Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Speaking of...

Anybody hoping for a rational copyright system who lives in Parkdale-High Park should vote against Sam Bulte. Why? Michael Geist explains:
In May 2004, the Canadian Heritage Standing Committee released what is now widely described as the "Bulte Report", a remarkably one-sided report on the future of Canadian copyright. The report addressed WIPO, ISP, and education issues, siding in every instance with the views of rights holders such as the Canadian Recording Industry Association....

Fast forward to the current election campaign and it is clear that Ms. Bulte remains closely aligned with those same rights holder organizations. Her website lists a number of campaign events, the most interesting of which is a $250.00 per person fundraiser on January 19th featuring Cowboy Junkies singer (and CRIA President Graham Henderson partner) Margo Timmins....

Within the boundaries of the Election Act, MPs are of course free to fundraise any way they like and individual Canadians are free to contribute to those same MPs. However, with the public's cynicism about elected officials at an all-time high and Canadians increasingly frustrated by a copyright policy process that is seemingly solely about satisfying rights holder demands, is it possible to send a worse signal about the impartiality of the copyright reform process? At $250.00 a person, I have my doubts that many of the artists that Ms. Bulte claims to represent will be present. Instead, it will lobbyists and lobby groups, eagerly handing over their money with the expectation that the real value of the evening will come long after Margo Timmins has finished her set.
Here's one more seat where I hope the Liberals lose. Frankly, given how obviously bought Bulte is, even a Tory will be preferable.

1 comment:

Russell McOrmond said...

It has been great to finally see people noticing the close ties that some of these extremists have. I've been Blogging about Sam Bulte on the Parkdale--High Park section of Digital Copyright Canada for a while now.

She still falsely claims to represent creators, when in fact she only represents the largely foreign monopolistic intermediary industry groups. Excessive control by these groups is a far greater threat to Canadian creativity than copyright infringement, as important as copyright is.