Is there anyone more knowledgeable or engaged on the Internet than Heritage Minister James Moore?
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He’s probably the most web-savvy MP in the entire Conservative caucus, if you can believe it.
He’s so connected to digital culture, he’s often seen carrying an iPod around. An iPod! He listens to it so much, he’s even known as the “iPod Minister.” What are his House of Commons opponents using? Discmans?
The truth is, with his iPod, Moore is light years ahead of many of us.
And as if that weren’t cutting-edge enough, he’s on Twitter, too. Joined in April of 2009 – a few years after everyone else, but probably an early adopter compared to those Luddites in the Senate.
So when it comes to drafting new digital copyright legislation, Canada has absolutely nothing to worry about. James Moore is in charge.
In all likelihood, Moore will, for the third time since 2005, table a bill that mimes the United States’ nightmarish Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (The previous two tries at this legislation, Bills C-60 and C-61, were the object of intense protests and eventually failed.)
Rumour has it that this will occur in early June.
Moore has divulged only a few hints about what this version will look like. He says there will be a public consult on the bill, which, if it follows the pattern of past incarnations, will be more like a cross-country vacation for him.
But leaked reports have surfaced revealing that the bill allows rights holders to haul whoever attempts to copy protected content – say, burning a copyrighted CD or sharing an MP3 file online – into court. It calls for harsh penalties.
It would be “the most anti-consumer copyright bill in Canadian history,” says Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. Thousands of others have similarly chimed in with grave concerns over the bill.
But how is Moore expected to hear all these complaints with his iPod blaring? Seriously. If you have something to say, send him a message on Twitter. He gets right back to you.
For example, one user tweeted that if Moore paid more attention to the bill, his constituents would be less worried about it.
Moore’s reply: “And if people waited to read things before passing judgment on them, we’d live in a better world.” Which he followed up with: “You have no idea.”
What a visionary. Unfortunately for Moore, though, only a handful of Canadians share his vision.
joshuae@nowtoronto.com
