Conservative dissent (and hypocrisy) on Copyright

Via Saskboy, a interesting guest blog on Small Dead Animals. Looks like lance is hopefully one of many Tories now reconsidering their support for the freedom-hating Conservatives (as NDP candidate Dana Larsen notes, the NDP is definitely the most libertarian of Canada's major parties).

This is good to see. Hopefully, some of those voters will consider looking at the NDP in their ridings, who will no doubt be the party that pushes back hardest on this horrible legislation.

And this all reminded me of a little display of Conservative hypocrisy on this issue I observed this weekend. On the bus back from Kingston, there was a guy in front of me a couple of rows which a black Macbook. I was checking out its beautiful design when I noticed that his background was a picture of Harper and his white male caucus. So I'm assuming this guy is a Conservative staffer of some sort, because who else has a Conservative background for their Mac?

So I can resist, I have to trail my eyes lower to see what programs he has in the Dock at the bottom of the screen. And what do I find, icons for Limewire and Transmission (a Mac bittorrent client)!?!

I suppose I could've asked the guy, but I wonder if he is happy with Prentice trying to turn him into a criminal? Because I doubt he has those programs for sharing materials he owns the copyright for.

NOW the Cons care about meeting international treaty obligations

I just had to pop back in to comment on the new Copyright law, Bill C-61, as I can see myself blogging about it regularly as it grinds its way through the legislative process. Yes, Jim Prentice is right that the new law will bring Canada into compliance with the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) treaty signed by the previous Liberal government over a decade ago.

Can any remember another international treaty, signed by the Liberal government about a decade ago, that the Tories have had no compunctions about breaking or even really trying to meet its goals?

Hint - it has the same name as Stephane Dion's dog.

And I think everyone, on all points of the political spectrum, can agree that climate change is more important an issue than internet piracy.

This C-61 is many things, but it's probably most frustrating as a gross misuse of the time and attention of our legislators, who should be solving, you know, problems that actually negatively impact Canadians, not multinational media conglomerates.

Abstaining from blogging

Hi blogosphere, I missed you. I finally submitted the thesis (Electoral Reform in PEI: A case study in deliberative democracy, a future classic) last month. Now that I'm looking for honest employment, I suppose I could blog on a more regular basis, but I'm really enjoying the laziness lately.

Just had to come back to hype up this brilliant idea. In that spirit, I may have to abstain from washing the rest of the dishes piling up near the kitchen sink ;)

I've got some thoughts on the Irish referendum, so I'll probably be back with those sometime next week. Over the weekend, I'll be going to this event at Queen's. I understand there still might be spots, so if your in the area and a political dork, maybe I'll see you there!

Confidential to IP, congrats, I think you'll do a stellar job. Let me know if you need any help!