http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070214.wblacklist14/BNStory/National/home BARRIE MCKENNA From Wednesday's Globe and Mail WASHINGTON — A powerful coalition of U.S. software, movie and music producers is urging the Bush administration to put Canada on an infamous blacklist of intellectual property villains, alongside China, Russia and Belize. Canada's chronic failure to modernize its copyright regime has made it a global hub for bootleg movies, pirated software and tiny microchips that allow video-game users to bypass copyright protections, the International Intellectual Property Alliance complains in a submission to the U.S. government. The time has come for the United States to send a stern warning to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, which has failed to deliver on a promised overhaul of copyright laws and a policing crackdown, said the Washington-based group that represents companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Paramount Pictures. “The industry groups feel very strongly that we need to ratchet this up,” IIPA legal counsel Steve Metalitz said. “The disturbing thing is that the Canadian government doesn't seem to take this very seriously.” He pointed out that the Harper government hasn't even drafted new copyright legislation. The United States first placed Canada on a lower-priority watch list three years ago. Elevating Canada to the “priority watch list,” as the U.S. industry now wants, would put it among a select group of notorious copyright pirates, such as Belize, Venezuela, China, Turkey, Indonesia, Ukraine and Russia. “Canada's long tenure on the USTR watch list seems to have had no discernible effect on its copyright policy,” the group lamented in a submission this week to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, George W. Bush's trade czar. Once put on notice, failure to address U.S. concerns could result in trade challenges at the World Trade Organization, plus possible sanctions. Officials at Industry Canada, which oversees copyright laws, would not directly address the U.S. industry's concerns yesterday, nor would they say when new legislation might be ready. “The government of Canada is working actively on the copyright file and will take the time necessary to ensure that revisions to this important framework legislation have been fully thought through,” Industry Canada spokesman David Dummer said. The complaint says Canada has emerged as “a leading exporter” of bootlegged copies of the latest movies as well as so-called mod chips, which are used to circumvent anti-piracy technology built into popular video game consoles, such as Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Game Cube. “The problem of unauthorized camcording of films in Canadian theatres is now nearing crisis levels,” the group complained. It estimates that in 2006 as many as a quarter of all bootlegged films sold worldwide were made in Canada. Unlike in the United States and most other developed countries, videotaping movies in theatres is not illegal in Canada. Likewise, there is no law in Canada that specifically bans mod chips and other piracy tools, as there is in the United States. Making and distributing the chips has become so lucrative that the thriving business is now dominated by organized-crime rings, including the Hells Angels in Quebec and the Big Circle Boys in Ontario and British Columbia, according to the IIPA. “Highly organized international-crime groups have rushed into the gap left by Canada's outmoded copyright law and now use the country as a springboard from which to undermine legitimate markets in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and elsewhere,” the group said. The industry paints a grim picture of Canada as a country where copyright pirates operate with impunity because of lax laws, poor enforcement and a laissez-faire attitude. “Canada remains far behind virtually all of its peers in the industrialized world with respect to its efforts to bring its copyright laws up to date with the realities of the global digital networked environment,” the group argued in its submission. “Indeed, even the major developing countries have progressed further and faster than Canada in meeting the challenge.” A spokesman for Ms. Schwab, the U.S. trade czar, was not immediately available for comment.
I thought the Globe & Mail was a rebutable newspaper? I don't know how they get away with publishing shite like this :evil: First off - The International Intellectual Property Alliance says it is "a coalition of associations representing the United States copyright-based industries." So it's not international at all and should therefore probably be shut down for mis-representing itself. 2- Mod chip market is run by organized crime? The mod chip market is run by a bunch of laid off engineers from the telco and manufacturing sectors. Yes, the best and most popular modchips are designed and manufactured here, but so what. Their purpose is to allow one to use their console as they see fit, changing skins, adding software, media management. Just because it enables using of copyright software, doesn't mean that's it's intent. Because some people use it for copyright infringment, everyone else has to suffer??? Hell, guns are made to kill people, but as long as you don't use it for their intent, you're allowed to have one? Where's the logic in that. 3- 25% of all bootleg copies are from Canada??? I read an article last week that over 70% of movie and music copyright infringements are in the US. The article was posted on an on-line rag news site... so I didn't give it much credit. How does a country who's population is smaller than that of the US largest city account for 25% of the world's bootlegs? How does the Globe & Mail get away with using these numbers in their articles. And so what if it was true... Most movies I've watched have been DVD quality leaked movies. Movies available before they are even shown in Canada. Why would I download a CAM Canadian version 10 days after the DVD quality US leaked version is available? 4- I will admit to downloading movies and television shows. However, in Canada, we pay a levy on all blank media. The price of all our blank media is artifically inflated as we pay extra tax on them to compensate the recording industry for what they averaged would be used for copyright infringement. When I sign a purchase order to order blank DVDs to back up our office servers, I pay that levy which goes to the recording industry. If I have to pay it anyways, no matter what I use my media for, then I will not feel guilty downloading a movie torrent. 5- As I said, I download torrents. When you track back to where the torrents originate from, most of mine are from the US. Even some of the UK imported movies I download originate from the US. Unlike our southern neighbours, our laws protect our business as well as our citizens. Just because we don't make laws that advantage the RIAA to screw old ladies and children, is no reason for bashing us in a national newspaper. If the industry keep up, or in this case - catch up, to the technology, I don't see how trying to sue 90 year old ladies who don't have PCs, or 9 year old children who don't know any better is going to fix their problems. Sorry for the rant. Am a little upset an article like this made it to a national paper. These organizations needs to learn to take responsibility and resolve their own issues instead of always pointing the finger. Just because we don't conform to their communist ways, we get bashed? What happened to personal freedoms? My government is suppose to protect my way of life and my freedoms, that's it. They aren't suppose to dictate it, and I get pissed every time they do.
And I thought this topic was going to be about big wooden boats and cannons and guys with eye patches and wooden legs kidnapping wenches. Darn!
Jeesh. Blacklisting us over bootlegging?? I say we blacklist the US over Terrorist threats,. We are now on the hit list thanks to them..Cause we export our oil to them...I say we black list them for oil :lol:
