Of course, if you’re one of those fans who carry it around on your video iPod, you may start running into some snags at the border.
Our federal government is in talks with the United States, Japan, the European Commission, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Mexico, and Switzerland to come to a lateral agreement on the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. No, we’re not talking about fake money; we’re talking about pirated intellectual property.
Essentially, what ACTA proposes is that any content copied from a digital source (i.e., anything on your computer or iPod) would be under the eagle eye of any overanxious border crossing guard. ACTA would give security personnel at airports, for example, the right to search you and your bits and bytes without a lawyer present. In theory, any person found with infringing material in their possession (that means you, unless you’re one of the few people who actually pays for iTunes) would have their device confiscated and themselves slapped with a fine.
It’s hard to imagine who wouldn’t potentially be affected by this policy. I don’t know a single person who travels without some digital content along for the ride, be it on an iPod, laptop, PSP, or even a Crackberry.
Sure, there’s precedent—a similar search-and-destroy process exists for travelers suspected of possessing child pornography. And on the plus side, the delays involved in administrating such a policy would be onerous, to say the least. But it would be manna to the entertainment industry, who’ve had a hard time prosecuting copyright infringers.
Ratifying ACTA is a slippery slope. More like Mt. Everest covered in Astroglide, and it’s a long, long bumpy ride down.
By the way, in case you were thinking of talking to your MP about this, don’t bother. Federal trade agreements such as this don’t need a parliamentary go-ahead. And once Canada signs on the dotted line, there’s no way to weasel out without incurring some serious penalties (à la softwood lumber).
But never fear! Soon there won’t be any infringing digital property available to you anyhow, at least according to doomsayers.
Scuttlebutt has it that Internet service providers around the world are banding together to turn the web into something like cable TV, where you would pay for access to your favourite sites. In fact, some savvy prognosticators have come up with a date for the end of the Internet: 2012. For more, check out ipower.ning.com/netneutrality.
You’ll have to watch the video clip twice to understand it—especially if you’re a guy, because I gather the girl speaking is considered hotly distracting.
It’s a bit of a stretch to imagine the interweb bundled like Shaw’s HD package, but downward dog, not Plastic Man. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, and then you can say goodbye to downloading new episodes of Californication.
So, a lot of scary news in this column. Here’s some positive news: the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has announced that it will oppose Bill C-10, citing concerns that the implied censorship in the legislation would sour film and TV production across the country. Possibly the appearance of the mayors of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Halifax before the Senate committee would have more political star power than Sarah Polley, David Cronenberg, and Paul Gross.
The politicians don’t seem particularly interested in discussing this much further, though (barring homegrown hero Senator Tommy Banks). Free tickets were handed out on the Hill last week to a preview of the contentiously titled movie Young People Fucking, but the only person who showed up was a Tory staffer who used her boss’ name to get in, and then got fired for it.
Hmmm. Maybe that’s not such a rosy ending after all. But hey, four more years of The Simpsons. That’s pretty cool.
