Associated Press Declares Itself Obsolete

Considering the line of work they are in it's somewhat ironic that the Associated Press has, apparently, not being paying much attention to what is going on in the world for the last few decades. That is, apparently, the case though. From Bill Doskoch and the New York Times comes word that the Associated Press has adopted litigation as a method of protecting it's intellectual property from the internet.

"Taking aim at the way news is spread across the Internet, The Associated Press said on Monday that Web sites that used the work of news organizations must obtain permission and share revenue with them, and that it would take legal action against those that did not.
A.P. executives said they were concerned about a variety of news forums around the Web, including major search engines like Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report that link to news articles, smaller sites that sometimes reproduce articles whole, and companies that sell packaged news feeds.
They said they did not want to stop the appearance of articles around the Web, but to exercise some control over the practice and to profit from it."

Asking for compensation from people who copy their articles in whole is fair and reasonable but going after those who link to articles, or who quote them and link to them shows a complete lack of understanding of how the internet and the modern information economy works. It is a policy that essentially says that if you do free advertising for them, they will sue you. Perhaps when visited by the AP's lawyers Google should ask for compensation from the AP for all the publicity they have been getting?

In the interim, until the Associated Press figures this out or goes out of business you might want to find another news source to link to online.

61 Problems With Bill C-61

For the last 61 days Dr. Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa has posted 61 problems with Conservative bill C-61 which pretends to be a copyright bill but is ultimately one of the most draconian laws anywhere in the world. It is a law that is almost impossible not to break - for performers as well as consumers.

So it would give the Government, on their own or at the bequest of large media companies, the ability to jail or fine virtually anyone at virtually any time. Have a look at Geist's full list of problems with the bill at http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3385/125/

Conservative Copyright Infringement?

From Michael Geist comes word that Conservatives may be guilty of copyright infringement. This would be especially ironic since they are the authors of Bill C-61 (a.k.a. the Canadian DMCA) which would severely tighten Copyright law (instantly turning the majority of Canadians into criminals.)

First it was the Dionbook page (via Google Cache) and puffins causing them problems and now there would appear to be problems with notaleader.ca as well.

From McLeans:

Yet, on your create-your-own-ad  flash thingy, there are all sorts of video snippets from various networks - CTV, CBC, TVO and possibly others - but I can’t find anywhere that it says that material is being used with permission.

In fact, there’s nothing to indicate where the footage came from at all - which is required if you were planning to use the ‘fair dealing’ exemption, although it’s hard to see how this qualifies as “criticism or review.”

No official word yet from CBC or CTV but TVO has noticed.

The Craft Economy Gets Crafty

Via CBC Radio 2, Toronto band the Craft Economy has begun stapling their CD's to telephone polls along with a statement about Harper's Bill C-61. According to Radio 2 it reads:

"Copyright should protect the rights of artists and producers of creative content, but it should not suppress creative and artistic expression. The Craft Economy has licensed our music, including this CD, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 license. This license gives you the freedom to share our music with your friends and enemies, and remix and use it in new and creative ways, provided you attribute the work back to us, and you don't make money off our work. It's fair for you and us. This is the way art should work."

The Craft Economy has certainly made my radar with this plus they sound a bit like Devo (one of the most influential and creative bands of the last 30 years). I've added the Craft Economy's homepage blog We Make Love to the Music Blogs section of publicbroadcasting.ca and their Myspace Blog to the Band Blogsbecause I admire their courage and creativity and because karma works.

A Few Media Stories:

From Michael Geist comes news that the Conservaitve's Copyright Bill enjoys almost no support at all:

" • 76 percent agree with the statement that the proposed amendments "are being introduced as a result of lobbying by the North American music market"
• 63 percent agree with the statement that the proposed amendments "will expose millions of Canadians to lawsuits by copyright holders"
• 66 percent agree with the statement that the are symbolic that "the government will not be able to enforce the new law""

According to Inside the CBC a new poll from Harris/Decima shows that most Canadians support the CBC's decision on the Hockey Night in Canada theme song:

" (27% of people think the Corp should have shelled out.)
Among hockey fans, the support fell to 52%, but still enough to counter the 40% of these people who opposed the CBC’s decision.
Perhaps demonstrating the quintessential Canadian “middle of the fence” opinion (pronounced “meh…”), 59% of Canadians said they weren’t really moved by the CBC’s loss of the song.
Less than 15% surveyed believed the CBC would lose Hockey Night in Canada viewers because it lost the theme song."

