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Technology Your Rights Online

Technology Issues Ignored in Canadian Elections 41

Posted by michael from the oh-canada dept.
Jem Berkes writes "Today's Toronto Star has a good article on Canadian political parties' positions on important technology issues such as Copyright reform/WIPO, spam, and privacy. With the elections only a week away, it's surprising that these important issues have attracted little or no debate. The current Heritage Committee, for instance, has recommended that Canada ratify WIPO, and few citizens (let alone politicians) are even aware of this issue."
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Technology Issues Ignored in Canadian Elections More

Technology Issues Ignored in Canadian Elections

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  • I wonder howm many citizens (let alone politicians) are aware of these kind of topics in the United States. I am sure /.'ers are the exception, not the rule.

  • The Green Party addresses F/OSS (Score:4, Informative)

    by JimCricket ( 595111 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:12PM (#9500376)
    The Green Party has some F/OSS-favoring policies, and a do-not-spam policy: http://www.greenparty.ca/index.php?module=article& view=12&page_num=27

  • Canadian Heritage Committee report (Score:4, Informative)

    by lars-o-matic ( 533381 ) <<lars> <at> <middletonia.ca>> on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:18PM (#9500428) Homepage

    I was a bit surprised by what I read about the positions of the Liberals, Conservatives and especially the NDP. I would have hoped for a more civil-libertarian position from them.

    Issues mentioned in the article that affect Cdns include copyright reform, a national ID card, anti-spam legislation, use of open source software by government, etc.

    Canadians pay a levy on recordable media (incl blank CD's) which supposedly is collected to compensate artists for copying (as mentioned often on /. it's legal here! with some conditions) of their work. I know no-one who believes the artists will get the money.

    re: the Canadian Heritage committee copyright report... MP Sarmite "Sam" Bulte is the 2-term Liberal candidate in MY riding & is campaigning hard for re-election. I had somehow forgotten that she chaired the Canadian Heritage committee; the report (referred to in article) has much in it that affects people in the tech / web sector. In particular, if I see her shaking hands outside the High Park TTC station again, I'll bring up some issues with her!

    • e.g.
    • ISP liability for copyrighted content;
    • licencing schemes for copyrighted educational materials.
    • names of ANY Cdn musicians who have received money from the levy I pay on DATA BACKUP MEDIA

    Many groups are unhappy with the report's recommendations, including educators.

    The report is available as PDF [parl.gc.ca].

    USians and other non-Cdns may find similarities & differences with your own countries' policies illuminating.

    • Hello fellow P-HP resident.
      Here's some advice on talking with Sarmite. Do it in person, or via a written letter. Emails are ignored.

      As for your views.

      The proposed ISP liability is sufficiently narrow to avoid many problems. But once informed, ISPs should have some formal system to follow.

      "licensing schemes for copyrighted educational materials". Yeah bring it on!

      There are a few exceptions to add so that research and fair use are not stifled. But this is what we should be working for. The Unive

      • Thanks for the cogent reply, emaveneau -- I'll read the EFF links later today.

        I'll look for Sarmite Bulte and Peggy Nash (NDP) with (better-)informed questions. Alas, too late for a paper letter before election day.

        The CD levy... I'd like to see a GST clawback (fill out a form, keep receipts, whatever) on blank media used for archiving data. For now, as a "least-bad" mechanism, it feels more like "give every driver a speeding ticket" than a tax.

        Have you a link / resource where I can see which artists

  • NDP Policy (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The NDP does not yet have a policy on Open Source Software, but I did speak to Jack Layton about it last fall. I hope to be able to bring (or send) a proposal on this matter to the next national convention .

    See this journal entry [slashdot.org]

    Any other NDP member/FLOSS folks want to help? Contact user "temojen", or send a message to the NPI mailing list.

    (Posting anonymously because I'm at work & don't have my password here)

  • I just RTFA and now i'm confused... (Score:4, Funny)

    by MachDelta ( 704883 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:22PM (#9500475)
    The NDP is for WIPO/DMCA style laws, and the Conservatives are against it? What in the hell?! Not that its a bad thing mind you, but it seems like those two parties are on the other side of their usual fences.
    Huh, maybe a Conservative government wouldn't be so bad after all. I still have to decide who i'm voting for (either Conservative or Green), but maybe now I won't cringe so badly when our new dictator is announced.

