Canada corporate copyright plan
p2pnet news | Politics:- Teeth will be gnashing and tempers flaring in LaLa Land today.
The entertainment cartels have spent a fortune on lobbying and related exercises to ensure Canada institutes copyright revisions more suited to vested corporate interests than existing legislation.
But damn it! —- a bunch of pesky bloggers have upset carefully hatched entertainment cartel plans!
Below are today’s top four Google headlines on the subject as of 5:20 am Pacific:
Canadian netroots rise up against Tory copyright plans – National Post, Canada
Copyright amendments cause Internet stir for government – The Canadian Press
New copyright law starts Web storm – Globe and Mail, Canada
Opposition to copyright bill seems to have blindsided Prentice – Ottawa Citizen, Canada
If Prentice was indeed blindsided, it can only be because he’s been totally ignoring what the people who elected him have been loudly telling him for months.
Instead, he’s been listening to Hollywood and record label flacks and hacks who’ve been pumping all kinds of mis- and disinformation (to put it politely) into his eager ears.
But the people have spoken and their words have come primarily from the Net —- day after day.
This does not, however, have to be a disaster for Prentice.
As professor Michael Geist, one of the most consistently outspoken critics of the corporate copyright plan, said yesterday:
For the Industry Minister, there is an opportunity to turn this into a political and policy win. He has seen first hand the passion of Canadians who seek balanced copyright. He can now turn to the thousands of Canadians who have written and called over the past 10 days and invite them to participate in an open consultation process. The government should use the next six weeks to develop a consultation paper that outlines its preferred approach and invite all Canadians to comment. A winter consultation could lead to a new bill by late spring, still offering the chance to reform Canadian copyright law in 2008. While there has been considerable criticism leveled at Prentice, this is the same man who two weeks ago did the right thing on the wireless spectrum auction by putting the interests of consumers first. He now has the chance to put the interests of all Canadians first by launching a copyright consultation early next year.
Today Geist highlights a brief exchange between Prentice and the reutes wire service, to wit:
Reuters: Will the bill be tabled before Christmas? It’s on the notice paper.
Prentice: It depends on how long the House is here. It’ll be tabled once I’m satisfied that the legislation is something that we can take pride of and put in front of the House of Commons for consideration. . . I put on the notice paper that the bill will be introduced. I haven’t given a date and I’m not giving a date today, but it will be coming.
“Note that the House is scheduled to conclude on Friday and not resume again until January 28, 2008,” Geist adds.
A p2pnet Reader’s Write said yesterday:
“Maybe important sweeping changes like this should be put to a referendum ? You know —- the kind that democracy is supposedly designed for.
“Having a government making all decisions without participation of the public is not democracy, it`s despotism.”
Jon Newton – p2pnet
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