In case you ever doubt that the public owns the telecom companies and can bring them to heel, the Toronto Sun reportsthat in Toronto alone citizens forked out 134 million dollars in the last 6 years for repairs to Bell and Rogers infrastructure.

"Toronto taxpayers have shovelled $134 million into the profits of telecommunications companies, Councillor Howard Moscoe charges.
That's what it has cost city ratepayers over the past six years to maintain and repair local roads dug up by the companies to lay down a web of communication networks, he said."

CBC, Copyright and Candy Bars

CBC Radio 3 did a show on the Conservative Copyright Bill today. You can read the comments here at that link you can also listen to an interview with Jeremy de Beer (University of Ottawa Law Professor). You'll be happy to know that 94% of respondents to Radio 3 oppose the bill, though the vast majority also said they bought alot of music and believed in supporting artists.

One of my personal comments to the blog was mentioned on the air, but misunderstood. I pointed out that according to the Toronto Star:

"In 2007 more than 750,000 albums were released worldwide (by mostly independent artists via the Internet), compared to 38,000 in 2002."

That means that almost 20x the number of (different) CDs were produced in 2007 as in 2002 and I made the following analogy.

"Now let's say you have the only store in town that sells candy bars and, even though you have some problems with shoplifters, you sell 100% of the candy bars sold in town.

5 Years later there are 20 stores selling candy bars (roughly the same as 38,000 compeared to 75,000) - chances are you are selling substantially less than 100% of the Candy Bars. But since you can't think of a way to force the other 19 stores to stop selling candy bars you go after the shoplifters with a vengaence - trying to recoup all of the money you lost from them (even though they are not really the problem). "

In 2008 comsumers have 20 times the choice that they did in 2002. Even though the major labels are producing fewer CDs every year small labels and independent artists are producing far, far more. So I would hold that it is not downloading that is killing the 'music industry' - by which I mean the huge mega labels. It is simply that their share of the market is declining every year. For example, sales of Canadian music in Canada are exploding - for most of the 2000s Canada has enjoyed what I believe is the most diverse, vibrant and talented music scene on the planet. This is a sharp contrast to a few decades ago when most of the music purchased in Canada came from the U.S. or U.K. In fact many independent Canadian acts are selling well around the world. Does anyone really imagine that the big labels (who have few Canadian acts on their rosters) don't feel that?

File sharing, after all, has been around for decades (at least since the invention of the cassette tape). It was only with the creation of inexpensive recording technology, technology that allowed virtually anyone who wanted to, to record their own music that the big labels started to falter.

But they can't come up with a way to convince the government to stop independent artists and small labels from producing music, so instead they are going after the fans - trying to 'recoup' money that they lost - not to downloading but to an inability to compete in an open market.

Speaking of Radio 3, check out Gravity Wave on this week's Radio 3 "School of Rock" podcast. (Don't worry, it's still safe - you won't get arrested.)

Tokyo Police Club Joins the Copyfight

On their Tokyo Police Club has called on Canadians to fight the Conservative Copyright Bill, the band claims amoung other things that the bill is bad for both artists and fans. If all of the thousands of other people screaming about this bill that would make most Canadians into criminals has not convinced you to act, perhaps these guys will.
The blog post in it's entirety is below.

"Hey Friends,

Specifically, this is targeted at our Canadian friends. Not that we don't love the rest of you, because we do, but I wanted to talk about something thats of importance to Canadians. Its the new Copyright bill that was just tabled in Parliament. You may well have heard about it on the news or in the papers or on this fancy pants new "world wide web" that I keep hearing so much about. I can't explain it all that well myself because I'm not all that smart, but if you mosey on over to Michael Geist's informative and well written blog post on the subject you'll be able to read all about it.



