Lies My Government Told Me

I live in a country where elected officials in Canada making blatant, disrespectful statements toward a sizeable portion of their constituents:

Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore delivering a keynote address at a conference sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce's IP Council :



Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, asks: Who are these radical extremists?

So when Moore warns about radical extremists opposing C-32, who is he speaking of? Who has criticized parts of the bill or called for reforms? A short list of those critical of the digital lock provisions in C-32 would include:

• Liberal MPs


• NDP MPs


• Bloc MPs


• Green Party


• Canadian Consumer Initiative


• Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada


• Canadian Association of University Teachers


• Canadian Federation of Students


• Canadian Library Association


• Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright


• Retail Council of Canada


• Canadian Bookseller Association


• Documentary Organization of Canada

Of course, criticism of C-32 is not limited to the digital lock provisions with groups such as ACTRA, Writers' Union, Access Copyright, and the Canadian Conference of the Arts among those criticizing fair dealing or other elements of the bill. Moreover, at the event Moore was speaking at, an entertainment industry representative from Vivendi criticized the notice-and-notice approach in C-32.

In other words, all opposition parties, consumers, universities, teachers, students, business, and many creator groups are all seeking changes to C-32. Does Moore really believe that they are all radical extremists? Who is he referring to?

Micheal Geist left me off the list. I'm one of the many private citizens who "took part" in the government sponsored "discussion" about IP and changes to the law. The government solicited my views, then promptly threw them away. The whole "public consultation" was a dog-and-pony show to pretend that the government was open to input. It had no interest in my input and did nothing with it other than turn around and throw it away.

I took time to spell out where I stood. I am for property rights, but constrained to reward the originator with a reasonable reward for the invention without giving license to big corporations to rape and plunder the public for decades and centuries. I argued for reasonable use of intellectual property to allow civil society to freely talk about its cultural assets. Not to allow piracy, but to allow "fair use". A concept that James Moore deems "radical" and "unreasonable".

Here is one of my favourite examples of corporate bullying over "intellectual property rights". I've added bold at key points...

McDonald's corporation sued a restaurant in Scotland. From a watchdog organization, McSpotlight:

1996: McDonald's threatened the owner of a UK sandwich bar called "McMunchies" with legal action for breach of trademark. A retired Scottish school-teacher called Ronald McDonald, and the chief of the McDonald clan in Scotland were both outraged at this further attempt by McDonald's to claim global dominion over the prefix "Mc" and the name "McDonald" which has been an Irish and Scottish family name for centuries.

This incident is reported in Wikipedia as:

In 1996, McDonald's forced Scottish sandwich shop owner Mary Blair of Fenny Stratford, Buckinghamshire to drop McMunchies as her trading name. Mrs. Blair did not sell burgers or chips. She said she chose the name because she liked the word munchies and wanted the cafe to have a Scottish feel. The cafe's sign reflected this, featuring a Scottish thistle and a St Andrew's flag. But in a statement to Mrs. Blair's solicitors, McDonald's said if someone used the Mc prefix, even unintentionally, they were using something that does not belong to them.

This kind of bullying is what James Moore means by "reasonable" ownership rights. You can push around small Mom & Pop stores that are not treading on your rights except in the minds of lawyer. You can dispossess generations of the McDonalds clan by usurping their name if you have the money and the lawyer and know how to play the "intellectual property" game. Shame!