The whole report is a must-read, untangling the web of circular references -- one organization creates a push poll, a second one inflates its results, and a third points to the second as evidence of a consenus -- and sleazy manipulation that is used to cook the books on copyright in Canada.
Unravelling the Canadian Copyright Policy Laundering Strategy
Although there are many groups involved in copyright lobbying, at the heart of the strategy are two organizations - the Canadian Recording Industry Association and the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association. CRIA's board is made up the four major music labels plus its director, while the CMPDA's board is comprised of representatives of the Hollywood movie studios. Those same studios and music labels provide support for the International Intellectual Property Association, which influences Canadian copyright policy by supporting U.S. government copyright lobby efforts.In addition to their active individual lobbying (described here), CRIA and CMPDA have provided financial support for three associations newly active on copyright lobbying - the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's IP Council, and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (there are other funders including pharmaceutical companies and law firms). Those groups have issued virtually identical reports and in turn supported seemingly independent sources such as the Conference Board of Canada and paid polling efforts through Environics.
The net effect has been a steady stream of reports that all say basically the same thing, cite to the same sources, make the same recommendations, and often rely on each other to substantiate the manufactured consensus on copyright reform.
RSS Feed
Don't worry, the Canadian Copyright rules aren't strict enough for NBC.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8565132
@ #1
That's actually a pretty interesting article: It's *almost* as though they *sort of* get that it's in their own best interests to out-compete piracy rather than playing whack-a-mole & neglecting their "customers".
Having said that, I'd bet dollars to fucking donuts that NBC puts everything on sites that don't work in Canada.
All of this, plus using copyright to shut up your critics, was pioneered by sundry totalitarian religious groups (known to the tabloid press as "cults") such as Scientology. For example, you can go to any well stocked reference library and make two stacks of books: one of books saying that such groups are totally harmless and that all criticism of them is persecution; another of books saying other things. The books in the first groups are by sundry scholars and think tanks. They're all published by the same, Moonie owned, publishing company and only contain footnotes pointing to each other and not the more critical books.
As a Canadian who loves Canadian media, but understands those who prefer Americana, I say this:
Never mind piracy of American media, why can't I buy Canadian media (at any price!) ???
Canadians like Europeans generally, but why should Euro or American media get 'protection' while local media doesn't even get distribution?
If it weren't for weirdo Quebecois department stores, I wouldn't be able to *find*, much less purchase, Canadian media at all.
BTW, Cory, would you be interested in any of my Canadiana DVD collection? I have Vonnegut's Monkey House ($2 at Giant Tiger) and much more!