Anti-Piracy Groups Push Canada into Adopting Anti-Piracy Measures Similar To SOPA and ACTA

June 13, 2012 by
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues 

Since 2005 Canadians have struggled to keep their copyright laws clean from foreign influences, but now those forces are once again trying to meddle with the Canadian copyright laws.

As such, the Canadian Intellectual Property lead lobby group – read the Canadian IP Council representing the interests of music, movie, software and pharmaceutical companies – has released a new policy document to establish the legislative priorities for the following period of time.

So, for those of you who hoped that SOPA and ACTA were dead and buried think again. It’s not like the Canadian government is going to apply the exact rules established by the two aforementioned acts, but they’re considering the alternative – implementing rules similar to SOPA and ACTA. That includes blocking websites, massive surveillance, and everything that sounds good for the industries.

The Canadian recommendations include:

- The introduction of a Canadian version of SOPA
- ACTA implementation
- New searches power with no court permission
- Criminalization of Intellectual Property
- Massive Increase in public spending creating an IP enforcement subsidy

Although massive boycotts took place against both the ACTA and SOPA around Europe and respectively the U.S. – eventually managing to convince lawmakers and lobbyists to drop their support, major corporate lobbyists did not bother to change this tactic or at least take into consideration people’s opinion.

Instead they’re still trying to push such bills with the hope that they’ll eventually be accepted.

If the aforementioned recommendations somehow are going to be implemented, Canada is going to have one of the most aggressive and oppressive regimes in the world regarding file-sharing.

What’s slightly amusing and pretty much absurd at the same time is that demands on investing into a copyright police force were made, given that fact that a UN envoy pointed out that some Canadians are unable to afford food in certain regions (http://goo.gl/oR6EB).
Stay tuned for more news about this development.

Tags: , , , , ,