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"Let's Stand Up to Big Brother"

By Michael Geist

The Vancouver Province ran a masthead editorial yesterday calling for action against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The paper calls on Canadians to "act now before it's too late", noting that:

One of the joys of living in the Internet age is the personal freedom it offers people to enjoy the amazing amount of information now available through everything from computer laptops to cellphones and other electronic devices. But now it seems that freedom is about to end. Ottawa is worried about "pirates" purloining copyright material from artists, inventors and investors. As The Province reported yesterday, the government is secretly negotiating a global pact on copyright infringement that could force Internet service providers to hand over customer information without a court order.

The media interest in ACTA follows the earlier editorials from leading papers such as the National Post on copyright.  Earlier this year, the paper warned that "for Canada to introduce DMCA-style legislation now would do nothing but encourage nuisance lawsuits", adding that:

It would be a shame if full WIPO compliance had to wait while the government reconsidered the implications of a new technological environment and a newly IP-aware public. But it would be a bigger shame if Mr. Prentice needlessly made political enemies of technology consumers and imperiled a Conservative government's electability for the sake of fast action.

Full post as published by Michael Geist on May 28, 2008 (boomark / email).