law will have any such effect. Indeed, the U.S. is world’s largest source of camcorded films notwithstanding the existence of anti-camcording legislation. Moreover, the report adds that “there are lots of great Canadian films that are made too and you don’t want them necessarily sent off through the Internet”, though there has been no evidence that the camcording issue has involved Canadian films.
We should at least be honest about this bill. It is the result of U.S. pressure, it will have no discernable impact on movie piracy, and it has nothing to do with Canadian films. By timing the announcement with the Schwarzenegger visit, even the Prime Minister is being transparent about the motivations behind this change in government policy.
No need to say stay tuned.
Also See:
never been seen before – Hollywood reports record revenues, March 6, 2007
Canadian Press – Schwarzenegger, PM talk film piracy, May 30, 2007
Havocscope – America: top movie pirate, May 17, 2007
lean on Harper – Hollywood muscles Canada, March 6, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 31st, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Politicians make me puke.
May 31st, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. “Democracy just doesn’t work”.