p2p news / p2pnet: ‘If we can’t swing it one way, we’ll swing it another,’ might well be the entertainment cartel motto as it tries to bring Canada into line with the US as a wholly owned marketing, sales and PR division.

Remember the Sam Bulte farce? Backed by Hollywood and the Big Four Organized Music cartel, she was all set to become the Liberal heritage minister. However, the reigning Liberal government lost the election and Conservative Bev Oda got the job instead.

Net expert professor Michael Geist thought it would be a good idea for Canadian politicians take the 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.

Well, “Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda did not take the pledge,” says Geist on his blog, going on:

“According to data just released by Elections Canada, if she had, she would not hold her current position. During the campaign, Oda received contributions from many in the copyright lobby including Universal Music (tied for her third largest external contributor), the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association, the Entertainment Software Alliance, the Canadian Music Publishers Association, and CRIA’s own Graham Henderson.

“In addition, the broadcast lobby were also active supporters with Melinda Rogers (Ted’s daughter), Gary Slaight, Phil Lind, Jay Switzer, and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.

“In all, a significant portion of Oda’s external funding during the campaign came from the very groups that now seek support from Minister Oda on key policy issues. Further, it is striking that all the corporate and association donations came late in the campaign as the polls showed the Conservatives in the lead and after the Bulte story was generating public interest.”

Also See:
Sam Bulte farce – Goodbye Sam Bulte, January 24, 2006
blog – Oda and the Copyright Pledge, June 8, 2006

==================

p2pnet newsfeeds for your site.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss
Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

---

NOTE: p2pnet is being sued by Sharman Networks and Nikki Hemming, ceo of p2p application Kazaa. “The suit is a little odd, since P2PNet.net is a champion of peer-to-peer file-sharing, which is the same business that Kazaa is in,” says The Globe & Mail. If you’d like to help p2pnet, or find out more, please go here.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 2:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 1932 times