Canada prof calls US piracy report reliability into question

by Ben Gilbert on May 3rd 2009 11:30AM

In case you hadn't noticed, Canada was recently added to the US "Priority Watch List" due to the country's allegedly less than strict laws regarding the piracy of various media (that includes games, folks). Canadians, however, are not taking the change lightly. University of Ottawa law professor MIchael Geist, citing a statement made by the Canadian government, says the process, "lacks reliable and objective analysis."

The piece states that the criteria for determining who ends up on the list (and that country's priority level) is based around media industry lobbyists in the US, such as the International Intellectual Property Alliance. Geist hopes that Canadian politicians will take a stance against the inclusion on the list, though the recent ESA schmoozing of Canadian lawmakers may scatter those hopes a bit. Given Canadian member of Parliament Mike Lake's statements made less than two weeks ago though, we should see some serious change in Canadian piracy law, "in this Parliament." That is, if he can take a time out from playing NHL '09.

[Via GamePolitics]

Source

Tags: canada, esa, gamepolitics, iipa, international-intellectual-propery-alliance, michael-geist, mike-park, piracy, priority-watch-list, university-of-ottawa

Reader Comments (61)

Haha....oh I love being Canadian.

The fricken moose here up north are really starting to piss me off. I woke up this morning and one of them thought it would be funny to take a crap right outside the entry to my igloo. Then I go to hope onto my dogsled and another one runs up and kicks me in the face. They are taking over!!!

Don't joke, Brodo. The Joystiq Canadian Mafia will downvote your comment so much that no one will ever be able to read it!

Please explain how Canada is irrelevant.

I take offence of such an idea. We may not be as important as the United States of America, but that does not make Canada irrelevant.

Alright, let's get couple of things straight before we get all indignant and incensed. First of all, Canada is barely a country. I mean, if you consider 4,000,000 moose and about 1,200 people a country then, by all means, it counts. As for the rest of us, Canada is just the place where we've managed to focus all of the world's coldest and shittiest weather using the latest advances in Mode 7 technology. Take that, Nature! Second of all, Canada doesn't have any lawmakers and, therefore, no laws. The closest they come are those mounties and most of them are still in Hollywood lobbying to get that show Due South back on the air. So, yeah. And third of all, parliament? If you call a bunch of dudes in bowler hats getting shit-faced on Friday night and eating Samoa girl scout cookies a parliament then my friends and I have a session of parliament every other week. Sorry Canada, but you're lucky we don't go all preemptive on your ass. Don't push it.

Do it. Go "preemptive" on our ass. Our societies are so similar more or less nothing would change. Besides, though, the world likes us, unlike you. Keep dragging our economy down the tubes with yours, bastards. :(

I hate patriotism.

Your the type of American that everyone in the whole world hates. How does that feel?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red

also, its not our fault your whole country invested their money in Maple Syrup futures.

"If you call a bunch of dudes in bowler hats getting shit-faced on Friday night and eating Samoa girl scout cookies a parliament then my friends and I have a session of parliament every other week"

Atleast that gives your comment some perspective...

shove the bullshit right back up ur ass

If moose out populates us 3333 1/3:1 how come i have never seen one.

Whoa, so angry over nothing. If the Mode 7 and Due South references didn't give it away that I wasn't in the least bit serious, I don't know what could have. Can you guys go back to sleep and wake up with a sense of humor?

hey mud, we elected Obama, we're cool now. Strange Australian people gave my sister a hug in Australia when they heard her american accent

I'm sorry, can I see a show of hands from people that were dumb enough to believe that my first post was serious?

0/10

Unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful.

Look, I hate to be "that guy", but I gotta derail this thread for a sec.

I found a BRAND SPANKIN NEW copy of The World Ends With You at GameStop (Dun dun dunnnnnnnn) for $20. I know its probably the bestest deal evar, but they also have FF IV for $30, Fire Emblem for $30, Civ Revolution for $13, and Disgaea DS for $30. My request is simple, that the Joystiq Hive Mind give me advice on which to choose. Please?

Michas,
If I'm trolling then I must be successful because I got you and almost everyone else here to comment.

