I think that all y'all should read through the actual copyright law, or at least, check out Michael Geist's blog .

The max fine is 5000 canukshekels for all infringements prior to the lawsuit, but the minimum fine is $100, and the law contains language advising the courts to consider stuff like the impact of the fine on the defendant, and so on. Mr. Geist suggests that it might not be worthwhile for the MAFIAA and so forth to go to court only to be awarded $100 in damages.

As well, the rulings of that Federal Court in Montreal ordering the ISPs to hand over the names of subscribers (there was another case about 18 months ago in the same court, I believe) have never been appealed; eventually, that will wind up in the Supreme Court.

Reminds me of the old joke: Why don't Canadians fuck standing up? Because god might think they're dancing.

Oh, it's a boat. I thought it was about a cheap sandwich.

Seriously. This is why people download pirated versions. Even if you have a paid version of something, the damned thing "phones home" every time you launch it, the bozos are so paranoid. You can disable this in /etc/hosts, but it's still indicative of greedy grubbing stupidity. If they charged a third of the price, they'd sell 3 times more copies. Look what Apple did with FCP -- they made it affordable (yes, I've read the complaints, but it works fine).

They must have moved down to NYC from Montreal.

"Legal in America" Right. "America" extends from Quttinirpaaq (let's say) to Cabo de Hornos (let's say). Which bit of this "America" is affected by this ruling? Fucken Yanks.

To see how "independent" Sealand really is, look up the history of British pirate radio stations. Essentially, HMG made it illegal to trade with them in any way (no food, no water, no booze, no hookers and so on) and that was the end of that.

I name my servers after film directors I admire. My main one is Peckinpah, my VM is Scorsese; in the past I've had Kubrick and Kurosawa, Huston and Ford. So there.

"He's not the commander-in-chief."

No he's bloody-well not! Our government isn't set up that way. Harper's probably the worst PM ever.

The CRTC has to be seen to be an independent body, at least until they've made a ruling. Of course Harper will overturn this one -- there's an election coming up and the middle classes are the ones who vote and have the Internet connections and pay the most taxes and want their streaming video without a "surtax" from Bell Canada (which is run by French Canadians, as it happens).

No, not Listowell, but all smaller communities have the same problems. Restaurants etc. lock their dumpsters here. People don't want to pay dump fees, so they go out to Nowhere Lane and drop stuff off. Or they keep it in a corner of their back yards until the neighbors complain.

I haven't heard of a problem with fake bag tags here, yet, although The Idea has occurred to me: how hard could it be to have several thousand printed up in Montreal when I'm there?. The WM guys check the tags a bit -- you wouldn't get away with any old blue sticker.

Well, that's all true, but comparisons are meaningless, really; I only visit the US for the lobster in Maine, and I buy travel health insurance before I leave.

I also don't live in Saudi Arabia where they'd cut off my hand and stone my ol' lady if I put the glass where the plastic should go. Or Somalia, where they'll kill you for supporting a soccer team. Hmm. Now that I think about it ...

In the little town where I live, we pay $2 per bag of garbage picked up at the curb (kerb). Recycle is collected free. The more aggressively I recycle, the less I pay in "bag tags" to the slimy city council, who spend it on new pickup trucks for their greasy-haired hillbilly workers to drive around in all day just doing nothing at all ... oh, was I going on a bit? Anyway, we compost for the same reason -- it costs us less in garbage fees and also garners some nice greenie points and a pat on the back. Beer, liquor and wine containers all have refundable deposits where I live, so they don't go into the recycle anyway. If we could reduce the amount of bloody tim-horton cups littering the streets of Ontario, it would be a better place to live.

I mean, everyone thinks that ET will be some kind of Yang science-fiction saviour, (s)he'll cure cancer and possess a quantum computer to deal with them prime numbers very quickly and then there'll be No More War and then the future will shine with a glowing white light halleluhahaha ...

But what if ET shows up and it's just a gang of uneducated thugish assholes who've stolen a spaceship that they only barely know how to operate and they've crashed it here and then the Tough family welcome them into their homes and right away call the president or the US of A?

Doesn't anyone read Flannery O'Connor anymore? Or Stephen King, for that matter.

I didnt't vote in your elections either, not being a yank, should I refrain from posting too?

The working class can kiss my ass; I've got the foreman's job at last. -- Ballacks O'Bama.