Canada: We'll search your iPod for infringing media
Thu May 29, 2008 11:39AM EDT
See Comments (58)
Big Brother is alive and kicking in the Great White North. According to The Vancouver Sun, the Canadian government is preparing to revamp its copyright laws in regard to portable electronics, including laptops and iPods, as it forges an alliance with the U.S. and the European Union called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). ACTA would essentially turn international borders into a copyright Gestapo, compelling border guards to check "laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that 'infringes' on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies."
You ripped a DVD legally (say, using one of those digital download editions now included on some discs)? Doesn't matter. Guards can seize your iPod and even destroy it if they deem you've broken the law. Then you will be fined. Canada already performs random searches of laptops to search for child pornography. The new rules would step up these searches considerably.
Of the myriad problems with such a law, the first thing that leaps to mind is my bafflement over ACTA's failure to distinguish between legal and illegal content, and (if they do eventually give a pass for legal content) how border guards could determine whether a video was downloaded legally from iTunes or illegally from BitTorrent. Is all this going to happen in the lines at Customs as travelers wait to get back home? Is this, seriously, what our security infrastructure ought to be concerned with? How much will Canada spend each year on guards searching iPods and cell phones for illegal videos? Everything about ACTA just screams wrong.
Of course, ACTA is not just a Canada thing. The U.S., where the vast majority of illegal copied content originates, has been floating this idea to dozens of countries for about a year. But Canada's secret negotiations on actually enacting the rules are what are giving people pause. The good news: At the upcoming G8 meeting, ACTA is expected to be tabled... for now.
LINK: Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers
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47 Posted by firefox22a on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:00PM EDT Report Abuse
Governments are so F***'D UP. The know how to do NOTHING BUT WASTE MY HARD EARNED TAX PAID MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!! If they spent LESS on fixing every other countries problems, giving FREE money to poor countries who don't give an F about us or their own people, worried about OUR COUNTRIES SECURITY (NOT ipods,mp3 players and other electronic piracy) I would be able to afford to do a yearly home improvement project, take a vacation, start a family , SAVE FOR MY RETIREMENT/FAMILY. If the US spent less on every other F*N country they would be able to LOWER MY TAXES A BIT so I can afford the above!!!
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48 Posted by xobsethed on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:53PM EDT Report Abuse
The only people whining about copyright infrigement are the douche bags that get millions of dollars off of every album and every movie. Goodness, my not paying for that 99 cent download REALLY put a dent in their attempt at buying the 14'th Escalade with tricked out super wheels this month. I'm SUCH a monster, Diddy needs his new rolex and house in the Bahamas!
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49 Posted by greenteachibi on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:12PM EDT Report Abuse
What if you had an iPod shuffle? How the heck are they supposed to check if the stuff on it is legal or not?
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50 Posted by wrcousert on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:50PM EDT Report Abuse
This is stupid. Anyone with child porn or pirated movies could put them on a hidden partition. This won't stopy anyone!
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51 Posted by gingerthc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:09PM EDT Report Abuse
Maybe we should take a vote and place Canada on our group of recognized terrorist states. I knew the Canadians would do anything for us due to NAFTA. But I am suprised that they would destroy the item in question. I always thought they supplimented their income through seized items they kept for themselves. Well, I guess they now need better electronics. Maybe we need to close our boarders to everyone.
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52 Posted by rmcnnlly on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:44PM EDT Report Abuse
I'm sick and tired of this NAZISM!!!!! Random searches? Papers Please? What is this all coming too? Whatever happened to the role of limited government where it is suppose to protect our liberties? Instead, government just tramples on our liberties. This is getting outrageous! When will citizens just say "I'VE HAD ENOUGH of this intrusive, nazi, communistic style of a police state"????? I'm tired of this!!!! I want to be FREE!!!! I'm beginning to feel like our nations: USA and Canada have become like a prison!
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53 Posted by tammyinbuffalony on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:55PM EDT Report Abuse
This is absolutely ridiculous!!! What happened to a free country where everything a person says, has and does isn't up for scrutiny, legal action or destruction of private property??? This would make me not want to travel to our neighboring country. I wouldn't want strangers, or non-strangers, for that matter, going through my personal effects to find incriminating material. The majority of iPODS and laptops searched would more than likely be found to have illegal content.
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54 Posted by keithatqes on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:48PM EDT Report Abuse
THis is just plain not true. Canada Customs will not be inspecting iPods, this is just soem fantasy that the writer concocted to get readers. Don't believe this.
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55 Posted by nataian99 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:33PM EDT Report Abuse
It's definitely getting out of hand. I can't believe they are busting all these people. I just read this story about some people in California being busted for hollywood films http://www.canyon-news.com/artman2/publish/hollywoodhills/3_Charged_with_Pirating_Films.php They are cracking down hard now and the technology is getting even more advanced.
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56 Posted by sjpelusi on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:25PM EDT Report Abuse
searching for child porn ....no problem. searching my music collection... heck no.
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57 Posted by satanders on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:06PM EDT Report Abuse
i suggest backing-up your iPod ... perhaps to a handful of SD cards and then swallowing them as you approach the border. you can then confidently say ha ha to the Canadian border patrol. now they'll have to cut you wide open to enjoy any of your illegal files! maybe then they'll get a clue about the bloody mess theyre getting themselves into. and next theyll be checking the labels of your clothes. is this a real Calvin Klein blouse? if you cant prove it, lady, i get to rip it from your bodice! and, as i'm sure you realized, the trouble with blouses is that they cant be backed up to SD cards and swallowed. yet.
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58 Posted by doc_halister on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:45PM EDT Report Abuse
Ahhh. One of your commenters points out it's the Hollywood and music people industry that's pushing this. So true. 'guess their high-paid lobbyists are earning their wages. But the additional point about "pornography". No way should any government checkpoint be set up to confiscate computers etc. to check through all your private journals, photos, music, etc....in order to determine whether "maybe" the girl depicted is 16 instead of 18. They get their jollies doing it for a job? Where do I sign up?
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46 Posted by firefox22a on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:00PM EDT Report Abuse
You think this is bad???? I read an article today that the EU countries want to fingerprint every foreigner entering their countries. That's scary!!! And where do you think the data is going to be stored(oh I mean the fingerprints are checked against international database's but will never be stored or viewed in the future, as with the new body scan imaging at airports)?? CIA,MI-5,KGB, Interpol, probably some international database.....