Moptimus,
Go buy TWEWY right now! Can you buy more than one? Because pick up Fire Emblem, also.

Uhm. . . what the hell just happened?

michas, I would say 6/10. Lots of people were trolled successfully, but he then apologized, how lame

This just happened
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QyYaPWasos

WRE:

If I rush home to get some trade ins (good bye FallOut 3, you were not meant for this world) I should have enough. To be honest though, If I get 2, I'd probably take my PC crack addiction on the road and get Civ Rev.

Inect,
That video was AWESOME!

I'm american, and patriotic, but I heart Canadians! and canada, it's purdy

oh and i love canada because this wolverine quote: "Logan, your country needs you!"...."I'm canadian" OWNED

Jesus christ, REALLY?!?

What's funny about this is sooo many people are up their own ass about their countries and bash the hell out of America. Take this SAME rant, talk about thugs, and drugs, and rednecks and 97% of Americans would laugh their ass off about it.

It's amazing how a rant referencing Mode 7 (look up your SNES history, YO!) would somehow be taken seriously. That somehow this rant meant anything serious is hilarious to me.

What happened to the days when Canadians could not only take a joke like this, but more often than not told the better one in the same vein. Have the days of Kids in the Hall and Jim Carrey really gone that far away? Is Canada now so filled with angry bitter people that anything like this is an attack instead of heavy sarcasm? Do I really need to end my post with a Groucho Marx quote?

"Funny thing about people who can't laugh at themselves. They're the biggest jokes of all."

Thanks, Sheppy!

Sorry to burst your bubble moptimus, but I got a brand spanking new PAL (more expensive) copy for AU$33.80 (including shipping), which is about US$20 just before Christmas last year. And it's legit; it came with the full manual and red strip and all and I've even checked it on a DSi.

That being said, get TWEWY NOW!!!!!!!!! It is easily the best game on DS, and I got pretty much every good game except Henry Hatsworth. Plus the other deals aren't that great, I saw FFIV for AU$30 in January at EB...

God, I've beaten TWEWY 3 times now, and I've only stopped playing it twice: once when my DS was confiscated by my parents, and now a second time because my DS is bricked (epic fail attempt at replacing touch screen).

Get TWEWY,
~Esposch

"Your the type of American that everyone in the whole world hates. How does that feel?"

Really? That's all you've got? Oh no! The world hates me...until they need help. I just have a hard time caring whether or not the world likes me because of my nationality. Don't they have bigger problems to worry about than whether or not they like America from one moment to the next? Don't get me wrong, it's a brilliant PR strategy: Does your country suck? Don't fix it, hate America instead! So to answer your question I guess I just don't feel anything with regard to your statement.

P.S.
Please learn the difference between "your" and "you're". Wait, I'm sorry, they have schools in your country, right?

Hate to tell you this but The U.S. has one of the worst educations systems of all the 1 st countries. And if you were so smart you would know that i made that post in less then 5 second sorry i didn't prof read for spelling mistakes because it doesn't matter to me.

And what happened to you being sarcastic above, you obviously weren't there.

wait, so to qualify as smarrt, WRE has to travel to your house and time how long it takes you to post a comment?

I'm sorry, how could I possibly know that you made your post in less than 5 seconds? And I'm not being sarcastic here because I think that someone telling me that the world hates me is idiotic. Don't you know? It's lonely at the top. Is it okay for me, as an American, to hate Koreans? No. Well, can I hate Germans? No. What about Mexicans? No. But it's cool for the whole world to hate me because of where I live? Yes. Double standard FTW!

Yep pretty much he also has to understand that people can't read sarcasm.

I never said i hated Americans i said i hated Americans like you. When you make fun of a culture because you think that the way you live is the only way to live you make yourself look bad. It not double standards if you don't follow the standards to begin with. Let me guess you have never been to a country other then the usa and never experienced any other culture.

I was watching Family feud the other day, was home at like 12 there nothing on at that time. And the topic was what are the top four glamorous cities in the world. They were in this order voted by Americans:
Paris
Vegas
NY
LA

I don't know when modern cites became glamorous but Rome, Jerusalem and many other cites look much nicer then those three American cities.

