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438 Supporters

Created by Will Pate on November 7, 2004, 9:29 pm

We call upon the Government of Candada to ignore the recommendation of the standing committee on Canadian Heritage to ratify the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT).

Doing so would create a notice-and-takedown system which would be a step backward for internet users and ISPs in Candada for the following reasons:

Lack of Expertise in ISPs.

ISPs aren't equipped to evaluate what's infringing and what isn't. Operating a server doesn't qualify you to understand and evaluate copyright law.

No Incentive for Evaluation of Claim

Most ISPs just do the math and decide that sending a single counter-notification letter will cost them more in lawyer-hours than the customer in question will ever make for them. They just invoke the termination clause in nearly every ISP contract and shut down the account.

Censorship by Any Other Name

This creates a situation where organizations use notice-and-takedown as a tool for censorship. The takedown notice is the favourite tool of the crank, the censor, and the bully.

Software Can't Do the Job Right

Big business interests can send out automatically generated takedowns by the thousands, using software that does half-assed pattern-matching on files available on the net and then sending off letters to universities, ISPs and other entites demanding the takedown of book reports about Harry Potter, Linux distributions with the same names as movies, and academic work by professors with the same name as musicians.

Anonymity at Risk

Notice-and-takedown is almost always accompanied by systems for peircing Internet users' anonymity: if you want to find out your stalking victim's new address and number, you need only find the message-board where she's posting about her troubles and write to the ISP as an infringed-upon rightsholder, demanding her info.

Note: Most of this text was originally written by Cory Doctorow, licensed under a Creative Commons license. He made a great argument and his post inspired this petition. Thanks Cory.
      


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Petition Signatures


435 20 Jun 2008 - 21:31    Phoebe Smith :
434 15 Jun 2008 - 12:22    Genevieve Plante :
433 13 Jun 2008 - 18:02    Jonathan O\'Krafka : Stop taking away our freedoms. Stop creating a police state.
432 13 Jun 2008 - 1:52    Joseph Bouchard :
431 12 Jun 2008 - 21:29    S. Paquin :
430 29 May 2008 - 19:15    alan cheop :
429 20 Jan 2008 - 16:45    j r quillao :
428 11 Dec 2007 - 18:51    Mark Pleasance : Our courts have already decided what is fair and what is not - I say the bill is a waste of time and money. It is only because of lobby groups that this issues has surfaced again.
427 8 Dec 2007 - 17:53    Murray J. Brown :
426 8 Dec 2007 - 1:13    misha sokolov :
425 11 Apr 2007 - 1:54    Mike Gifford : Let's bring the spirit of www.savetheinternet.com to Canada!
424 8 Apr 2007 - 23:21    brock bedford :
423 8 Apr 2007 - 21:25    Caroline Shaw :
422 8 Apr 2007 - 8:09    Kaylin Sigsworth :
421 8 Apr 2007 - 8:01    Nathan Butcher : Save Network Neutrality
420 19 Mar 2007 - 1:55    Carol Crocker : I totally support this petition
419 18 Mar 2007 - 7:05    Chris Wolski :
418 15 Mar 2007 - 7:13    Jacek Maryan : Internet in Canada cannot be censored. Corporate totalitarism and their political sponsorship must be stopped. Canada cannot become another Red China.
417 11 Mar 2007 - 6:33    Amber Birkbeck :
416 11 Mar 2007 - 3:32    jeannie orban :
415 11 Mar 2007 - 3:20    Troy Newman :
414 11 Mar 2007 - 3:07    Trevor Martin : Yeah
413 11 Mar 2007 - 3:06    trevor avery :
412 10 Mar 2007 - 18:35    V Pye :
411 10 Mar 2007 - 9:14    jacob john vrieswyk : these copyright laws are bassakward - the legislature ought to protect citizens from the corporations not the other way 'round
410 10 Mar 2007 - 4:40    Peter Sellers : I say NO! to more dumbing down and nanny-state laws!! It's not just about copyright control....
409 9 Mar 2007 - 2:12    Raven Morris : Everything about these new copyright, "intellectual property" and DRM laws is wrong and takes us back, not forward.
408 8 Mar 2007 - 21:45    amhopkins :
407 8 Mar 2007 - 5:47    M.R. Deroy : yah
406 7 Mar 2007 - 10:42    e.l. hopkins :
405 5 Mar 2007 - 5:19    Michael Dawson : I believe in the rights of free speech, and the right to own property, and the right to privacy all of which are infringed on by this.
404 5 Mar 2007 - 4:55    Nicholas Kwarciak :
403 8 Feb 2007 - 13:55    Marie Jacqueline Major :
402 30 Jan 2007 - 2:26    Sheena Millar : If the means of communication are not free, neither is the communication itself.
401 27 Jan 2007 - 20:42    Louis R. Spironello :
400 27 Jan 2007 - 8:48    Jan Pingel :
399 27 Jan 2007 - 4:33    Jordan Bowness :
398 22 Jan 2007 - 6:39    Subhadeep Chakrabarti : Hands off the Net !
397 28 Dec 2006 - 15:25    Warren MacDonald : all should be shared
396 23 Dec 2006 - 4:54    William James : The internet must remain free.
395 6 Nov 2006 - 19:59    Stanley Choi :
394 24 Apr 2006 - 8:14    Perry Seppala : I support this petition.
393 22 Apr 2006 - 23:11    Marcel Pinheiro : I support this petition.
392 11 Mar 2006 - 22:18    Tom : I support this petition.
391 21 Feb 2006 - 13:15    Todd : I support this petition.
390 22 Jan 2006 - 11:45    Dan Dobbyn : I support this petition.
389 12 Jan 2006 - 0:34    Devon Cooke : I support this petition.
388 10 Jan 2006 - 23:56    J L Frandsen : I support this petition.
387 17 Nov 2005 - 10:55    Wayne Gibbons : Our country's government does not "govern" anymore. It seems to me they want to "dictate" the people who put them there. That would mean our once great country is moving to a more dictatorship style of government. SAD
386 6 Nov 2005 - 5:53    PSI Grotzki : Canadian Taxpayer
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