Canada ‘top copyright pirate’ says US
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- Hollywood and Big Music are now blatantly calling the shots not only in the US, but in France, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia, to name some of the countries who want to implement entertainment cartel laws to turn ISPs into taxpayer funded copyright cops.
Now the UPSA (United Police States of America) trade representative has again singled out Canada for special attention.
Says Eric H. Smith, fronting for the entertainment industry’s IIPA »»»
Canada remains woefully behind the rest of the developed world (and many countries in the developing world as well) in adopting critical legislation that will facilitate the development of a healthy online marketplace for copyright materials. More than a decade has passed since the global community agreed to two international treaties providing minimum standards for protecting copyright in the digital age, but Canada has yet to join these treaties or to implement their obligations in domestic law. Canada also needs to act now to address long-standing deficiencies in its system for legal enforcement of intellectual property rights.
“We urge the Canadian Government to promptly advance legislation that will provide a more secure digital environment for the protection of copyright works,” he adds, comfortable in the knowledge the Stephen Harper government normally complies with alacrity to entertainment cartel orders and demands.
Designation is absurd
The IIPA ( International Intellectual Property Alliance), “the lead US lobbyist on international IP matters,” as Michael Geist describes the cartel unit, “has issued a press release on the USTR Special 301 report, welcoming the inclusion of Canada on the Priority Watch List,” he says.
Or as the Associated Press states it »»»
China, Russia and Canada were among 12 countries targeted by the Obama administration Thursday for failing to sufficiently protect American producers of music, movies and other copyrighted material from widespread piracy.
The U.S. placed the 12 nations on a ‘priority watch list’ that will subject them to extra scrutiny and could eventually lead to economic sanctions if the administration decides to bring trade cases before the World Trade Organization.
It marked the first time that Canada has been placed on the list. Also added to the priority list this year were Algeria and Indonesia.
The administration said Canada was elevated to the priority list because of increasing concerns about the need for it to implement copyright reforms and better police its borders to seize pirated goods.
But, “the release inadvertently demonstrates why the designation is so absurd,” says Geist. 
“Included at the end are the estimated software piracy percentages for each country on the list. While the BSA claims are themselves subject to challenge, compare Canada to the remainder of the list. Canada comes in at 32%. The remaining countries (no rates are listed for Algeria, Israel, or Venezuela) >
‘Undue influence’
This doesn’t surprise p2pnet.
Yesterday, “Rights holders have, “undue influence over US policymakers to the detriment of consumers,” we said, quoting the new Consumers International IP Watch List created to, “assess how well the copyright laws and enforcement policies of the surveyed countries support the interests of consumers, by allowing them fair access to the fruits of their society’s culture and science.”
According to Hollywood, Canada is one of, if not the, worst countries in the world, p2pnet said, noting:
“The corporate movie industry’s favourite American politician, Hollywood Howard Berman, was, ‘leading hearings at the Foreign Affairs Committee on Global IP Theft that quickly became “Blame Canada,” blogged Ottawa law professor and Net commentator Michael Geist recently.
” ‘As implausible at seems, there is a regular sport in the U.S. of claiming that Canada is the source of evil when it comes to IP laws,’ he said.”
However, Canada isn’t even mentioned in a new Watch List report, which says the influence of lobby groups representing rights holders could “severely damage consumer interests”.
It’s, “often the case that by ’strengthening’ intellectual property law and enforcement, heedless of the interests of consumers or of national circumstances, consumers and rights holders alike suffer harm,” says the study, concluding »»»
In contrast, the introduction of flexibilities into copyright law, including exceptions and limitations for personal use of copyright material, along with, provisions that promote the development of the public domain, benefit not only consumers, but society as a whole.
For example, a 2009 report from the Netherlands found that file sharing, partly in reliance on the personal use exception in Dutch law, has strong positive economic implications for welfare in the Netherlands over the short and long terms, substantially outweighing the loss of revenue by rights holders.
