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Canadian SOPA like bill set to become law


key2thecup

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Yeah - that's it...blame the Conservatives....it's not as if the NDP, or any other party wouldn't have done the same....and any party that says they wouldn't have is exactly what we think of the majority of politicians - liars.

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I have been following this Bill for quite some time now. I started a topic a while ago about it, begging people to email their MP. As others have said, this is directly due to the Conservatives and their majority government, and it actually has a fair bit to due with Canada's inclusion in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

As with any political party, the Conservatives have made many backroom dealings. Although we will never know the full extent of these dealings, the US has apparently (according to Michael Geist--listed above--among others) leaned heavily on our government to adopt stricter Internet guidelines/ controls, and has leveraged inclusion in the TPP in an attempt to push this forward. Interestingly enough, the Bill was initially rumoured to be linked to the Keystone XL pipeline, proposed to link Alberta oil with the US (essentially US acceptance of the pipeline would have seen Canada accept SOPA style legislation).

The existence of a majority government in Canada is key, as there has been little to no debate about this in the Commons, with the Conservatives basically pushing it through without hesitation. However, the Bill is a lot less severe than the one posed in the US.

For one thing, there are maximum penalties of $5000 for non-commercial infringement, while in the US, people have been sued for hundreds of thousands for one song or video. The other major victory is that there will be no website blocking as is being done in the EU and Britain right now. We will see if these new laws have any teeth, or whether the government simlpy adopted them to appease the US. As has been the case in the past with our court system, like the EMI music lawsuits in 2005 and 2006, there really isn't much they can do legally about you downloading something, as they still have no way of legally linking a person to an IP address.

Therefore, I suspect that unless you're an idiot, it will still be very difficult for them to catch you. Still, it's troubling, and another reason why I will be voting against Harper come next election.

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