    Oh, who am I kidding? This is Canada - I might as well start practicing my "horrified suprise" face now.
    • One would think that a right-wing government such as the conservatives would be against over-control in the marketplace. The only reason that the Republicans in the US have such a hardon for the DMCA is that some of their contributors would benefit from it. There is no such thing in Canada, as far as I know. This article give more reasons (not that they are needed) to not vote NDP! (In Soviet Russia, Jack Layton doesn't vote for YOU)

    • Conservatives (Score:3, Informative)

      by nuggz ( 69912 )
      Because the conservatives aren't a big business party in Canada.
      The Liberals have all the business friends, they make billions of dollars of 'loans' to large companies to keep them around. Guess who makes donations to the Liberal party.

      The Conservatives want to lower corporate taxes, but their plan is to only lower the taxes by the amount the handouts are reduced by.
      So yes the companies will get $1 billion in tax cuts, but that will be made possible by not giving $1 billion in handouts to other companies.
  • it's surprising that these important issues have attracted little or no debate


    Compared to things like health care, government waste, gay rights, etc, tech issues aren't really that important on a national scale. We might like to think they are, but they aren't top issues.

    • Re:Suprising? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by isolationism ( 782170 )
      That's about the size of it. If one went by the headlines (I couldn't stay awake for 10 minutes of live debates if I tried) it sounds like the big ticket issues are exactly those: gay rights, foreign policy (particularly vis-a-vis America), and fund abuse/scandals.

      Even when the levies were imposed some time ago on recordable media they went through without much more than a whisper, despite a good number of people protesting by writing their letters.

      I doubt very much if there's going to be any serious

    • That's what pisses me off about governments today - if the issue isn't important enough that everybody and their dog has a strong belief, it's completely ignored. Sometimes it's worse than ignored - any polititian would be happy to sacrifice 50 Slashdoters' votes for enough money, because if he uses it to buy a TV ad about his stance on a more popular issue, he more than makes them back.

      Here's a radical idea. Currently, we elect leaders by area - each district gets so many leaders, who make the rules fo

      • It's not the governments... it's the media. For the most part, the candidates answered the questionnaires sent to them about tech issues. It's just the smaller issues don't rate high enough to take valuable airtime. Print media might have enough space if the news day is slow enough, but that's about it.

        The problem with your idea is that nobody wants to go into a voting booth and have to make 50 choices instead of ONE (in the case of Canada).
        • You're right about that -- nobody would want to check off 50 boxes. It's also a good bet that somewhere between the several hundred choices, a pretty high percentage of people are going to invalidate their vote by doing something stupid.

          The idea has merit though -- I'd like to be able to vote on "mini-referendums" regarding all kinds of issues so I'm not voting for "whoever's policies I disagree with the least," like you mention doing against Harper (and I'm behind you 100% on that tip).

          It'd be nice t

    • What I wrote [digital-copyright.ca] when I helped launch the campaign was the following:

      There are those who say that this election is about health care, taxes, education and other such priorities. The policy areas we wish to discuss on http://digital-copyright.ca such as Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks (PCTs) touch very deeply on these areas important to Canadians. You can't talk about health care without talking about pharmaceutical patents and research grants, and our alternative collaborative methods of innovation. You c

  • Surprising? I think not. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ezraekman ( 650090 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:52PM (#9500800) Homepage
    With the elections only a week away, it's surprising that these important issues have attracted little or no debate.

    No it's not, and you go on to explain why:

    The current Heritage Committee, for instance, has recommended that Canada ratify WIPO, and few citizens (let alone politicians) are even aware of this issue."

    Unfortunately for our children, Joe Average sees that his friends and family are getting in trouble for what used to be expected of him to do, but doesn't ever make the connection. It's up to us to explain to our less paranoid friends and family exactly *why* things are headed in the wrong direction. Of course, it's somewhat difficult to do without sounding paranoid schizophrenic yourself, but do it anyway. At this point, it's our civic duty.

  • Surprised much? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BortQ ( 468164 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @07:55PM (#9501432) Homepage Journal
    Is it really that surprising that these issues haven't ben getting a lot of press?

    Clearly us geeks care, but most of the populace do not. The situation is the exact same in the US, where most people on the street will have no fscking clue what the DMCA even is.

  • no surprise (Score:2, Interesting)

    by merdark ( 550117 )
    With the elections only a week away, it's surprising that these important issues have attracted little or no debate.

