US IP Interests Pressured Canada To Join In Its WTO Fight With China
from the teaming-up dept
In the WTO fight between the US and China -- in which the US declared victory recently, despite losing most of its arguments -- Canada had joined the fight on the US's side. However, as Michael Geist has discovered, by accessing government documents using the Access to Information Act in Canada, Canadian officials didn't see any reason to get involved at all, not believing the dispute impacted Canadians in any manner. However, it appears US officials didn't like that very much, and a rather heavy attempt to pressure Canadian officials into signing up ensued, with both US officials and the Canadian Recording Industry Association (often seen as basically a puppet of the RIAA) applying the pressure. While Canadian officials continually expressed doubt about participating, noting little evidence that China's practices had any impact on Canadians, eventually they signed on in support. As Geist notes, the end result has been quite damaging to Canada. Since the main points of the case were won by China, Canada signed up with the wrong side of the arguments and the effort has damaged Canadian relations with China. That's what you get for getting pushed around by the IP bullies...
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All politician bashing aside I have a sinking feeling that most of our politicians would give in to this, simply because the US is our largest trading partner and keeping them appeased is rather important. Welcome to the game of politics. Prepare to receive the shaft.
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I think we need to bring back the retirement age of 55 for politicians - and make it mandatory. Most politicians seem to be too old to expect them to be able to competently use computers and the internet let alone understand the paradigm shift they have brought about. Of course it is really our fault for still electing them that old...
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I remember a comment once that he was so far up Bush's backside that he could see Tony Blair's ankles.
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