This weekend, James Moore who took part in the copyright reform process (now being labelled as the Canadian DMCA) had what some call a testy exchange between himself and one of his critics. It seems screen capturing and Twitter has proven to be a very useful combination for one user.
The other day, we noted that word is getting out that a Canadian DMCA is going to be tabled within weeks. It didn’t take long for the government to start getting frustrated by the criticism as they tried to quell fears by saying Canadians need to talk about the Canadian DMCA after it is tabled. Many know this was a tactic used previously and when the last Canadian DMCA was tabled, many were told that it was too late to debate the bill and it should be passed as is (the tactic ultimately didn’t work).
Over the weekend, tensions boiled over on Twitter as a user by the name of ACC3SS is now getting into the spotlight. Apparently, ACC3SS joked on Twitter, “If [James Moore] spent as much time writing a fair copyright bill as he spends talking about UFC, I’d have nothing to worry about!”
It would have probably been relegated to just another comment in the mounting opposition against the Canadian DMCA had Moore not responded – but he did. His response was, “And if people waited to read things before passing judgement on them, we’d live in a better world”
Moore added in a separate comment, “You have no idea”
ACC3SS took a screen capture of it to prove it:
“It seems [James Moore] took offense to my last tweet, responding with two (?) rather edgy DMs.” ACC3SS commented after the incident, “I hate to break it to you, [James Moore], but you won’t be getting a free ride on this Bill.”
There were many ways of handling this bill and the way the currently government is handling it certainly was not one of those ways. The government could have dropped hints on what to expect in this bill like, “We’re hoping consumers will be happy with some expanded fair dealing provisions” or “This bill should address the concerns over digital locks as expressed by consumers in the copyright consultation”. Did we get any of that? No. Instead, we get (paraphrased), “Well, you’ll just have to wait for the bill” along with leaked reports from anonymous sources saying that it’ll be just as bad or worse than what Canadians have feared. Instead of finding reasonable ways for the government to get themselves out of these criticisms, they act as though they have something to hide – an actual Canadian DMCA perhaps?
It’s not hard to see things only going downhill from here. Seriously, if the minister expected anything different upon word he’s going to be responsible for helping to table another Canadian DMCA, he was grossly mistaken.
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Drew Wilson is perhaps one of the more well-known file-sharing and technology news writers around. A journalist in the field since 2005, his work has had semi-regular appearances on social news websites and even occasional appearances on major news outlets as well. Drew founded freezenet.ca and still contributes to ZeroPaid. Twitter | Google Plus
