[kwlug-disc] Asking questions of candidates during the election.

[Paul Nijjar]

>   Mr Braid has seen my "4 things in my hand" presentation, so has been
> introduced to the idea that there are potentially 4 owners to consider
> in digital copyright legislation.  He will hopefully understand what
> someone from his constituency would mean if they asked how he would
> work to protect all owners implicated by digital copyright legislation
> (I would be very interested to know if that is true, and whether he
> understood the issue!)

I am also interested in knowing this. I hope to attend at least one
all-candidates meeting, and if the question comes up I will try to
report back. 

>   If I were asking a question at an all candidates debate in the
> riding, it would have the following flavour (Please use your own words
> -- I'm told I talk/type funny :-):
> 
> "Bill C-32, which died on the order paper when the election was
> called, seemed to only consider one owner.  A typical scenario which
> this law would regulate might impact the rights of four owners, and
> many believe that Bill C-32 abandoned protecting the rights of the
> other three owners.   If elected, what will you do to protect the
> rights of copyright holders, owners of tangible media containing
> copyrighted works,  the competitive software marketplace, as well as
> the owners of information technology."

I have to say that I think this kind of question is going to fly way
above the heads of the candidates, including Peter Braid. But we'll
see. 

Although I am being a cynical stick-in-the-mud about this I really
appreciated this post. It was a good summary of the discussion so far.
I have to admit that I feel entirely powerless about this issue (and
about the entire election), however. Why? This is why: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je7MqES4Wfk

Oh well. Nobody said that doing one's democratic duty was supposed to
be fun. 

- Paul 


> 
>   In my own riding I have always sent out a questionnaire first, so
> that all candidates are given the opportunity to have thought about
> the question.   While I only get a minute to ask my question, they
> have the opportunity to give much longer answers.  You can't be making
> a speech or educating people in your question, so you have to have set
> out the groundwork for your question to work well.
> 
> 
>  Hope this is helpful, and will encourage people to get involved in
> their local campaigns.  Please remember that since so few people
> actively participate these days that a small group of individuals can
> have a large influence.  Please don't discount the impact of your
> voice!  And please be willing to lean on those of us who have been
> hammering at this for a little bit longer.  I'm no expert on any of
> this, but willing to share anything I've learned thus far with fellow
> community members.
> 
> 
> *1:  I wish someone had told me I would have become a "lifer" in this
> area of policy in the summer of 2001.  I might have just deleted that
> message from Montreal warning me that Canada was contemplating passing
> a DMCA :-)    Naw, probably not... Hacking this type of code (legal
> code, public policy) is kinda fun too..  "Hack the Planet" really does
> start in your electoral district :-)
> 
> -- 
> Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
> Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
> rights as owners of Information Technology. Sign the petition!
> http://fix.billc32.ca/petition/ict/
> 
> "The government, lobbied by legacy copyright holders and hardware
>  manufacturers, can pry my camcorder, computer, home theatre, or
>  portable media player from my cold dead hands!"
> 
> _______________________________________________
> kwlug-disc mailing list
> kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org

-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org