Obviously, the bill is meant to protect people who make their money from intellectual property. As musicians, we're among those people. But I think it should be obvious to anyone that this is a law that would work in nobodies favour. I've talked before about the problems posed to us by illegal downloading, and I do think that theres a solution out there to that problem. But this legislation *is not* that solution. Its a big step backwards and will no doubt create more problems than it solves: its a law thats so seriously flawed and obviously ridiculous that it could well drive people to ignore copyright altogether, which would have a very negative result for everyone.



I know that its sort of a foreign concept for people around my age (or younger) to get involved in politics on this level. I've certainly never written to my MP about anything before. But this is a bill that, if passed, is going to cause a lot of problems for you and me, and I think its important that we stand up and make our opinion known. Mr. Geist outlines the actions that you should take and I would strongly urge you to take them. I know I'm going to.



And spread the word. This is being spun as a simple attempt to go after "pirates" and illegal downloaders, but its important that people realize the more sinister parts of this before its too late.



So yeah, thats me expounding about politics, even though I'm just a stupid musician. But its the musicians and the fans that are going to suffer from this! It is a big deal, and every voice counts!



Oh yeah, we also do music. And we're going to keep doing music and playing shows and stuff, so we'll see you soon.



xoxoxo

Graham"

Tokyo Police Club - Citizens of Tomorrow

Copyright Backlash Begins

Michael Geist has another great post today on the Conservative's proposed U.S. sponsored Copyright bill:

"The events of the past six months have demonstrated conclusively that Canadians care about balanced copyright even if the Industry Minister does not.  Over the coming months, I firmly believe that we will see the fair copyright movement expand well beyond what has been just built.  We will see Canadian musicians, songwriters, artists, and filmmakers speak out against this legislation.  We will see companies of all sizes and all sectors speak out against this legislation.  We will see the privacy groups, education groups, and consumer rights groups speak out against this legislation.  We will see the NDP speak out against this legislation.  We will see the Liberals - who are already focusing on the lack of consultation and the prospect of a police state - ultimately identify their Bill C-60 as a better approach and speak out against this legislation.  We will see Conservative MPs from coast to coast (including the Conservative candidate from the forthcoming Guelph by-election) wonder why their party has introduced a bill that runs counter to their own policies and (quietly) speak out against this legislation."

Geist also has links to numerous editorials out today against this bill from newspapers across the country as well as the Canadian Library Assocation, Canadian Music Creators Coalition, Documentary Organization of Canada, and many, many others.

Also with a good blog post (last night) CBC Radio 3's Lisa Christiansen on some of the other reasons why the 'Music Industry' is losing money..:

"Now that you're filled up with talk of the best music in Canada, it's time to remind you that the future of the music business is 15 pop band ... and none of them made the Polaris long list."..."This last point is just to prove that good music will eventually prevail, no matter what the strange people running large companies think. But then they march to the beat of dollar signs, and that really doesn't move me at all."

Finally there is one (also from Radio 3) from Grant Lawrence about the industry's collective tantrum last night.

"Like many of these discussions, it quickly devolved into a bitch-fest of "when I was young" pontificating, most bemoaning being held hostage by music fans taking it for free, and wondering how on earth they'll earn their next paycheque. At one point, a very angry panelist (who is a Toronto punk promoter) grabbed the mic and screamed at the rest of the panel "you people make me wanna puke!" then ranted for five minutes about exactly what everyone else was bitching about."

Imagine if you will a football game, with seconds to go your team is down by 5 points. Your quarterback's pass is intercepted but the guy on the other team who intercepted it starts running the wrong way. With his own baffled teammates looking on and unable to catch him, he is nearing your end zone, about to give your team a free touchdown and the win. Then one of your wide receivers comes out of nowhere and tackles him at the one yard line just as the clock hits 00:00.

That wide receiver is symbolic of the way that large media has handled the internet. They took what should have been the best, easiest business model in the history of business and turned it into one of the great shipwrecks in business history.

The approach being proposed by the Conservatives in Canada is almost identical to the approach taken in the U.S. (no surprise there, it was the US that told the Conservatives to do it.) But the approach in the US has failed. In the States, while pursuing policies that have turned their customers and fans into enemies and resulted in countless lawsuits that the US industry has ultimately lost money on - illegal downloads in the US haven't changed. If anything it's more prevalent than it was when these laws were first enacted. This is no doubt one of the consequences of establishing an adversarial relationship with your customers.

