Green Party vs Pirate Party
Canadians have long been faced with the choice of voting for their favorite candidate… or voting to keep their least favorite party out of power. This is a side effect of our first-past-the-post electoral system which has helped keep conservatives out of power until 2000 (when the Reform party was dissolved).
Today, non-conservative vote splitting serves to keep Canadian conservatives in power. Any attempt to address “special interest” issues in Canada must acknowledge vote splitting as a significant barrier to reform.
And on the subject of Copyright, neither Liberal nor Conservative governments have impressive resumes.
I’ll assume anyone reading this article is already familiar with the argument for copyright reform. Not reform as in DMCA, stiffer penalties and anti-circumvention legislation. Reform in the direction proposed by the Pirate Party of Sweden: shorter copyright duration.
In a nutshell, copyright constrains the economy. Just as taxes can be too low (no services offered) or too high (no financial incentive to take entrepreneurial risks), copyright duration also has a sweet spot. Financial reward to artists VS the ability to create new work by leveraging public domain content. Studies have shown [PDF] this sweet spot to be under 15 years. Today Canadian copyright has a duration of about 100 years.
Any lobbyist looking to maintain 100 year copyrights would welcome the spectacle of Greens and Pirates fighting over copyright voters. While there’s much work to be done in educating the public, keep in mind public opinion on copyright reform has never shaped government policy.
“A 12 year copyright on creative material is reasonable. Lifetime of the creator +70 years doesn’t make any sense at all.” -Elizabeth May, Green Party Leader of Canada
HDV video available for download and recycling at Internet Archive under a Creative-Commons license.
UPDATE:
I posted to Pirate Party forum, which garnered some interesting responses.
Greens issued a press release noting the Swedish Pirate Party’s victory in European Parliament.
And The Pirate Party of Canada issued a response to Canadian Green Party’s Elizabeth May.
- Green Party vs Pirate Party
- by Gordon McDowell
- Published on July 3rd, 2009
More from Gordon McDowell:
-
Blood Diamond
What guy cares about diamonds, period? Gangsta rappers looking for bling… and homosexual pop stars. That’s it. If you are neither one of those, and you’re buying a diamond, then you’re looking to get yourself a wife, or you need to cut glass.
-
Date Movies: Beerfest vs Amanda
It’s like asking a man to clean a toilet, or crap out a baby. Sure, with superhuman effort, just about anything is possible. But is it really worth all the extra work? Wouldn’t it be easier to just hand the scrub brush to someone better suited for the task?
-
CO2 – We Call It Death
When I first saw “An Inconvenient Truth”, I was touched deeply by Al Gore’s naivete. To bring science and facts to the global warming debate, is a bit like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Al, nice try. But the only way to fight stupid is with even more stupid. I’ll take over now.
-
R4NT Video: Elbow River Serial Killer
The Elbow doesn’t clean itself ya know. A rather in depth discussion about the Elbow River Serial killer, in movie form. Are we there yet?
-
Date Movies: United 93 vs Hard Candy
I’ll never be able to seduce EVERY woman on the planet. There’ll always be that one, rickety old senior who insists on taking it slow… something neither I (nor she) have time for.
-
R4NT Revenge
You still taking it? Still taking it from the man? Oh poor baby. Is the baby gonna cry? Cry baby, cry! Or, perhaps instead of crying, how about a nice warm glass of REVENGE!
Other recent features:
-
Sónar 2010 – Barcelona, Spain
The festival attracts a lot of outsiders, but the Mediterranean, Spanish and more specifically Catalan nature of the people makes the festival what it is. Catalan people are passionate and this passion is infectious. The atmosphere is electric in Barcelona as a city and heightened by music and intoxicants at Sónar.
-
Summer Party Naval Styles at Seven RestoLounge
Oysters, like wine are affected by terroir and these Miyagi’s flavor profiles ranged with one showing a cleaner, almost tropical profile and the other being more salty, marine driven. As I was devouring the seemingly endless plates put in front of us, I sipped on a glass of fine sauvignon blanc.
-
R4NT Radio March 2010
R4NT Radio March 2010 um wow it’s been far too long since the last edition edition, featuring: Hector Hernandez, The Infesticons, Blockhead, Gramatik, Emika, Thunderheist, Parov Stelar, Eddy Meets Yannah, Anti-Pop Consortium, The Slew, Lighterthief, Andreya Triana, Parasyte Woman, Mathon, Venetian Snares, and Funki Porcini.
-
O Restaurant & Lounge revisited
Calgary has a diverse set of urban communities, most of which have the ubiquitous strip mall watering hole. In the South West community of Marda Loop, a reinvention of this paradigm has been established.
-
Predictions 2010.. and beyond!
So 2010 eh? Almost but not quite (no year zero they say) another decade? It seems like just yesterday that the world was waiting for Y2K. R4NT started publishing in March 2001, so we’re not quite 10 years old yet, but in internet years we are already a senior citizen.
-
Invictus
No matter what, the reality of Nelson Mandela is something that deserves screen time. Should this film even remotely intrigue the masses to take interest in this figure, the world would likely benefit greatly from it.