Effect of the Supreme Court Ruling on American Satellite on the Copyright issue

[Fergal Warde]

Well, for the first time in my life, I'm ashamed to be Canadian. I had 
watched this issue develop with great hope, as the attempts to outlaw 
American satellite were struck down each time by a provincial court, B.C., 
Ontario, and Quebec. The Quebec judge called the DirecTV signal "public 
domain", and ironically, I was actually PRAISING Quebec for once on an 
issue. Now it seems the light at the end of the long dark tunnel has gone 
out. I had actually thought of setting up my own dish I had bought in the 
US so that I could watch Season 6 of Stargate SG-1 on the SciFi Channel, as 
we're still in re-run hell here in Canada (now it seems I can't).

The Supreme Court has decided on total prohibition of American satellite 
services. This sets a VERY dangerous precedent, in regards to our quest to 
prevent the same draconian copyright law in Canada as in the USA. In the 
proposed copyright reforms, we've argued at the consultation sessions 
against total prohibition of circumvention devices, especially for 
legitimate uses, such as education. I fear the government will now use this 
decision to justify the total prohibition of circumvention devices, 
regardless of their legitimate uses, and that the movie and recording 
industries will use this as a hammer as they do now in the US. I'd like to 
see what the Liberals and/or BCE offered and/or threatened to do to the 
Supreme Court Justices, if they did not rule in BCE/Liberals favor. I'm 
also curious about what sort of motive/justification Justice Ian Binnie had 
in voting for BCE, as he seemed to rule in favour of balance between 
creator and public in the Theberge case 
(http://news.globetechnology.com/servlet/GAMArticleHTMLTemplate?tf=globetechnology/TGAM/NewsFullStory.html&cf=globetechnology/tech-config-neutral&slug=TWGEIS&date=20020418) 
- I thought he would have voted for a balance between government and public 
in the Satellite Issue.

This is a sad day for Canada indeed.

My thoughts

-Fergal

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