[d at DCC] Ready for an election?

[Russell McOrmond]

On 11-03-27 10:25 PM, Ian! D. Allen wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 08:44:00AM -0400, Russell McOrmond wrote:
>> [...]  I believe that this is a matter of bad advisors, and not being
>> a bad person.  [...] I could be wrong, but believe that if he opened
>> his mind to more viewpoints that he could change dramatically on the
>> policy side.
>
> I hope you're right.  Ursula isn't so optimistic:

   Here is why the optimism.

   I don't separate politicians from other people.  They are people 
doing a specific job, and not one that is easy.  The ugly popularity 
context needed to get elected in the first place will make great people 
into pessimistic pragmatists.

   I've watched the transition more than once with leadership in the 
creator community.   When I dove into this in 2001/2002 I presumed it 
would be all us creators on one side, and all the "evil" tech 
companies/publishers/labels/etc on the other side.   It surprised me to 
find people representing creators from groups like the Creators Rights 
Alliance, the Writers Union, and the Professional Writers Association of 
Canada lobbying on the other side.

   It really was a matter of not having technical knowledge.  I watched 
more than one person flip their opinion on TPMs once they understood 
what was locked and who held the keys.  They recognised that it would be 
a great threat to them, and within their insider circles spoke about it 
in as Orwellian terms as I do.

   There are exceptions -- anyone who frequents the blogs related to 
Copyright will know John Degen as someone who continues to fight on the 
side that I believe will mean less moral and material rights for 
creators.  But that is life -- and I believe it comes down to a matter 
of trust where he trusts the big hardware/software vendors and various 
big institutions to protect his interests more than he does fellow 
citizens  (including, and possibly especially people like me).

   The question for me is whether the specific law maker is like those 
many community/association/thought leaders that I've seen change their 
mind, or if they are more like those who stick to their guns (or become 
even more aggressive) when faced with a dialogue with us on how we see 
the issues differently.


   In the case of McTeague I saw him express quite different views on 
issues like UBB than he has on TPMs.  In my mind these issues are 
linked, and are all about who owns and controls the means of production 
and distribution in the economy (IE: Definition of capitalism type stuff).

   Was he spinning, coming out on the side of citizens for a populist 
issue that managed to capture the attention of Canadians?

   He would be right to have recognised that far more people were 
engaged in UBB than have been engaged in TPMs, even though in my mind 
TPMs are far worse.  That said, fellow techies disagree with my 
priorities and think I should be more focused on the private copying 
levy (AKA: iPod tax) and UBB, given few expect to honour 
anti-interoperability locks on content or non-owner locks on devices.

   Mr. Mcteague seems to believe that DRM will help the recording 
industry, something where the recording industry has itself been duped. 
  It isn't about a politician telling citizens one thing while having 
close ties to special interests, but about a special interest promoting 
a policy that is harmful to that specific special interest.



   Of course, if he were in a riding with a tight race we would be in a 
position to say "Ahh, lets not take our chances".  I've spoken out 
strongly against him during recent elections, putting him appropriately 
in the context of Sheila Copps and Sam Bulte.  As far as I can tell it 
is a near guarantee that Mr. McTeague will be in the 41'st parliament. 
He had 49% of the vote in 2008, 52% in 2006, 57% in 2004.

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
  rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
  http://fix.billc32.ca/petition/ict/

  "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
   manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
   portable media player from my cold dead hands!"