It’s not a new idea floating around in the Canada/US trade realm, but it is a noteworthy way the United States entertainment lobby pressures Canada on copyright related issues. The idea for the copyright lobby to say, “you change copyright laws and we relax the “Buy American” provision” sounds good on paper, but it doesn’t take into account other big moments that happened on the Copyright file in Canada.
“It doesn’t matter how wrong the USA may be about “Buy American” and countless other trade irritations.” Howard Knopf comments, describing the situation at hand. He continues, “Or even if the USA is the most flagrant scofflaw at the WTO in international copyright law.”
He adds how Canada actually have better provisions in its copyright law and has several other thoughts on why Maryscott Greenwood’s comments are “astonishing” which is definitely worth the read.
It’s easy to see from the American copyright lobby’s perspective that this would be the most effective way on getting their copyright laws in place in Canada. You take one trade issue that is hugely controversial and say that if you “fix” this issue of copyright, which barely registers as a blip on the political radar screen by comparison, then this big problem of “Buy American” would go away. An attempt at appearing to offer more and asking for less on the surface.
The problem is that it’s hard to see this as being conditional. What’s to say if Canada “fixes” (which, to many who are aware of the copyright issue, really means “breaks”) copyright law and then the US turns around and says, “Good start, we demand this, this and this before we’ll consider relaxing the “Buy American” provision”?
Furthermore, how much is the current governing party of Canada, the Conservatives, willing to risk over bending backwards for the copyright lobby in the first place? Simply appeasing the US lobby over copyright has already cost one minister her job back when Bill C-60 was the much despised copyright legislation. When protesters swarmed another minister over the new copyright legislation, Bill C-61, it should have been clear by then that merely appeasing the US copyright lobby means losing votes. The Conservatives did seem to get that message when it created the copyright consultation over the Summer. The last thing the party might want to do is admit that the whole consultation was a farce and just for show as it would further inflame the tension on the copyright file.
Added to this was the dramatic news of CRIA, an organization that mainly represents the big four foreign owned record labels, was sued for $6 Billion for, of all things, music bootlegging. Agreeing to whatever copyright laws the US entertainment lobby would mean giving Carte Blanche to these same entities over who sets the standards on the copyright file. A thought that would sit well with few Canadians at this point.
So while the US copyright lobby might be pulling their hair out over Canada’s copyright laws, there isn’t much they can really do about it immediately and the issues will simply continue to be pushed down the road for a later time – unless a party willing to lose an election over copyright that is.
[Hat tip: Michael Geist]
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Canada don’t need USA advice .One word F… off.