Similarly, studies have found the economic value of the public domain,and of the ‘fair use’ exception in American copyright law, to be extremely high – in the latter case, contributing an incredible $4.5 trillion to the US economy in annual revenue.
In fact, there is a case that the monopoly rights granted to copyright and patent owners actually harm rather than foster economic growth.
Copyright flexibilities, together with innovative non-commercial licensing models, can also spur the production of new content, driven by users rather than multinational corporations, as found in the burgeoning digital ecosystem of mashups, remixes and user-generated content that is transforming cultural expression as we know it. The OECD has acknowledged the potential of such content to ‘provide citizens, consumers and students with information and knowledge.’
Challenging powerful rights holder interests
Why then has the USTR disregarded these developments in pushing through its Special 301 Report for uniformly strong global protection of the interests of rights holders, and ignoring provisions and innovations that could benefit consumers? This can largely be attributed to the influence of lobby groups representing rights holders, who advocate for levels of intellectual property protection that, if adopted worldwide, would severely damage consumer interests.
This is a symptom of the larger problem that rights holders possess undue influence over US policy makers to the detriment of consumers. As just one recent example, in a snub to consumers who had been barred from the closed- door negotiations over a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the world’s largest and richest industry lobby group, the United States Chamber of Commerce, was permitted to host an exclusive luncheon for delegates during the Washington DC round of negotiations in July
United States policy makers are not alone amongst developed countries in privileging the interests of rights holders over consumers. During 2008 negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the development of copyright flexibilities for the blind, France sought to end further consideration of a proposal brought by the World Blind Union (WBU) for the introduction of uniform global copyright limitations and exceptions for the benefit of vision-impaired users.
Neither is the USTR Special 301 Report the only annual national survey of copyright laws and enforcement practices that betrays partiality to the interests of rights holders. Two private surveys, the Global Intellectual Property Index (GIPI) and the International Property Rights Index (IPRI), do the same. Thus it comes as no surprise that the three countries ranked lowest in the GIPI – China, Russia and India – also feature in the Special 301 Report’s Priority Watch List
Amongst the countries common to the GIPI and the IP index of the IPRI, those same three are ranked lowest again.
“It is in this context that CI considers its IP Watch List as having a vital role in contributing a note of balance from a consumer perspective into global debates on intellectual property law reform and enforcement, which are currently dominated by powerful rights holder interests,” states the organisation.
Meanwhile, Canada is, “compliant with its international IP obligations, participates in ACTA, has prosecuted illegal camcording, has the RCMP prioritizing IP matters, has statutory damages provisions, features far more copyright collectives than the U.S., and has a more restrictive fair dealing/fair use provision,” Geist stresses.
calling the shots – New Zealand to re-jig ‘3 strikes’ law, May 1, 2009
Michael Geist – The Absurdity of the USTR’s Blame Canada Approach, April 30, 2009
Associated Press – 12 nations top US list on copyright piracy, April 30, 2009
p2pnet – Rights holders’ ‘undue influence’ over policymakers, April 30, 2009
worst countries – Hollywood Howard on Canada’s case, April 7, 2009
Michael Geist – U.S. Congressional Hearing Blames Canada, Again, April 6, 2009
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May 1st, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Maybe what Canadians need is for the USA to send its army across the border to “liberate” the people of Canada from these evil thoughts of copyright independence.
It’s been almost 200 years since the last US-Canadian war, maybe it’s been long overdue.
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:36 pm
frankly, could the us military just bomb toronto – specifcally york university? then all the hillbillies in the trailer park will feel their dicks grow a couple inches and canada will be rid of the most over-rated, insubstantial “great city” on the planet – and rid of the worst “university” on the planet
we can hope
May 7th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
At least Canaduh is no longer consider as rogue state. Harper is a good collaborator, however now he is stuck. With Obama in power, Harper looks more pathetic than ever.