Noted copyright expert Howard Knopf had been invited to next week's Public Ploicy Forum symposium on intelectual property rights (IP). That is, until they un-invited him. Knopf writes that it seems strong pressure was brought to bear and the PPF caved. While Knopf won't be in attendance, copyright activist Michael Geist will be there, along with a bevy of U.S. IP and industry representatives.
According to Knopf, his presentation was to have been based on his paper entitled:
WHY CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW IS ALREADY STRONGER AND BETTER THAN THAT OF THE USA - AND WHY THE USA SHOULD LOOK IN THE MIRROR RATHER THAN AT ITS “SPECIAL 301" WATCH LIST
IANAL but maybe I can post this quote from Mr. Knopf under the fair-use doctrine:
"Since this is a program that could influence the development of Canadian law, I had hoped to provide at least some additional counterbalance to the overwhelming presence of spokespersons for multinational (largely American) based interests who will also include U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, Michael Shapiro of the USPTO (who asked me two weeks ago for a digital copy of my Fordham paper) , and Perrin Beatty of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which takes a very USTR friendly view of IP matters."
from excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2008/04/uninvited-to-public-policy-forum.html
via www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2872/196/
via news.slashdot.org/news/08/04/27/2226237.shtml
Public Policy Forum Un-Invites Copyright Expert.
Posted on Monday, April 28 at 08:26 by C.M. BurnsContributed By
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"At a recent copyright panel in Toronto, McTeague essentially read out a list of record industry talking points about Canada's supposed status as a pirate nation, characterizing infringement as theft and refusing to acknowledge user rights; saying that Canada's international reputation had been tarnished by its soft copyright laws and, incredibly, proposed that we should pass a law making it illegal to use the Internet to "threaten" Members of Parliament with negative publicity if we don't like their political positions."
There's a very interesting related story involving Dan McTeague, the Liberal MP from Pickering-Scarborough East, @ <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/26/copyright-crazies-ga.html">Copyright crazies gaining steam in Canada</a>
"At a recent copyright panel in Toronto, McTeague essentially read out a list of record industry talking points about Canada's supposed status as a pirate nation, characterizing infringement as theft and refusing to acknowledge user rights; saying that Canada's international reputation had been tarnished by its soft copyright laws
Meet Canada's MP from the District of Disney North. (fixed the HTML for ya, Vive doesn't use bbcode, yet)
and, incredibly, proposed that we should pass a law making it illegal to use the Internet to "threaten" Members of Parliament with negative publicity if we don't like their political positions."
I love the irony there. Now, all he's going to get is negative publicity on the InterTubes. Forever. And, I'm going to fan that fire.
(fixed the HTML for ya, Vive doesn't use bbcode, yet)
You're a fine fellow, Doc! Thanks.
[quote="C.M. Burns":15on9ykn]and, incredibly, proposed that we should pass a law making it illegal to use the Internet to "threaten" Members of Parliament with negative publicity if we don't like their political positions."
I love the irony there. Now, all he's going to get is negative publicity on the InterTubes. Forever. And, I'm going to fan that fire.
<b>Charge!!!!!</b>
Anyway, I googled the title of the press release and google returned one result - pointing right back to McTeague's website. Apparently, nobody - not even the Pickering-Scarborough community website - is interested in his press release, which would have had such a calming effect on Canada.
Damn InterTubes!!!
Dan McTeague, the longtime Liberal MP for Pickering-Scarborough East, is best known for his Private Member's bill on tax-deductible RESPs that caused the government a fair share of heartburn and was ultimately not supported by his own party which did not want to risk an election on the issue. McTeague has been a longtime advocate for many consumer issues, including campaigning against high gas prices and fighting for more consular support for Canadians abroad. Notwithstanding this record, McTeague is rapidly emerging as a vocal voice on another issue - U.S.-style DMCA copyright reform. Indeed, while McTeague may be the Liberal Party's Consumer Affairs critic, he is decidedly anti-consumer when it comes to the issue of copyright.
You can read the rest right here:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2862/125/
Trev, you gotta merge these accounts!!
Crap. Wrong account.
Trev, you gotta merge these accounts!!
Lol, I was just abut to ask you if there were two people with similar account names or if you used both. Guess that answers my question.
[quote="Dr Caleb":2x3hal2k]Crap. Wrong account.
Trev, you gotta merge these accounts!!
Lol, I was just abut to ask you if there were two people with similar account names or if you used both. Guess that answers my question.
Yea, the Vive - CKA merger left me with 2 accounts. Trev will merge them at some point, so I try to keep them only on the respective sites. Sometimes, I mess up on threads that are shared between the two sites.