Rich Fiscus
28 Jul 2008 20:15
In May Canadian journalists began reporting on their government's involvement in drafting a controversial new intellectual property treaty with other affluent countries including the US. It turns out that's not the only copyright-related activity they've been hiding from their citizens.
It seems that there's also an internal government an Intellectual Property and Trade Advisory Group. The group is apparently comprised of representatives from 12 government departments and 14 different lobbying groups, including lobbyists for the music, movie, and software industries.
According to columnist Michael Geist, several industries are conspicuously missing from the group in the area of telecommunications, technology, and the internet. Privacy groups are also not represented on either the private or government sides.
Among other responsibilities, this group is supposed to be consulted about all aspects of the controversial ACTA treaty, which the public has been largely kept in the dark about. They're also being forced to sign confidentiality agreements, meaning they couldn't discuss the matter publically even if they wanted to.