Today is Dave Winer’s 50th birthday. Happy Birthday, Dave!. Love him or hate him, the guy speaks his mind and has definitely had an impact on the software business. I’ve been reading Scripting News for at least 6 years, and reading Scripting News is without a doubt what led me to implement RSS on my own site back in ’99.
In an annual report regarding intellectual property, the US has put Canada on watch for not implementing stupid laws like the DMCA.
This represents the first shot across the Canadian bow. If history is any indicator, the copyright reform plan is going to face an onslaught of U.S.-backed lobbying for stronger protections in the months ahead.
So, if Canada does not go along with laws that do not work, will the US start levying import duties on Canadian IP? That would be a bummer, because then I couldn’t afford that Celine Dion CD. (Of course, there are other Canadian musicians that do respectably well stateside: Alanis, Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Our Lady Peace, Rush…)
Given that I don’t agree with the DMCA here, I certainly wouldn’t want to support strongarming other countries into implementing similar laws there.