MPAA's Dodd Secretly Lobbied For a Canadian DMCA 79
An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian government is expected to pass copyright reform next week. The bill's anti-circumvention rules are a mirror image of the DMCA, leading many to conclude that the government simply caved to U.S. led lobbying pressure. Now Michael Geist provides the evidence — a secret series of unreported meetings between MPAA head Christopher Dodd and Canada's foreign minister, heritage minister, and a senior industry official, just weeks after the bill was introduced and days before SOPA landed in the U.S."
Re:WTF Canada? (Score:5, Informative)
The problem was that Harper was given a majority government (becaues the Liberals self-imploded).
Now he's shown his hidden agenda - he's no more a conservative than a corporatist hell-bent on throwing Canadians under a bus as long as it makes some corporation a profit. (See oil pipelines, see omnibus budget bill that is probably very little about budget and more about amending environmental laws to shove a pipeline through BC), etc. And of course, nice laws to make sure that environmental groups are heavily audited for "foreign funds" (despite lobby groups taking of said out-of-country money as a good thing).
Of course, it started before when he renamed the Government of Canada to "Harper Government", and the way he's been doing stuff, really "Harper Dictatorship" - Harper's way or the highway. (Note to self: Start Googlebomb for Harper that autocompletes to that.)
Hell, supposedly he's brainwashed his MPs as well - there was one who wanted to vote against the budget (and said there were probably a dozen more Conservative MPs who felt the same way) and got a stern talking to as "Independents never get their way".
Of course, given Harper's majority is a slim one, if there really were that many people wanting out, becoming independent would make them the most powerful people in the House as Harper would have a minority government.
Harper wants it done, and he'll get his way. And he really wants the copyright law, ACTA, SOPA, DMCA, because he's been convinced it's Good for the Economy(tm) and Jobs(tm) because the US says so. I expect the privacy laws to go next because they're getting in the way of doing business. And he must be right because Canada is doing better economically than the US and Europe, and thus his leadership is superior.
Sad fact is politics in Canada has positioned him to be basically the leader for the rest of his life - the Liberals are gone, the NDP has its own issues.
Re:WTF Canada? (Score:2, Informative)
I hope they find a way to stop it. It's not too late is it?
Unfortunately, the current Canadian government has an absolute mandate by 24% of the population to do whatever corporate multinationals tell them to do.