http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/s...f-47f6fc96ce5e
Quote:
The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices.
The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order.
Federal trade agreements do not require parliamentary approval.
The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that "infringes" on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies.
The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not.
The agreement proposes any content that may have been copied from a DVD or digital video recorder would be open for scrutiny by officials - even if the content was copied legally.
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Not liking this. I don't regularly cross international boundaries with infringing materials in my possession but the prospect of having my personal computer (or gawd forbid, work computer) searched along with my iPod is not something I look forward too. I realize that CBSA and their US counterparts can already search my laptop but to have them scroll through playlists searching for infringing songs is excessive.
I suppose this is a creative way to get around changing domestic copyright laws here in Canada. Minister Prentice was met with a surprisingly effective grassroots resistance to the Canadian DMCA. Rather than risk facing a similar uprising, why not just subvert the entire democractic process instead and introduce a treaty that effectively does what he was earlier unable to do?