While I urge everyone to keep speaking up, and yelling and screaming and shouting about this - given the almost universal nationwide opposition I am confident that this bill can be defeated. However, if it were to pass Canadian media would almost certainly be in worse shape for it - not only for the reasons listed above but because there would be no more reason to have levies on media (CDs, DVDs etc., etc.,) - they were put in place originally to compensate content creators for piracy. If these new copyright laws (complete with their large fines) were to pass those levies would certainly have to be done away with.

Help Stop (Un)Canadian Copyright Bill

Today the Conservative Government officially introduced what may be their worst bill to date and with this government that is quite a statment.

"The federal government has introduced a controversial bill it says balances the rights of copyright holders and consumers — but it opens millions of Canadians to huge lawsuits, prompting critics to warn it will create a "police state."

This is the same bill the Tories toyed with before being resoundingly slapped down. They have still not consulted the public, nor have they consulted the media organizations and content producers of Canada. Most of whom oppose the bill. So who did they consult? Primarily american and other multinational media companies and the US Government.

Michael Geist does an excellent job of summarizing the major points and the fine print of this particular bill. The primary things it does though is make it more difficult for you to use the media you buy (movies, music, etc) and open up Canadians to the kind of ridiculous, frivolous, counter productive lawsuits that we have seen in the US for over a decade now. This bill and this government must go.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Definitely write your MP, let them know what you think

There is a Facebook group here with over 40,000 members and links to local chapters

Michael Geist has another 30 suggestions over here.

Free Copyright Comic Book

Thanks to Dr. Michael Geist for pointing this out: Appropriation Art a coalition of "over 600 artists, curators, directors, educators, writers, associations and organizations from the art sector. All have come together to express their concern over the state of copyright policy for artists and the future of ‘Appropriation Art’."

The coalition has put together this comic book [2.8 MB - PDF]. The comic book, in addition to delivering it's message contains numerous links to resources and source material. Virtually every line of the comic book links to the source it is referenced from or to other supporting material. Oh..and obviously it's free!



P.S. Appropriation Art's Blog has been added to the Arts Blogs on this site.

Anti-Canadian Copyright Bill Returns

The Canadian version of the American Digital Millenium Copyright Act appears to be on it's way back to Parliament. When the bill reared it's ugly head last time the Conservatives were heavily critisized by Canadian consumers as well as arts and cultural groups for failing to consult anyone (except the large American media companies) before introducing the bill, which coincidentally helped only large American media companies.

As is to be expected in the current political climate the Conservatives have still consulted no one and the Liberals are silent on the issue. It is likely that the Conservatives are hoping to take advantage of the support (by abstention) that they've been enjoying from the Liberal opposition.

The NDP at least has weighed in on the issue:

"Industry Minister Jim Prentice may very well introduce a bill to amend existing copyright legislation before the end of the current session of Parliament in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, there is reason to believe that his bill will be no better than previous attempts, which I, along with the other members of the NDP caucus, felt failed to address the needs of consumers."

So, here we go again. Here are the address' to complain to.

Industry Minister Jim Prentice - Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca, Minister.Industry@ic.gc.ca

Prime Minister Stephen Harper - pm@pm.gc.ca

Find Your Local MP

A Cease Fire in Copyfight?

In Saturday's Globe and Mail John Degen, head of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, declares a personal cease fire in the Copyright wars. He is offering, for free, a PDF version of his most recent novel "the Uninvited Guest" through his website.

"Does this mean I've surrendered, that I agree cultural product should cost nothing to obtain? Not at all. I'm a professional writer and I insist on a viable economic model for my work, and for the work of publishers and booksellers. I'm not giving my novel away out of a sense of hopelessness. Rather I'm investing in my confidence in the literary marketplace.

People who like the download are free to share it and thereby market it. After all, the literary sharing economy was created long before we went digital (think libraries). Those who really like my book can pick up an offline copy from their local bookstore. There are, ahem, a few remaining. Importantly, all this activity will occur within the legal boundaries of copyright law. The Uninvited Guest remains my intellectual property. When it comes time to sell the film rights, for instance, it will be me doing the selling.
Time for us all to take a breath, I think. The war, if there ever was one, is over."

