This CBC article includes:
Another critic of Bulte's ties to the industry is the NDP candidate in her riding, Peggy Nash. "Bulte's activities further remind voters of Liberal ethical violations that are a serious concern for many Canadians," Nash said in a statement on her website.
My letter to the editor follows...
This article contains some of the common misinformation that has been spread by Bulte and the Liberal government.
Ms. Bulte does not represent creators, people like authors, singer, songwriters, but the intermediaries between these creators and their potential audiences. The interests of intermediaries are not only not the same as the interests of creators, but are often opposed. Ms. Bulte may have the support of these intermediaries largely representing foreign branch plants, but she does not have the support of all Canadian creators. As a creator I believe that the views she holds, not copyright infringement, is the greatest threat to my ability to make a living at my craft.
While the fundraisers claim to be trying to stop "illegal" downloading and CD burning, the fact is that it is these same interests that lobbied past Heritage Minister Sheila Copps to create the Private Copying regime which made such downloading and CD burning legal.
While unauthorized sharing/uploading is illegal under our current act, the reason the major labels lost their case in front of the federal court and court of appeal was due to lack of evidence of infringement. The problem is not in the copyright act, but in these increasingly irrelevant intermediaries.
Since copyright is a balance between many different interests, the concept of "stronger copyright" makes no sense. In this case Bulte and her friends are trying to unbalance copyright to the benefit of these intermediaries, and against the interests of creators and their audiences.
The author of the Boing Boing post is Canadian Science fiction author Cory Doctorow. This is not simply "bloggers" that are opposed to Bulte, or people who she falsely claims want to infringe copyright or get music for free, but the very authors and other creators that Bulte falsely claims to support.
We have a special section on the site for the riding of Parkdale--High Park
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/edid/35068
Russell McOormond
Independent author of software and non-software literary works
Host of the Digital Copyright Canada forum at http://digital-copyright.ca
Co-coordinator of Getting Open Source Logic INto Government http://goslingcommunity.org