The ACTA negotiations I noted in my previous post have been noticed by the traditional media and the story doesn't sound any better the way they tell it. This is from the Ottawa Citizen:
Canadian officials are taking part in negotiations for a top-secret copyright treaty that could see families barred from the Internet for a year if someone in the household is suspected of illegal downloads.
Under the worldwide rules of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Internet service providers such as Bell and Rogers in Canada would be required to become copyright police and filter out pirated material from their networks, hand over the identities of customers believed to be infringing copyrights and restrict the use of identity-blocking software.
There's more. For those of you who have closely followed intellectual property laws in the U.S., this will probably tell you what you need to know:
The treaty, which is being pushed forward by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, closely mimics the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that governs copyright issues in the U.S.While the lede mentions Canadian officials, it doesn't tell us what side of the issue they're on. The article also notes that public consultations currently underway as a prelude to new copyright legislation here in Canada would become largely moot if the agreement as outlined above came into effect. And note this as well:
Federal trade agreements do not require parliamentary approval. Only the signature of a government representative is needed for an agreement to be passed as law.
We've certainly seen enough of these Conservatives to know that they would have no hesitation at all in ignoring parliament and legislating by treaty if it suits them. I think we have a problem brewing. Negotiations resume early next year.
H/t to Michael Geist who also provided a link to the relevent chapter of the draft treaty in pdf format.
Gotta love all the reverse onus in this thing. You have to prove that anything on your IPod or computer isn't pirated, or a number of penalties apply.
This is legislation from hell, except that it isn't even legislation--no Parliamentary approval is needed. We need some legislation to cover this gap, whereby the PM can effectively sign (secret) treaties with other governments all on his own, unchecked.