I also want those who think that “the government listens to those with money” to realize that this attitude is self-fulfilling. When people don’t believe they have power, and say nothing to government, they are correct.

Canada is about to head into an election. There will be a large amount of election related and per-riding discussion areas on http://digital-copyright.ca . If you believe this is an important issue to you then put your time where your heart is and get involved in our lobbying efforts.

Russell McOrmond - http://flora.ca

After reading an complaint article of a Mexican web log, how their anthem wa “owned” in the U.S.A, I investigated a litle and came up with this.

BMI (a major American licensor of copyrights on behalf of the copyright owners) licenses 24 latin american national anthems says it all. This can be verified at http://www.bmi.com. 18 of these national anthems appear as composed by a single composer, a musical genius known as Ricardo Romero. A title search for “himno nacional” at http://www.bmi.com will show the latin american licensed anthems.

The American national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner too is licensed by BMI. For other countires I did not check but I imagines that their national anthems are also owned by someone and are also licensed through BMI or someone else.

Now, if natinal anthems of countries can be owned and exploited by someone in the U.S.A., why not the ancient scriptures or the Bible? After all we do not know for sure what Greek and Roman commom laws said about copyrights and anyway, they did not apply to the U.S.A.

By the way, BMI licenses the national anthems of the latin american countries in the countries of the anthems through partnership organization in those countries. For example, the BMI repertoire of songs, wich included the Mexican anthem, is licensed in Mexico through a BMI partner (SACM) organization in Mexico. Some Mexican think their anthem was stolen by the Americans. In Mexico the anthem is in public domain because the last author died in 1908 and because of a national anthem law.

This is the good neighbor policy gone berserk, through the copyright system. Copyrights were suposed to be to promote the creation of artistic works but is mostly promoting theft.

I highly doubt CRIA will win round 2 based on the evidence they presented to the court first time around. In Canada you need a “copyright certificate” as evidence of ownership and it needs to be presented to the court as part of the case, they didn’t present any. In fact Media Sentry which was hired to monitor p2p traffic didn’t listen to a single file. So who knows what was on those 350+ files that geekboy@kluzaa (and others shared) did they even infringe on someones copyright? We don’t know. Media Sentry also got one of the IP’s wrong - either Shaw or Rogers (can’t remember which ISP off the top of my head) pointed out that one of their IP’s wasn’t even being used at the time Media Sentry said it was …. ooops!

In short crappy case, crappy evidence, crappy lawyers = failure.

The reason we ask for help, is due to the $$$ and clout that corporations weild in the modern political arena. IMHO, politicians here regularly ignore the citizenry, in favour of those with deep pockets.

(Hence we have AdScam, where they lined their pockets with our own money, using money-laundering techniques)

Also, mainstream media needs to be rallied, and Globe and Mail surely doesn’t care much about a few petitions. They are submitted for a multitude of reasons every day.

Look at the farmer protests, look at the G7/G8 protests. Nobody cares.m They aren’t lining their party coffers with donations, so nothing will happen unless some big corp/media get on board.

I like the US and its people, but Canadians (mostly) define ourselves by being “not American.”

It’s sad, but the tactic/method WILL work.

NO politician wants to be seen supporting US interests (real or imagined). It would be political suicide… We have no “Leaders” here…. only poll-driven, lobby-supported, reaction oriented hucksters.

Take note of recent decisions on missle defence, Iraq. etc.

You’re asking for someone, anyone, to help but we’re a small voice alone. If you feel this strongly then you need to work for the cause and not stand on the sidelines hoping someone else will come to your rescue.

While I never made fun of Canadians for not having to deal with these sort of idiots, I am sad to see you guys face the same sort of stuff we are dealing with. Talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors, tell them that the majors are attempting to do what they have done here and purchase their laws. Surely the Canadians are proud people and would resent such influance upon their lives as what this will bring. I would also add that now is the time to join the boycott, not for a week but for life or until they mend their ways.

Part of what is driving all this is WIPO. Folks in Canada need to get active in it and what it is doing. What it is doing is setting up international standards for Intellectual Property and that is what is driving the push to have Canada reform to the same setup. Not doing so will push Canada onto less favored trading status with the world. Notice I didn’t say with the Americans.

Grab a willing hand and join against fight of monopolies that these megacorporations are trying to foist off on the world. It is nothing good for the average citizen, no matter what country they are from.

“Corporations have all the benefits of a man without benefit of a conscience.”

TT

TT

Canadians PAY for copyright fair use/infringement. Each and every ‘music CD’ sold in Canada is levied, as are cassettes and other media.

It’s a farce for the CRIA to collect the MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars each year from this unwanted TAX, and then to use this money to go after their VERY CUSTOMERS.

Someone PLEASE… EFF.ORG… someone, ANYONE! Start a campaign against this, start lobbying the government, and the opposition parties as well… to try and get this extremely wasteful, corrupt and vile system (the one proposed) knocked out before it starts.

If we all sit back and do nothing (very Canadian, to just shrug at being screwed) then we’ll just be another USA.

Don’t let AMERICAN corporate interests corrupt our Law, Order, and Good Government! (well, the founders had a good idea, but I think that last part was a pipe dream).