Whatever the future outcome(s) of the copyfight Mr. Degen is positioning himself to win. For over a decade now producers of music, film, television, literature and other cultural works have been fighting for more rights, better enforcement and more money and they have been losing. I think, if you're a producer, you'll find if you start with the supposition that your fans are not your enemies, that you can and should have a symbiotic relationship that it will quickly point the way to the end of the war.
Most content producers, as well as their lobbyists and advocates in Ottawa (and other world capitals) have started with the idea that the audience is the enemy, that your fans are basically criminals who want to do you in and that an adversarial relationship should exist between creators and consumers.
Given this approach it is not surprising that content producers have been losing. Whatever the outcome of all of this the one certainty is that the cooperation of the audience is going to be required for any solution to work. I hope that Mr. Degen's position will result in more Canadian content producers and distributors rethinking their approach.

Canadian Fair Media Coalition

It is nearly election time, you can smell it in the air. With the Conservatives making nearly everything a confidence motion and the Liberals under increasing pressure to either fight an election or replace their leader it has to happen soon. In advance of that election, whether it is called a month from now or six months from now, I am calling for a "Canadian Fair Media Coalition" to pressure all Canadian political parties to put important arts, media and cultural issues on the table for this election.

In short I would like to see:

The death of Bill C-10

Comprehensive Federal Net Neutrality Legislation

A new, completely rewritten Fair Copyright reform bill, one that is fair to both producers and consumers.

Quick implementation in full of the Heritage Committee recommendations for the CBC

Overall increased funding for arts and culture in Canada

and a change in the way arts and culture are taxed to make it easier for Canadian artists to make a living.

I do not know everyones issues and am certainly willing to amend this list, but it is past time to get the discussion started. Naturally, as those of you who know me would expect, I've created a facebook group to organize with http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13606998691.

More Copyright Coverage

Michael Geist reports that the mainstream media has picked up where it left off with reporting on copyright issues.

Over the weekend, the Canwest papers covered the year-end Canadian digital music sales, noting that the growth is faster in Canada than in the United States.  Today, Canwest is back with an article that appears across the country on how a Canadian DMCA could make "everyday habits" illegal.

Public Domain Day

It's January 1 and CopyrightWatch.ca has a list of works that have entered into the public domain as of today.

Welcome to 2008, and let’s welcome into the Public Domain thousands, indeed millions, of creative works from the collective cultural past of our little planet and its many countries. Yes, it’s January 1st, Public Domain Day in most countries of the world, where copyright runs from the death of the author of a work until the end of the 50th, 70th, or some other year thereafter.

American Music Industry Gets Even Dumber

Have you been, like most reasonable people, amazed and astounded at all of the music industry lawsuits in the U.S.? Did you find them a trifle unfair? Did you, for example, think that it was absurd that a single mother in Minnesota was ordered to pay $222,000 for 24 'illegal' songs on her hard drive? Apparently you ain't seen nothing yet.

Hugh McGuire found a Washington Post article this morning that indicates the RIAA is now going after personal use.

"In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer."

Just to be clear, according to the RIAA it is illegal for you to take a CD that you've legally purchased and copy it to your computer or ipod. 2008 may very well mark the end of the traditional music industry but the industry keeps making it harder to have any sympathy. The old music industry chose to take what was perhaps the greatest economic opportunity in entertainment history, the ability to sell and distribute music online, worldwide, with no physical inventory and turned it into what will likely be their epitaph instead.

A Copyright Carol from Galacticast

In answer to your question, yes they are usually this brilliant find more at Galacticast.com

Copyright is Forever

Via Robert J. Sawyer: According to this article from the BBC, Egypt has decided to copyright it's antiquities.

"Egypt's MPs are expected to pass a law requiring royalties be paid whenever copies are made of museum pieces or ancient monuments such as the pyramids.
Zahi Hawass, who chairs Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the BBC the law would apply in all countries."

This law which would, in some cases, extend copyright more than 7,000 years beyond the death of their unknown creators is expected to garner broad support from music and film industry groups.

