Olympics marks bill
p2pnet.net news view:- The Industry Committee conducted its first hearing yesterday afternoon on Bill C-47, the Olympics marks bill (the second and likely final hearing goes this morning).
With the exception of one Conservative MP who raised the prospect of whether the bill should include criminal provisions for ambush marketing, most of the MPs asked sensible questions and focused on the obvious shortcomings in the bill. These include:
- What about protection for parody? The government’s response illustrated how inadequate the bill is – one representative dismissed the question as a hypothetical; the other pointed to the criticism exception.
- How do we know VANOC will use their powers judiciously? The government’s response focused on forthcoming guidelines. VANOC representatives acknowledged that they should have published guidelines before the bill becomes law, not after.
- Why waive irreparable harm? This issue came up repeatedly, but never received a satisfactory answer. The government merely acknowledged that the change would remove a barrier to obtaining an injunction, while the VANOC representative said it would speed things up.
- What about blogging and electronic media? VANOC said they would treat electronic media in the same manner as other media, yet the guidelines have yet to be published and the law itself is somewhat uncertain.
Based on yesterday’s hearing, it is clear that the committee should amend the bill to address the missing provisions and demand that the VANOC guidelines be issued and reviewed before the bill is passed. Anything less provides a blank cheque to the organizers.
Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
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!
