Official Ares Free Download

p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- “Canada has earned a dubious distinction as a world hub for illegitimate file-sharing websites and a leader in Internet piracy,” writes Barrie McKenna in the Golbe & Nail.

Actually, it hasn’t ‘earned’ anything of the sort.

The allegation follows relentless junque-posts in the mainstream media planted there by hard-core corporate music lobbyists such as Barry Sookman (right), quoted in McKenna’s piece as though he (Sookman or McKenna, take your choice) is a credible and reliable source of information.

Another lobby outfit with blatantly vested interests and which loses no opportunity to tear into Canada is the IIPA.

“Canada’s chronic failure to modernize its copyright regime has made it a global hub for bootleg movies, pirated software and tiny microchips that allow video-game users to bypass copyright protections, the International Intellectual Property Alliance complains in a submission to the U.S. government,” said an earlier Gloat & Flail shock horror story written by, you guessed it, Barrie McKenna.

The industry, “paints a grim picture of Canada as a country where copyright pirates operate with impunity because of lax laws, poor enforcement and a laissez-faire attitude,” it said, also saying:

“The time has come for the United States to send a stern warning to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, which has failed to deliver on a promised overhaul of copyright laws and a policing crackdown, said the Washington-based group that represents companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Paramount Pictures.”

Now, “Canada is viewed as a pirate haven,”  the latest G&M entertainment cartel disinformation piece has Sookman, “who has done work for the Canadian recording industry,” saying.

There’s no such thing as the Canadian recording industry. There’s only Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but controlled by a Canadian).

And Sookman acts for them via their CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America), a clone of the infamous RIAA.

At the beginning of the year, the CRIA led the way with lobbying activities, said Michael Geist »»»

• January 9, 2009 – Barry Sookman meeting with Tanya Peat, policy advisor to Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Zoe Addington, policy advisor to Industry Minister Tony Clement
• January 9, 2009 – David Dyer meeting with Zoe Addington
• January 9, 2009 – David Dyer meeting with Tanya Peat
• January 23, 2009 – David Dyer meeting with Tanya Peat

“Earlier this year, the Obama administration put Canada on its blacklist of shame — a ‘priority watch list’of intellectual property laggards, joining the likes of China, Russia and Venezuela,” says McKenna, going on —-

—- and on

—- and on.

“Now, the Harper government is at it again,” he says, adding:

“It recently completed a national consultation, garnering responses from nearly 5,000 individuals and groups. Industry Minister Tony Clement wants a bill by December.”

But, “Experts are dubious because so many earlier efforts failed.”

Experts?

“Canada has made itself a victim of this,” said Eric Schwartz, who’s presumably among them.

He was speaking at a, “recent forum in Washington, organized by the Woodrow Wilson International Center’s Canada Institute In which he states Canada, “has allowed the business to get established and opposition to grow.”

Is that Eric Schwartz the cartoonist? Eric Schwartz the singer/songwriter? Eric Schwartz the comedian?

The Globe & Mail item doesn’t say.

No need to stay tuned.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Golbe & Nail – The (legal) music fades out for Canadians, October 20, 2009
blatantly vested interests – Canada ‘top copyright pirate’ says US, May 1, 2009
Gloat & Flail – Canada arouses corporate ire, February 15, 2009

Related Articles

 Enjoyed this? Subscribe to the feed.