PRESS RELEASE: Conservatives Propose Adopting ACTA And No One Says A Word

Fox Creek, AB - December 5

The Combating Counterfeit Products Act (C-56) first introduced last March was re-introduced as Bill C-8 on October 28th. It is now at the committee stage having completed second reading when it was still C-56. The bill would implement the controversial features of ACTA which has failed to be ratified in Europe due to mass protests against it. However, reaction in Canada has been largely muted perhaps due to it receiving very little media coverage. This lack of media coverage may well be due to a narrow focus on the continuing Senate Scandal.

ACTA was originally designed as a treaty to fight the counterfeiting of medicines and safety equipment. But the provisions that would allow random searches of computers and cellphones at the border caused outrage in Europe. Content creators and border patrollers could become the arbitrators of what is and is not infringement, assuming the role best reserved for the courts. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled against arbitrary searches of computer and cellphone content in the case R. v Vu. Normal search warrants of a house were ruled insufficient and a separate warrant is required. The court recognized possible abuses and ruled that these personal devices are “portals to an almost infinite amount of information.” Counterfeiting and infringement are related but very different issues and should not be treated the same.

“Conflating these two issues is troublesome. What’s next? Border guards confiscating my laptop if I decide to visit the US? They have taken the potentially harmful, but relatively small, issue of counterfeit merchandise and lumped it together with the widespread, but mostly harmless, issue of copyright infringement. Once again this government is trying to do too much in a single bill”, says James Wilson, Leader of the Pirate Party of Canada. The Pirate Party opposes tying Canadian Law to a treaty roundly rejected by most modern industrialized nations and calls on the government to reconsider. We also call on the Liberal Party to reconsider their stance which goes further than the Conservatives by proposing statutory damages with a mandatory minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $100,000 in liability. Luckily the Liberal amendment proposing this was defeated in committee but it is disappointing to have seen it proposed at all.

The Pirate Party of Canada is a federal political party focused on thoughtful information policy reform, genuine democracy, civil liberties, and the freedom of the Internet. You can find out more online at www.pirateparty.ca .

Category: Copyright, Intellectual Monopoly, International Agreements, Legislation, Newsroom, Privacy.
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>>>Pourquoi le Parti Pirate?<<<

Why Pirate Party?

1. Open Democracy

One of our main founding principles was Open Government. This means an Open Data policy with proactive disclosure and free access to government data. This will allow anyone to scrutinize and catch any error, negligence or corruption early on. Open Government also means increased transparency, and giving constituents real voices. This can be achieved with electoral reform .

2. Mincome / Basic Income Guarantee (B.I.G.)

Unemployment and income inequality is on the rise and we risk a breakdown of social cohesion without a system for resource distribution as we face increased automation. We're shifting from a bureaucratic culture of constant work-demands to a culture of passion, joy, and learning for the sake of learning.

Mincome will lead to cost savings and create a sustainable economy. See our press release for how that can be achieved.

3. Autonomy and Decentralization

We believe that the world works best when individuals are making informed decisions. It is our goal to get all information to all people, so they may be more informed voters, consumers, participants, and teachers. We do not need to force information culture & the hacker ethic onto people we can simply allow them to choose access. We believe the right to choose our identity, name, and appearance is inalienable.

4. Copyright and Patent Reform
Copyright and patent's main purpose was for propagation of culture and innovation. Our current copyright and patent laws are continuously being corrupted due to lobbying by copyright and patent monopolist. These monopolist refuses to innovate and provide wider access and pass on the savings from the new lower distribution cost. Instead the copyright and patent terms keeps getting extended to benefit the few to the detriment of the public interest. The opposite should happen. Copyright and patent terms should be shortened since our new information infrastructure (i.e. the internet) have brought us cheaper and faster means of distributing media contents and information. Mandatory licensing, owner's rights to a non-DRM product, open access to research data and shorter copyright term are some of the natural changes that is needed if we want to create a more open and progressive society. This will ensure future artist and innovator are not hampered by patent and copyright gatekeepers who uses rent seeking law for anti-competitive purposes.

Human beings increasingly have a moral duty to share information with one another. Libraries are stuck in the last century, enforcing artificial scarcity on digital content. If libraries were upgraded for the modern age, we would no longer need filesharing. And let's face it, watching and listening to whatever you want to is fun. It breaks down arbitrary global borders of access and creates a global culture defined by people- not by corporations.

At the Pirate Party- we believe more information leads to better decisions. We believe that more voices leads to better compromises. We believe in Canadians.

Our democracy need a serious upgrade and Pirate Party aims to change politics to the way it should be.

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