Hollywood may have lost its effort to persuade Congress to toughen anti-piracy laws. But
the MPAA and other trade groups for content producing companies believe that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative can do more: The International Intellectual Property Alliance just filed a report to the agency documenting what it says is “rampant online and physical piracy of copyrighted works and severe market access barriers” in 41 countries — and asked to have Canada and 9 other countries put on the government’s Priority Watch List. The designation is part of a process that could lead the government to determine that a country has violated certain trade agreements, which in some cases could result in dispute proceedings at the World Trade Organization. The IIPA says that Canada’s effort to combat piracy “falls far short of what should be expected of our neighbor and largest trading partner, with ineffective border controls, insufficient enforcement resources, inadequate enforcement policies, and a seeming inability to impose deterrent penalties on pirates.” Others that the IIPA wants on the Priority Watch List are Argentina, Chile, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand, and the Ukraine. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has until the end of April to file its annual report identifying countries that violate trade norms or agreements.


On the other hand, Canada supports artists rights by allowing creators to keep their copyrights instead of being forced to turn them over to the purchasing entity as a retroactive work for hire.
The Conservatives in Canada want to pass Bill C-11 (new copyright legislation) and I guess the IIPA wants to make sure they don’t lose their nerve. Not sure why they are worried — Canada is less responsive to direct citizen action and has a history of ramming through unpopular legislation.
As a Canadian, both the MPAA and IIPA can go fuck themselves.
95% of our movie theatres are full of their product, to the extent that the studios don’t even consider Canada a foreign territory, but instead, a 51st state.
So any supposed or implied deficiencies associated with piracy need to be laid at their own feet, not those of our government or its citizens.
Wow how conVeeeeenient that they are doing this just now when Bill C 11 is being debated etc and Canadians are actually voicing their displeasure about it. Of course since this the Cons they don’t have to worry.
Once again a failed business model attacking the consumer. Funny there just doesn’t seem to be a concerted effort to close off the pipeline from the source which is often the studios themselves. The increased quality you are seeing at download sites sure doesn’t come from Sammy Shaky Cam in a dark theatre.