Well, they said this before, but now it looks like its really happening: by the time you read this, Canadas Industry Minister Jim Prentice will have formally introduced a new copyright bill for Canada, our own version of the pisspoor Digital Millennium Copyright Act thats been in effect in America for almost ten years. O Glorious Day!
Canada now can join the ranks of our esteemed neighbours to the south, and begin fining and suing music and movie downloaders like theres no tomorrow. Despite open outcry from, uh, pretty much everyone, Prentice is going ahead with the bill without a lick of public consultation. A brave new world is upon us, fellows: a fine of $500/song if youre caught downloading copyrighted material.
To quote Boing Boing, all the American version of the bill has done is "drive a rift between customers and musicians and allowed the music industry to piss away the business opportunity of a lifetime with lawsuits and saber-rattling. By all accounts, Prentice comes from the school of do-whatever-American-business-interests-tell-you-to, and so we can expect the same here.
This is a fucking joke, folks. And while thisdouchebag MP has violated his own promise to seek public consultation on this bill, theres no reason why you cant send him some opinions of your own, sans solicitation. His email is Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca, his home riding phone number is 403-216-7777, and the Ottawa number is 613-992-4275.
Canada now can join the ranks of our esteemed neighbours to the south, and begin fining and suing music and movie downloaders like theres no tomorrow. Despite open outcry from, uh, pretty much everyone, Prentice is going ahead with the bill without a lick of public consultation. A brave new world is upon us, fellows: a fine of $500/song if youre caught downloading copyrighted material.
To quote Boing Boing, all the American version of the bill has done is "drive a rift between customers and musicians and allowed the music industry to piss away the business opportunity of a lifetime with lawsuits and saber-rattling. By all accounts, Prentice comes from the school of do-whatever-American-business-interests-tell-you-to, and so we can expect the same here.
This is a fucking joke, folks. And while this