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International Law

: Excess Copyright

Scary Friday the 13th Interview

By Howard Knopf, Esq.

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Here's a seriously scary ill-informed interview on CTV Power Play ironically on Friday the 13th at about the 3:30 mark with with former Liberal & Tory Minister David Emerson and interviewer Tom Clark.

Somebody has misinformed Clark a lot about Canadian law - and fed him lots of property talk about "theft" and "stealing."

Tom Clark wonders why we can't bring in a law to "prevent theft" and why this is a "delicate" matter and who are the stakeholders?

Tom Clark states that "one example I was given" would be that if a container arrives in Halifax labelled "Counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags", it would be "perfectly legal" in Canada and that one can steal off the internet and sell to North Korea or words to that effect. Emerson says "That's right.."

I wonder who briefed Tom Clark.

Emerson, for his part, thinks that Canada is involved in negotiations with the US and "3 or 4" other countries to "create and IP agreement intended to be the most rigorous in the world".

Clark wonders "whether we should allow crime to continue to poke the eye of the Americans?

Emerson sounds somewhat more intelligent than Clark and even says some intelligent things about the purpose of copyright law but then was was a Minister of Industry, and Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Sorry if I didn't transcribe with 100% accuracy. My stenographic skills are rusty.

If such a smart former Minister and such a high profile TV journalist can be so misinformed and get so much wrong in such a short interview on such a high profile subject, it's really scary - even by Friday the 13th standards.

Full post as published by Excess Copyright on November 15, 2009 (boomark / email).