
Wikileaks cables reveal US pressuring Canada on IP enforcement - lotusleaf1987
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/wikileaks-cables-reveal-us-pressuring-canada-on-ip-enforcement.ars
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mcantelon
This is one of many reasons that the majority of Canadians fear a Conservative
majority. Stephen Harper would likely push through a Canadian equivalent of
the DCMA.

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ojbyrne
While "many" is very vague, I think the vast majority of Canadians don't have
a clue about IP, anti-circumvention, DRM or the DMCA (I mostly know this as
I've talked about these topics with non-technical people).

However it is a component of the general feeling that the conservatives are
essentially Republicans-lite, basically using the Republican's "southern
strategy" of media manipulation and fear, anti-crime propaganda, subtle racism
and fear of the "other" to pander to a particular class of voters.

In my opinion (Canadian currently in the US).

~~~
xiaoma
In the US it has traditionally been the Democrats who have had stronger ties
to Hollywood and the recording industry. The DCMA, for example was both signed
and supported by Clinton. At this point, unfortunately, their support is
pretty widespread on both sides of the aisle.

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angus77
I'd be voting against the Conservatives in this election if it weren't for the
fact that my right to vote has been taken away from me since I haven't resided
in Canada for longer than 5 years. So much for "citizenship".
<http://www.letcanadiansvote.com>

Edit: Someone seems to have assumed I'm not Canadian. I am. I've got Loyalists
and Quebecois for ancestors. My family's been in Canada since before there was
a country called Canada. Nor do I have dual citizenship (although my children
do).

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lawnchair_larry
It's funny that people think voting changes things like this, especially when
the issue in question is something that was drafted up by a room full of
lawyers and lobbyists.

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dexen
It should change, and surprisingly it's possible:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2484677>

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elithrar
We have a lot of these issues here in Australia thanks to the Australia-United
States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) [1] — though to be fair, that's not the
only cause.

Thankfully, due to the way statutory damages are legislated here, we haven't
seen the MPAA/RIAA vs. Joe Bloggs cases in our court system. Roadshow Films
(and friends) did try and sue a major ISP, however (and lost) [2].

[1]:
[http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2004/08/03/austral...](http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2004/08/03/australia_welcomes_american_dmca)
[2]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadshow_Films_v_iiNet>

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canadiancreed
Doesn't surprise me they're pressuring. What does surprise me is that we
didn't capitulate the moment they asked. Now that's change I can believe in
while it lasts.

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neuroelectronic
Another obvious conclusion brought to us by Wikileaks. Have any of the leaks
brought us anything productive? It's apparent that they are using information
as a weapon and are only using it to attack the US Government.

Jullian Assange is "obsessed with power"[1] and is using the information
leaking selectively and with very purposeful timing. I'm not surprised that
those in the government are calling for his assassination. What I don't
understand is why the IT press is still painting a neutral to positive picture
of the organization and not demanding that he leak _all_ the information that
he has. What ever happened to the proposed bank leak, presumably about
Citibank?

[1]
[http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/02/09/wikileaks-f...](http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/02/09/wikileaks-
fires-back-at-defector-over-book-claims/)

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gitarr
"Have any of the leaks brought us anything productive?"

How about all the democratic uprisings in the middle east?

All the leaks are pure facts. The truth is always worth being told. Would you
rather live in a dream world that really doesn't exist?

~~~
GHFigs
_The truth is always worth being told._

I count this as a point against Wikileaks as an organization. Would you not
agree they've engaged in a considerable amount of spin? At the very least
don't you think that "Collateral Murder" was not simply a matter of "pure
facts"?

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extension
Collateral Murder was one big unedited video sandwhiched between some
editorializing. There was spin, but the pure facts were not obscured or
omitted.

~~~
count
Interesting, I had read (although I can't find the link offhand) that the
Collateral Murder video was, in fact, edited by Wikileaks.

