Sam Bulte to Michael Geist
p2p news / p2pnet: It seems professor Michael Geist has hit a nerve with the corporate entertainment cartel’s favourite Canadian Liberal MP, Sam Bulte.
“A star-studded fundraiser tonight for prominent Liberal MP Sam Bulte has touched off a heated controversy at all-candidates’ meetings in her Toronto riding and in the blogosphere,” says the Globe & Mail. “The fundraiser is perfectly legal, but Ms. Bulte has come under fire about whether it constitutes a conflict on interest.”
Bulte was parliamentary secretary to Liberal heritage minister Liza Frulla, another entertainment industry enthusiast who chaired a committee that worked on a major copyright reform bill that was, “shoved aside when the election writ was dropped,” says the story.
Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, has been vocal both about Bulte’s involvement with the Canadian Recording Industry Association of America (CRIA) and others with distinctly vested interests.
He’s also calling for all MPs, not merely Bulte, to sign a Copyright Pledge which states:
No Member of Parliament who has accepted financial contributions or other benefits from (i) a copyright lobby group, (ii) its corporate members, or (iii) senior executives as well as (iv) a copyright collective shall serve as Minister of Canadian Heritage or as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, nor sit on any legislative committee (parliamentary or standing committees) conducting hearings or deliberations on copyright matters.
Meanwhile, “The back-and-forth between Ms. Bulte and Mr. Geist, the blogger, is getting increasingly personal and nasty,” says the Globe & Mail.
In an interview, “Ms. Bulte accused Mr. Geist, members of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Ms. Nash [NDP contender Peggy Nash] of trying to discredit her,” says the newspaper, quoting her as saying:.
“I will not be silenced by zealots like Michael Geist and political opportunists like Peggy Nash who are making something out of nothing,” and adding that she believes Mr. Geist’s comments are nearing the point of being defamatory.
“I am not going to sue him before the election but dammit, watch me after the election,” she declares in rthe Globe & Mail post.
They say attack is the best form of defense.
Bulte and her friends will tonight be enjoying a
$250-a-plate repast at The Underground at The Drake, 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, two blocks east of Gladstone at Beaconsfield. Not at all coincidentally, Online Rights Canada and friends will also be dining out close-by – at The Corner Cafe at The Drake, in fact.
Also See:
Globe & Mail – Liberal MP’s fundraiser causes controversy, January 19, 2006
Copyright Pledge – The Bulte CRIA saga continues, January 12, 2006
$250-a-plate repast – Sam Bulte dines out, January 19, 2005
(Thanks, Sandro)
January 19th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
A lawsuit? Why, I wonder who’s been giving her that advice
January 19th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
hmmm, probably not the *RIA, unless she ment she was going to sue ~700 people every few months.
January 19th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
and she would be suing them into voting for her
January 19th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Bulte has really lost it. While she may have some lawyer friends from the legacy industry associations she is friends with, threatening a lawyer with a lawsuit is kinda amusing.
Her friends may just rein her in soon. They are going to know that the more she blabbers on in public the more people will look into what is going on and the more people will realize that her friends oppose, not support, Canadian creativity and Canadian creators. These folks have been able to get away with their scam for so long because people have been confused, but once they are exposed to reality things will change.
Hmmm.. Maybe without knowing it, Bulte will end up inadvertently helping us.
BTW: Please sent letters to your candidates to inform them on this issue!
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/1788
January 19th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Is she going to sue you too, Jon? That would be interesting
January 19th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
This one’s a bit OT.
“…Canadian Recording Industry Association of America…”
The “of America” part just about slipped right by me.
Thats funny.
Sam Bulte is not funny, and unfit for public office. That’s just my opinion.
(don’t wanna get sued for libel)
January 20th, 2006 at 1:28 am
Really, you should know better than to question the status quo. When you start doing that all the ordinary people start thinking about the way they want their country governed. Everyone starts getting upset.
Couldn’t you just let Bulte quietly win the election and keep quitely screwing us?
All this public debate is so un-needed.
/sarcasm.
Stick it to her man!
January 20th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Perhaps Ms. Bulte is also going to proposed reforming the laws regarding defamation, slander, and libel to be more in line with, oh, let’s say Malaysia……
Seriously though, as a “public figure”, she has a higher burden of proof to sustain in order to prevail in a defamation suit. As a professional politician, it’s likely near impossible for her to prevail unless the disparager’s conduct were so egregious as to be almost absurd.
To even get to discovery, she has to provide some evidence of false statements. The publication of opinion or erroneous conclusions (reasonably) based on verifiable facts isn’t nearly sufficient.
Instead of wasting all of that lovely money she got from Cartel Canada on lawyers, she might consider dermal enhancement treatments to develop a thicker skin.
–TG
January 20th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
liberal mp, ha, don’t make me laugh. Copyrights go against every liberal principle.
Shes nothing but a bought and paid for politician. Not only that, she also sounds like a ruthless bitch.
You certainly wouldn’t want people like that running your goverment.
January 21st, 2006 at 3:15 am
You obviously know little about Canadian politics. Liberals have been in power for over a decade here and have become the most arrogant self entitled hacks you can imagine. They campaign like your Democrats but govern like your Republicans.