[p2p-research] Asking Citizens What They Want Out Of Copyright Law Is Really Just A 'Tactic...

[Kevin Carson]

  Sent to you by Kevin Carson via Google Reader: Asking Citizens What
They Want Out Of Copyright Law Is Really Just A 'Tactic To Confuse'?
via Techdirt by Mike Masnick on 1/18/10
One of the more stunning realities that has become clear in watching
the entertainment industry, as it responds to people who are actually
impacted by ever more draconian copyright laws, is the fact that the
industry doesn't view other positions as worth hearing at all. To the
industry, copyright law has one purpose and one purpose only: to
protect the big players in the content making business. Everyone else
is secondary. Unfortunately, those big industry players have powerful
lobbyists. That's why it was so nice to see Canada at least hold an
open process to hear from the public. Of course, we were skeptical if
those voices would really be heard, and stories about the industry
itself stacking the deck at public gatherings did not bode well.

Separately, with so much pressure coming from other countries, we
wondered if Canada would be able to resist implementing ever more
draconian copyright laws, which would be a serious drain on the
Canadian economy. So far they have resisted, but the pressure from
outside continues to be fierce. We recently noted that US lobbyists and
lawyers were insisting that Canada needed to be dragged into the 21st
century, and now European trade negotiators are pushing hard on Canada
to change its copyright laws despite no actual evidence of any problem
with existing laws.

But what's most troubling of all is that these trade reps don't seem to
care at all what Canadian citizens had to say. Despite receiving
thousands of well-argued, well-thought-out statements concerning
Canadian copyright law, EU trade negotiators are dismissing the whole
process as "a tactic to confuse." To confuse who? About what? Holding
an open discussion with citizens, rather than just backroom deals to
protect a small group of companies? I'd argue that's the very opposite
of a tactic to confuse, but rather it's a tactic to enlighten.

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