    This is no surprise at all. Besides not being relevant to Joe Average, these issues are not all that relevant even to techies this time round. Why?

    Because there are FAR more important issues.

    For me, I'll do anything to prevent Harper (Bush of the north) from getting in. He basically want's to turn Canada into the current USA, something I and all my friends are dead set against.

    When thin

    • FUD (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There is a term in linux circles about misinformation tactics by large corporations...
      It's called FUD, and you seem to have fallen a victim of it in this election.
      Look at the policies of the Conservatives, they aren't much different from any of the parties...The NDP have planks in their platform that are the same as the conservatives ie in regards to prortional representation; economic policy is similar to Liberal with slower growth for govenrmental depts. ie more money for other areas such as tax cuts; We
  • I'm a Canadian citizen, and I'll be voting for the first time in the upcoming election. I realize that technology issues are important and all. But let's get this straight: there are MUCH more important issues on the table, and on the line, in this election.

    The Liberals, in their stupendous arrogance, have gone and done a lot of stupid things. They've commited fraud on the scale of a hundred million dollars in Quebec. They've let the health care system atrophie and waste away. In short, they've fucked
    • Anyway, I'm sure there are equally strong opinions on the matter from the Conservative supporters.

      Probably not. I bet most people voting conservative simply don't understand political issues at all. They probably think that the Conservatives are the old Progressive Conservatives, and are simply voting for them out of habit or due to the Liberal screw ups.
  • After a few attempts to contact Sarmite Bulte [sarmitebulte.ca] about the Interim Report on Canadian Copyright Reform [parl.gc.ca], I've finally received a written answer.

    "I am of the opinion that our proposals/recommendations in the Interim Report do not regulate technology.

    In addition, I disagree that ratification of the WIPO treaty regulates technology."

    [Homer] Wooh Hoo!! [/Homer] IMHO this means no DMCA regulation for technology in Canada!

    Take a look at the the user feed back during the Copyright Reform Process. Over 700 su [ic.gc.ca]

    • Be careful in what you are interpreting Sarmite to have said. She is not a technology law or technology aware person. She is not someone who would recognize that legal protection for DRM (TPM/RMI combination) is in fact a considerable regulation of technology.

      She also seems unaware of the fact that proposals to tax educational use of the Internet are an exemption of copyright where the intentions of the copyright holders are ignored and instead a royalty-collective society receives what amounts to "a tax
    • Crossposting from Digital Copyright Canada [digital-copyright.ca] where you crossposted your other reply.

      I do not share this interpretation of Sarmite Bulte's words.

      I was subjected to a speech from her at the Rethinking Copyright [ottawaconference.alai.ca] conference, and checked my interpretation with a number of other people there (some lawyers or law students, some other laypersons like myself). We all came to the same conclusion that she didn't understand technology law, and didn't separate many-to-many mediums of communication like the Internet

  • Canadian Libertarian Party (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Generally, the big Canadian parties realize copyrights, patents, and digital freedom are not understood by the average person; that's why politicians prefer to cave in to the corporations on these issues.

    As someone has pointed out, the Green Party does have a pro-open source platform. But they're not the only ones. Libertarians favour people's rights (fair use, etc) over artificial state-created monopolies like copyrights and patents. Even though Canada's Libertarian party is in a state of rebuilding, they
  • Politicians would pretend to care about any topic that was really important to the average voter. Surprise, surprise, it appears that the average Canadian voter is not a Slashdot-reading geek!
  • I don't really care which corporate conglamerate is going to manipulate Canada. Here in Edmonton, AB there is enough problems with R&D. The combination of research and development +policeSciencesBioNano[GRC]+endlessLiberalbudget+u nlimitedCorporateStakeholders+governmentTaxIncenti ve and kickbacks mixed with no Canadian law to protect and --*GoodLuckExplainingThisTo-->>IamNaive>>>NowItsMi ne.
  • http://www.canada.gc.ca/depts/major/depind_e.html

    Tell me, which R&D did I conviently provide the intellectual property?
    Where does a subject go for compensation?

    Who cares about the election. We live in a GRC Science R&D test site and project pilot zone.

    I have had enough of these corporate government and police agencies exploiting my intellectual property, infringing my rights and invading my privates... I mean privacy.

    http://www.privacyassociation.org

    Fuck all of this subtle inuendo of watch m

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