Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar
Here in Canada, the current government tabled a bill about a year ago that would have clarified this situation. The bill would have made it legal to make back-ups for fair use purposes, and this was trumpeted by the government in the media. However, the same bill would have also made the breaking of _any_ DRM illegal, including the fair use cases. That part of the bill wasn't trumpeted to the media  . There was some grassroots opposition to the bill, and it was removed from the table, for now.
The previous government pushed for a similar bill, so the lobbying seems to be party agnostic. It also seems to be country agnostic; international big-money is pushing this everywhere it can, using small gains in one country as leverage in others. |
Yes. I was following that issue very closely here in the US (mostly by keeping up with the Canadian podcast (
Search Engine) by Jesse Brown. I found it amazing that he would get
sitting ministers and other big shots to appear on his show and talk about these things in some level of detail (not just sound bites). Don't get to see that here so much
. Very impressive show.
@Taming - Michael Geist has been mentioned a lot on that show (he was a significant part of the grassroots movement to kill that flawed bill if I recall correctly). He's appeared on it a few times too.
By the way, if you don't listen to it already, I would highly recommend that podcast
. I believe you can find it on TVO. Got some rather intriguing information about ACTA and how the US (pressured by the RIAA/MPAA lobby groups - I wouldn't be surprised if the publishing industry isn't getting a piece of the action as well) is trying to export the abomination that is the DMCA to other countries, sometimes with blatant diplomatic threats. It's not enough that we have to tolerate that PITA - but to impose it on all and sundry?
Haven't we soiled our image enough?
In fact, some Canadian activists have been accusing their government of simply rubber-stamping US/RIAA/MPAA recommendations for their version of the digital rights act instead of listening to what Canadians are saying.
I'm sure you have a much better idea of how true or false that is so I'd love to hear your perspectives on this.