Update, February 9
“… lobbyists are turning to Canada through legislation like Bill C-11 and trade agreements called ACTA2 and TPP3 …. behind-the-scenes, Big Media is pushing for powers that include website blocking, Internet termination for people that threaten their business interests, digital locks, and huge threats for sites that host user-generated content (like YouTube).”
This, definitively, is why Canadians should care about attempts to control the Internet. Imagine what the powers explained more fully here, in the hands of corporate overlords, would do to the freedoms Canadians hold dear.
Please help by signing the petition at the link above.
UPDATE (January 20)
Following mass protests on Wednesday that included blackouts of popular websites like Wikipedia and Reddit, U.S. lawmakers halted the SOPA/PIPA bills on Friday. The Financial Post reports that
Support for the two bills has eroded over the past 48 hours after some of the world’s largest Web companies came out against the bills, claiming the legislation could threaten the business models of legitimate Web-based companies.
Does the outcry drive a stake through the heart of these bills? Mashable reports that they may not be quite dead yet.
“SOPA and PIPA are dead, but only in the way a zombie is dead.” The takeaway being that they will inevitably be re-written and reintroduced after the furor has died down.
Today, major websites, like  WordPress,Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, and BoingBoing, will go dark to protest against two US. bills—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA)—which attempt to enforce intellectual property rights with a very broad set of provisions opponents fear would stifle online innovation.
This is U.S. legislation, right? So why should Canucks care?
As Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, has explained (though you’ll have to wait a day to read his blog; he’s also shutting down today in protest) trade ties, in particular the Trans Pacific Partnership, and the digital lock rules in our own Bill C-11, make it inevitable that Canada will be affected by these developments.
To voice your concerns, email consultations@international.gc.ca. Or fax (613-944-3489)
Snailmail: (Trade Negotiations Consultations (TPP), Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Trade Policy and Negotiations Division II (TPW), Lester B. Pearson Building, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2).
U.S. Readers can lobby via Stop American Censorship
Protest SOPA
Google: End Piracy, Not Liberty
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I’m tired of certain governments believing they can police the internet…What’s worse is our very own ‘lovely’ government is going the ridiculous route the American government has gone.
Although I’m not a fan of Rogers Cable, they have at least fought industry and courts to protect customers IP addresses. My ISP (Cogeco) use to, but caved with that whole “Hurt Locker incident”.
I hadn’t heard about the “Hurt Locker incident,” but I see Michael Geist talks about it. You can read his take … when his site returns from the blackout protest. 🙂
For those who can’t wait, the short story, according to a quick recce of the Internet still up and running, is this:
Voltage Pictures LLC, the studio behind The Hurt Locker, is suing almost 25,000 BitTorrent users who allegedly illegally downloaded the film.
The company extended its claim to Canada by filing an order in Montréal, Québec, last August, for the mass release of IP addresses.
These kinds of claims have been recognized in the States as “copyright trolling,” dangerous for the broad dragnet they apply.
It seems that some companies in Canada, including Bell Canada, Cogeco Câble inc. and Vidéotron s.e.n.c. did nothing to defend against the intrusion.
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