12.20.10
Canada Spends Taxpayers’ Money Making Apple and Copyrights Stronger
Photo by Kashmera
Summary: Apple’s cultural grip is expended with help from the Canadian government, which ought to reassess its commitment to Canadian sovereignty
Canadian politics have been a stormy turf recently. With the G20 fiasco pretty much revived, Hollywood trying to rewrite copyright law in Canada, and also a tough debate around the Internet, it becomes clear that Techrights will dedicate more time to covering degradation of rights in the largest American nation. “Canada spends tax dollars promoting Apple” claims this famous Canadian blog, stating:
George W. Harper’s weenies are spending God knows how many thousands of tax dollars contributed by hard-pressed Canadians, and blowing how many man-and-women hours on promoting a pure-and-simple Apple commercial product?
This is not entirely shocking, neither is it acceptable because Apple is a proprietary software company from a foreign country. More interestingly, however, should Canadian politicians start charging Apple royalties for free endorsement in phrases like “iPod tax”? How come Canadians use this phrase? Watch the images where Apple brands are being promoted in Canada, going under matching descriptions which name only the hypePod. From Professor Geist:
Earlier today I walked a few blocks from my office to Ottawa’s Rideau Centre to attend a press conference with Industry Minister Tony Clement and Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, who promised an important announcement. The two ministers stood in front of an HMV and a group of students wearing t-shirts with No iPod tax logos on the back to declare that they were firmly set against a massive new tax on technology for all the holiday shoppers in the mall. The Ministers claimed that all three opposition parties supported a tax of up to $75, which (reminiscent of the Dion “tax on everything” campaign) would apply to all technology devices and even cars.
There is more to portable media players than hypePod. And by the way, it is amazing that James Moore is still in the government given the notoriety he earned. Cablegate is guaranteed to shed more light on the outrageous copyright lawmaking in Canada, just as it did in Spain. Only a fraction of the cables was redacted and released thus far. █
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The Mad Hatter said,
December 20, 2010 at 2:03 pm
James Moore is probably a nice guy, but he’s totally out of his depth when talking technical issues. I spent some time trying to educate him, and quite frankly it was like trying to teach General Relativity to a five year old.
He also doesn’t seem to understand culture, and it’s importance.
But the first is the real problem. There is no elected official in Canada who understands the basics of technology. therefore the legislation that is tabled (like Bill C-32) is nonsensical, and unenforceable.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
December 20th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Maybe their lack of knowledge in the area makes them attractive as political candidates (more gullible).
The Mad Hatter Reply:
December 21st, 2010 at 4:23 am
Nope. They are just average people, and average people don’t understand technology. Hell, how many times have you seen a VCR blinking 12:00 (or DVD player, or microwave oven).
Don’t know how many times I’ve been called a genius because I checked the batteries, when everyone else was loosing their minds.