Canadian Royal Mounties Want to Mount Your Drives
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a copyright protection agreement between the United States, some European Union countries, and now Canada. They already have a pretty random law up in the great white north that allows them to randomly search devices to find files that infringe on copyright laws.
The new plan would allow the border agents to check any device (including cell phones) that they felt like checking.
The agreement says that “the security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that ‘infringes’ on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies.” Even worse is that the government officials would be the ones who determine what infringes copyright. Scary!
If a device has content that violates copyright law, the device itself could even be destroyed.
Additionally, the agreement would change the way that ISPs deal with copyright holders. Currently in Canada, copyright holders must have some evidence that a person is using their ISP service to distribute illegal content. The new plan is to allow copyright holders to force ISPs to hand over personal information of users regardless of proof. You thought it was bad when the RIAA sued all those college students. It is frightening just to think about.
What is so distressing is that copyright law in general is not very clear. Fair Use and owning the DVD, but not being allowed to watch it on my iPod, only complicates the problem. Think you know copyright law pretty well? Try out this quiz and let us know if you are a copyright genius. The quiz shows that it is pretty hard to determine when something is used “legally”.
[Via Canada.com]
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#1 Eric3 says:I’m going to put on my Obnoxious Canadian hat to inform you it’s the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, nicknamed the “Mounties”, and that it’s actually the Canada Border Services Agency that guards the border.
That aside, this proposed piece of legislation has people up in arms for good reason, saying that the bill was written up to kotow to American media company interests with no input whatsoever from the Canadian public. Money quote (from CBC): “Prentice deflected questions about potential lawsuits by saying the bill is necessary to modernize Canada’s laws and bring it up to date with its obligations under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaty it signed more than a decade ago.”
#2 Christian says:This law being in effect will pretty much remove canada from my list of possible travel loations.
I will NEVER give my digital life to some stranger for “checking”.
All my devices contain somehow a digital footprint of my lifestyle and way of life, most of it not to be published or shown to others - and i don’t mean any “dark” corners of my life.
This is SO RIDICULOUS!
#3 Honza says:It sounds like Canada is becoming a police state just like the UK. Very sad.
#4 Honza says:BTW I have plane tickets for Canada later this year. Maybe I should cancel.
#5 Eric3 says:Keep in mind though, it’s still just a bill, not an actual law, it’s only been through the first reading, parliament is just about to take off for the summer, and it has massive public opposition in a time when the Canadian public is having doubts about the current minority government. Don’t cancel those travel plans yet! Hopefully the bill will die in committee. Or the senate. (Ha ha! I crack myself up sometimes.)
#6 Chantal says:Very disturbing. Visit Guardian’s site about how to protect your data at the border. A bit paranoid, but better than getting your $4000 laptop “confiscated” for something stupid.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/15/computing.security
#7 vanni says:@honza. yeah you should cancel ’cause when you return to the police state that is america you will be stripped search: “Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when you’re entering the country.” America ..the land of the free… yeah right.
#8 vanni says:@eric. if the Mounties wish to Mount our Hardrives then they had better take some V**gra…. becasue they have been pretty ineffectual in many areas of late… to wit the Bernier affair.
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