Wrong, Inect. I lived in Mexico for 2 years and loved every minute of it. Because of that experience I'm also fluent in Spanish. And if you're defining a city by the word "glamor", then I don't think Jerusalem can be a consideration, Rome, though, for sure. And you can say that Americans don't experience culture other than their own, but you've clearly never lived in California. I forget, how many different kinds of white people live in Canada? Just one? Really...

You act as though if you asked a bunch of Italians they wouldn't name cities in Italy, the French wouldn't name cities in France, etc.

Hmm. . . . Well, much as I don't want to drag myself into this, I have to say:

"I never said i hated Americans i said i hated Americans like you. When you make fun of a culture because you think that the way you live is the only way to live"

You seem to hate PEOPLE like him, that he's American doesn't really have anything to do with it. Every country has its fair share of idiots.

And of the four cities you mentioned, I've only ever been to New York, and it's a travel destination just like any other famous city. It has sights and all that, in many people's opinion it may not be the most glomorous city, but I see no reason why it couldn't be glamorous to some other people. Yes, I'm surprised Rome wasn't higher on the list, but I don't think you can really condemn anyone based on that. I don't know how they were defining glamorous, but it's a very subjective matter. You can't really judge to whole of American culture from one episode of Family Feud. . . .

@ Moptimus Slime
Me and WRE were having a healthy argument were did you come from.

Any ways I'm going to end this it was a nice distraction from my essay but i should get back to that. Especially since i failed at predicting the type of person he is. Anyways have a nice day.

Sorry dude, I live in Naples, Been to rome, they don't have shit on any town in the US

DAMN YOU MOPTIMUS!!!

Oh and Paris is great until you realize it's full of Parisians.

I studied abroad/lived in Florence, and while Rome was fun it almost reminded me of Disneyland in a way; full of attractions. Never got down to Napoli.

When I went back a year ago I shacked up in an apartment in Lucca for a cuppla weeks, and didn't travel around too much.

I had to bite my tongue so hard to not join in on this conversation that it has been severed entirely from my mouth. I will say this, I wasn't aware the bottom third of English students who were denied higher education and forced into what I'd consider boarding schools were required to write essays.

3/4ths that is heh, not third.

wow anti making fun of someones education and intelligence. How creative, thank God you got that higher education.

ironic trolling was ironic

damn, that seems out of context:

inects post making fun of anticrawl for insulting his intelligence is ironic since he then goes on to insult anticrawls intelligence

Thus, Ironic troll is ironic

Inect reminds me of one of those douchey Canadians, who when confronted with the reality of how irrelevant their country really is, has to resort to saying shit like "you guys don't even have free health care!"

I don't know what they plan on doing to get off the list, other than making stricter laws, but then, that's exactly the point of putting a country on the list in the first place, isn't it? To get them to be stricter on pirates, in which case it's not really "taking a stance against" anything.

I also don't get the complaint that the criteria for inclusion isn't objective enough. I it might be unfair, I don't really know, but when determinging something such as how likely there are to be active pirates in a country, there can't be much quanitiable information anyway, and thus any such analysis would be inherently subjective. Unless I'm completely mistaken.

I'd make a comment on this if I could, but I'm putting the reliability of my own opinion into question. Reason being I'm playing NHL 09 right now, and... aw shit, my opponent scored, I really got to go.

Every time I see that pirate pic I laugh, because it was taken out in front of a bar here in Sarasota, Florida called The Gator Club where I used to get crazy drunk on a very regular basis. I never wore a pirate outfit there, but every so often we regulars wore kilts and drank single malt scotch 'til we were blind.

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Canada prof calls US piracy report reliability into question

Reader Comments (61)

Posted: May 3rd 2009 11:50AM xHaldirx said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:02PM Brodo said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 7:26PM Hedgeson said

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Posted: May 3rd 2009 11:55AM xHaldirx said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 11:57AM Ignatius said

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Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:05PM manyquestions said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:12PM south said

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Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:31PM The Kong said

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Posted: May 3rd 2009 3:16PM SheppyReturns said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 6:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 4th 2009 7:59AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 12:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:02PM Inect said

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Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:11PM Inect said

Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:27PM Inect said

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Posted: May 3rd 2009 1:55PM MarkezJM said

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