

Leaks show U.S. swayed Canada on copyright bill - comatose_kid
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1048993--leaks-show-u-s-swayed-canada-on-copyright-bill?bn=1

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cperciva
The leaks supposedly show Canada bending over backwards to satisfy the US
desire for harsher copyright laws... but I think the US was very neatly
played. The Canadian government said basically "please write our copyright
bill for us and we'll introduce it into parliament" -- and then watched as
that bill never went anywhere, because no sane politician supported it. Then
Canadian diplomats went back to their US counterparts and said "gee, sorry, we
couldn't get that bill passed... you know what it's like when opposition
parties control the parliament".

Net outcome? Canada gets brownie points for cooperating with the US, _even
though they didn't do anything_.

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9oliYQjP
I disagree. The only reason the bill didn't pass is because the Conservatives
had a minority government. Every time the bill was introduced, the government
was forced into an election. That meant the bill died. It's been re-introduced
over and over again in various forms. The Conservatives now have a majority
government for up to 5 years. They can introduce any bill they want and force
it through. Copyright is not big enough of a topic for _enough_ people to get
worked up over at elections for it to matter.

I wish our politicians were that conniving. They're not. The Harper government
really does want to appease the U.S. government.

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icegreentea
Yeah. New copyright bills have been put on the table a bunch of times in the
last few years (C-60 in 06, C-61 in 08, and C-32 last year). Every single one
of them just got pushed aside as governments dissolves/elections declared or
whatever. They've never been put up for a vote, and frankly, I'm scared of
what would happen if they ever did go up for votes.

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tatsuke95
As a Canadian, this is disappointing, but not entirely surprising.

And although I can't say that I agree with "Wikileaks the brand" and how
they've gone about dealing with actors, issues and accomplices, it's a service
that they've obtained and released information like this. Thanks to them, I
can peel a layer off my tinfoil hat.

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darylteo
And Australia (AFACT vs iiNET)

And New Zealand (new Copyright Bill)

And probably many other countries.

