CBC Radio's Search Engine just posted/aired its interview with Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice about his Canadian version of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. They've been trying to get him on the air for months now and he finally consented to ten minutes, but he delivered nothing but spin and outright lies about his legislation and ended up hanging up on Jesse Brown, the interviewer.
You have to listen to this — in it, the Minister lies, dodges, weaves and ducks around plain, simple questions like, "If the guy at my corner shop unlocks my phone, is he breaking the law?" and "If my grandfather breaks the DRM on his jazz CDs to put them on his iPod, does that break the law?" and the biggie, "All the 'freedoms' your law guarantees us can be overriden by DRM, right?" (Prentice's answer to this last one, "The market will take care of it," is absolutely priceless.)
Ten minutes' worth Prentice's only interview with the national radio network's most tech-savvy program about his new, sweeping tech bill leaves us with the inescapable picture of a Minister who either doesn't know what's in his own legislation (he repeatedly says, "Well, that's a very technical question," as an excuse for why he can't answer it) or doesn't care if he presents it honestly, so long as it passes.
I can't wait for Charlie Angus to play this back in Parliament during the next Question Period: Ministers who lie on national radio about their legislation don't fare well in Parliamentary democracies.
(Thanks to everyone who sent this link!)
(Disclosure: I am a paid columnist for Search Engine)
