Submission + - Canada Launches ACTA Bill (michaelgeist.ca)
TrueSatan writes: In an utterly craven move the Canadian government has launched a bill http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=6013262 to bring Canada into full compliance with the discredited, US led, ACTA agreement...an agreement to which most of the world does not agree. To further pressure the acceptance of this awful bill the US, on the same day, released their Trade Policy and Agenda Annual Report http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/AnnualReport Final2013.pdf that calls on Canada to comply with ACTA obligations. For ACTA to take effect it would require six signatures from the major economic blocks and it appears to have no remaining possibility of getting them yet the US, and now Canada, continue to push it forward.
The Canadian bill features claims based on spurious health and safety concerns that have been thoroughly debunked by a US report http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-423 , Despite these claims being so dubious they remain a cornerstone of the Canadian bill. Similarly the claimed losses due to counterfeiting ($30 Billion US) stated in the bill have also been debunked and were plucked from thin air as 3-4% of US/Canadian trade http://cacn.ca/PDF/4-JMyers-CME.pdf without any substantiation of why the figure should be applied.
The Canadian bill seeks to give border guards an unprecedented level of control without the possibility of judicial oversight and with any contentious decisions being at the whim of copyright holders discretion...guilty until proven innocent and with no chance to prove oneself innocent.
Despite a lack of evidence to suggest that Canada is a major source of counterfeit product the bill puts at risk fully legal parralel import of generic items..pharmaceuticals for instance see https://sites.google.com/site/iipenforcement/acta-section-analysis.
The bill would also change copyright infringement from a civil dispute to a breach of criminal law.
Pity Canada if this bill is enacted!
The Canadian bill features claims based on spurious health and safety concerns that have been thoroughly debunked by a US report http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-423 , Despite these claims being so dubious they remain a cornerstone of the Canadian bill. Similarly the claimed losses due to counterfeiting ($30 Billion US) stated in the bill have also been debunked and were plucked from thin air as 3-4% of US/Canadian trade http://cacn.ca/PDF/4-JMyers-CME.pdf without any substantiation of why the figure should be applied.
The Canadian bill seeks to give border guards an unprecedented level of control without the possibility of judicial oversight and with any contentious decisions being at the whim of copyright holders discretion...guilty until proven innocent and with no chance to prove oneself innocent.
Despite a lack of evidence to suggest that Canada is a major source of counterfeit product the bill puts at risk fully legal parralel import of generic items..pharmaceuticals for instance see https://sites.google.com/site/iipenforcement/acta-section-analysis.
The bill would also change copyright infringement from a civil dispute to a breach of criminal law.
Pity Canada if this bill is enacted!