First DemocracticMedia.ca post

I was asked awhile back to contribute occasionally to democracticmedia.ca and after a great deal of thought I've finally added my first post - which reads alot like this:

---

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."
-Robert Heinlein, 1939

I've been promising for awhile to start contributing to democraticmedia.ca. But, I think that I have a different take on media than most. Deep down I do believe that it would be a good thing if we could force a more diverse media, a Canadian owned media that relied heavily on Canadian programming and had substantially increased public service requirements. These though were largely the unsuccessful fights of a generation ago.

Media is changing rapidly but where it's going is clear. The "convergence" that people have talked about for a decade is happening. More and more every year print media happens on the internet, radio happens on the internet, television happens on the internet and it is not just a few big players. The proliferation of blogs, podcasts, social media and 'user generated content' caused Time Magazine to name 'you' as the person of the year for 2006. Just last week a dangerous, anti-consumer, anti-privacy, copyright bill that large US media companies tried to force on Canada was defeated by the power of the internet.

Additionally, devices like Tivo, the DVR and once again the internet will make watching commercials optional, which means in most cases the traditional television or radio ad will become a thing of the past. At the very least, in the near term, ads will start to lose their value which means declining revenues for broadcasters. Personally I see the current round of media consolidation as an attempt to 'circle the wagons' in the face of declining power, declining revenue and a market that is becoming more fragmented by the hour.

Jello Biafra once said "Don't hat the media, become the media". The reality is that, for the moment, we are the media. Ordinary individuals have more power than they have ever had before. While it is not yet available to everyone, hundreds of millions of people the world over have the power to publish their ideas, their thoughts and their opinions in text, audio or video via the internet. Imagine the implications if Gutenberg's printing press or the power of film or television and radio broadcasting had fallen into the hands of hundreds of millions instead of a few monied individuals.

Given all of this I think it's better to look at where media is headed and try tp put in place a future proofed system that works for all Canadians rather than looking looking at media as it was and trying to go backward.

As I see them, the key issues are:

1. Maintaining a level playing field. In other words net neutrality. If you are unfamiliar with the term, briefly: Without net neutrality some companies, say CTV for example, could buy better access which would mean that internet users who clicked on the CTV site would get priority (faster and easier access) than users who clicked on, for example, democraticmedia.ca. A lack of net neturality could also mean that an internet service provider such as Bell or Rogers could superimpose their ads on your site - like it or not.

2. Fair copyright reform: Reform that respects and rewards artists without punishing consumers, that has reasonable provisions for fair use, educational use and parody, that protects the privacy of consumers and that prevents the kind of endless and unfair lawsuits we've seen in the United States. The alternative, of course, to winning this kind of reform would be a heavier reliance on Creative Commons over traditional copyright. This would mean being forced to ignore content that uses a standard copyright, a huge loss for 'traditional' media, but the audience would be fine.

3. A strong Federal and Provincial to public service broadcasting, including a reformed CBC, provincial public service broadcasters, and campus and community broadcasters.

4. Finally a system that recognizes the importance of arts and culture in society and strives to make it more attractive to consumers and more rewarding (including financially rewarding) to artists.

If all of this were accomplished it wouldn't do anything about media consolidation but it wouldn't matter very much. A system that incorporated all four of the above points would be a system driven by ideas and audience response to those ideas; a system where anyone, anywhere armed with only their ideas and a computer could become part of 'the media' and while they might not have the resources of a CityChumCTVRogersBellGlobeMedia Inc., in the new world of the internet resources only help you to a certain degree, beyond that it's back down to ideas and how well they resonate with the audience and that, to me, is democratic media.

I'm sure I'll post again in the future, but for a first shot I thought some introductions were in order. Normally I can be found at publicbroadcasting.ca or on facebook.

Canadian Library Association Sides With Canadians

Michael Geist points to an article in todays Globe and Mail on the Canadian Library Association's objections to the Government's copyright bill. From Don Butcher, Executive Director of the Library Association:

“This is a battle between Hollywood lobbyists versus the average Canadian,”.

In case you miss it, in the reader comments section for this story Sam Genkins of Toronto has found a quote that seems to sum up the debate nicely:

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."
-Robert Heinlein, 1939