Of course, if you took your vote away from the Conservatives and
gave it to the Libertarians, that would send the right message –
the Conservatives would have to take our policies in order to get
the votes back. I think the Libertarians would strike the right
balance between supporting CICPR (see
http://capj.livejournal.com/111825.html ) and non-police-state
tactics for enforcement. Giving your vote to any other Canadian
political party today would constitute going massively the wrong
way, due merely to a small bit of misapplication on the part of
the Conservatives. Keep priorities straight! As the
mathematicians would say, “don’t abandon the first-order
approximation in order to overwhelm it by focusing solely on the
second.”

To get into details, I certainly think it’s OK to copy a
performance that you’ve purchased onto different media in order
to play it on different devices for your personal use.

A good thought I had: a long discussion about libertarianism is
like a thick book on Zen — it shows that the point is being
missed. One really needs only to understand CICPR – Consistent
Individual Creators’ Property Rights — a Lockean concept; see
John Locke — the rest is mostly application.

When you say you disagree with me, I suspect you’re focusing
solely on the second-order problem. You don’t disagree with
Consistent Individual Creators’ Property Rights, after all, do
you?

I also disagree with over-zealous enforcement; people should be
entitled to a presumption of honesty and not be subjected to
surveillance in their homes or in general, just because they
*might* commit a crime, as in the spirit of the USA’s Bill of
Rights — and the one in the Canadian Constitution, too, for that
matter. But people should individually understand the concept of
Consistent Individual Creators’ Property Rights, which is rather
a new one, historically, developing since the Renaissance, and is
the foundation of Western society and indeed all first-world
countries everywhere. It — Lockean concepts — are what we mean
in these areas when we say “honesty”. It’s the only thing that’s
going to work.

Politics is not like shopping for groceries where you can fill your cart with the policies you like and leave the ones you don?t like on the shelf. Like it or not, when you vote for a particular party, you get the whole bundle: the good policies with….

I’m issues driven. There are two things I care passionately about. Government that spends wisely, and government that has a light regulatory hand. That makes me more of a libertarian than anything else, although I do not subscribe to many of the views that the more extreme libertarians hold.

I’ve always voted conservatively believing that the Conservative Party was the best exemplar of those qualities. For two elections now, however, I have voted Green.

In the past federal election, my own MP’s stance on same sex marriage was so far outside my own world view that I could not in conscience vote for him.

In the past provincial election, the number one issue was whether to fund religious schools. Again, my view is that the most efficient use of the tax payers money is to abolish state funding for all religious schools. So I voted against the provincial conservatives.

What I am learning is that despite years and years of support for the CPC, I have some fundamental disagreements at a philosophical level.

I’m not about second guessing the motives of politicians either. Whether the copyright bill is some game that is designed to provoke a response from the electorate is really irrelevant to me. The mere fact that my government might choose to table such a bill is enough to cause me to turn my back on the governing party.

I say vote the bastards out. They haven’t earned my trust, my vote, or my contributions.

Considering the groundswell of opposition to the current bill, which includes virtually everything corporate copyright interests have asked for, I can’t imagine the CPC proceeding with it, whether they get a majority or a minority. Now that they have tried, they can say to the U.S. administration that it just wouldn’t fly.

I don’t sense the same threat I once did about this bill. But if you think voting for Stéphane Dion will make it better, that’s your right. It’s a fee country, but if you are a conservative as you suggest, you will regret it if he ever gets into power.

Last election that became reality! as both MP Sarmite Bulte and Lisa Frulla
were soundly skewered in the media for taking CRIA and Recording Industry America campaign funds , or involved in their fundraisers. So in
some sense its better blogging to remove a Heritage Commitee member, rather than voting at all! I believe the following spring most of the
major Canadian recording Labels left the CRIA, even popular mainstream
Canadian artists know they will not be served well by copyright legislation.

There really is no mechanism for the funds to get to a Canadian artist anyway, (unless they play live) , for example an IPod or blank CD levy sits in a fund, its anyones guess how these levies, taxes , penalties or proposed fees actually help an artist create anything!!!!

In the ‘philosophical’ sense though, we are largely moving into a
‘determinist’ era , any ‘freewill’ thought is not of concern to government.
They will do what is best for themselves only, after all the Conservatives
called me to ask how well Stephen Harper is doing (largely so they can
ascertain how many riding they will win before an election is even called)
I’m not sure why he needs a pat on the back from me?
‘Attaboy’ Stevie! LOL