Internet anonymity and hyperlinks to become illegal in canada?

[Rainbow Dash]

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/05/10/will-anonymity-and-hyperlinks-be-illegal-in-canada/


I’ve blogged before (http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/04/13/harpers-promise-a-warrantless-online-surveillance-state/) about Stephen Harper’s tough-guy campaign promise to bundle up and ram through a bunch of crime bills within 100 days of gaining his majority. One of the three bills he’s mushing together deals with online crime, focusing of course on the usual boogeymen: child porn and hate speech. I’ve pointed to one atrocious aspect therein—Lawful Access, which will allow police to demand all sorts of information about Canadians from their ISPs without having to bother with pesky warrants. Here are two more reasons to be very concerned about/appalled with the upcoming legislation:
It can make linking illegal.
From the Library of Parliament’s legislative summary (http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/LegislativeSummaries/bills_ls.asp?Language=E&ls=c51&source=library_prb&Parl=40&Ses=3):

Clause 5 of the bill provides that the offences of public incitement of hatred and wilful promotion of hatred may be committed… by creating a hyperlink that directs web surfers to a website where hate material is posted.
That’s just stunningly ignorant. Let’s put aside the ridiculous leap of reason that equates linking to something with saying something, and instead direct our attention to the sheer stupidity of this law on technological grounds. Namely, we usually do not have control of the things we link to. They can change. So if something I link to later becomes “hate material” then I will suddenly be guilty of a hate crime. Any sound legal advice in a country where such a law exists would be to stop using hyperlinks entirely, as they present too great a liability. And that would sort of kind of make the Internet itself illegal.
It can make anonymity and pseudonyms illegal.
Here’s the Library of Parliament explaining (http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/LegislativeSummaries/bills_ls.asp?Language=E&ls=c51&source=library_prb&Parl=40&Ses=3) a change from an earlier version of the bill:

…regarding the offences of sending a message in a false name (via) telegram, radio and telephone. Clause 11 of the bill amends those offences by removing the references to those specific communication technologies and, for some of those offences, substituting a reference to any means of telecommunication. As a result, it will be possible to lay charges in respect of those offences regardless of the transmission method or technology used.
Wow. No “false names” on the Internet (or through telegrams, which bothers me less). Real names only kids—that’ll thwart the perverts!
To be clear: I do not believe that the Harper government is plotting to criminalize the Internet itself. Hey, Lawful Access started as Liberal legislaion! But whoever wrote it, it’s a terrible and stupid piece of law, and one that would never have survived committee in one piece. But Stephen Harper has promised to ram this stuff through, and now he has the majority to do it.
Shouldn’t someone tell him what’s in there?


So yeah, moving to Germany or something.

[paladin]

Canada > US

oh wait...

[JackalStomper]

I LOVE GOVERNMENT

[Warsaw]

Why is it that the UK and Commonwealth governments have a Big Brother complex? Oh yeah, that's why...because it always seems to happen to them.

USA is scary and all, but threat of lawsuit usually stifles this kind of thing. If our government wants to come and get us, they'll just do it without making a big deal by making it legal first. We don't have rights if we don't exist...:tinfoil:.

Oh, there's also that pesky Bill of Rights. Does Canada have one?

[Rainbow Dash]

Oh, there's also that pesky Bill of Rights. Does Canada have one?

Not if it gets in King Harper's way!

[Hotrod]

Harper is a fucking idiot. I have no idea how he won the election, let alone doing so with a majority. I love my country, but seeing shit like this...well...I think you can tell how I feel about it.

[Warsaw]

Makes you want to just pack up and move to Scandinavia, don't it?

[n00b1n8R]

So if Canada's shit, how's the netspeed in NZ? Or do I have to move to Sweden to enjoy the 21st century?

[TVTyrant]

Why is it that the UK and Commonwealth governments have a Big Brother complex? Oh yeah, that's why...because it always seems to happen to them.

USA is scary and all, but threat of lawsuit usually stifles this kind of thing. If our government wants to come and get us, they'll just do it without making a big deal by making it legal first. We don't have rights if we don't exist...:tinfoil:.

Oh, there's also that pesky Bill of Rights. Does Canada have one?
Also our government is afraid of its people because we have so many guns, and 90% of soldiers are either black/redneck so they hate the government. The US Federal government would be FUCKED if they ever tried to do anything that would actually effect its people.

[Pooky]

Also our government is afraid of its people because we have so many guns, and 90% of soldiers are either black/redneck so they hate the government. The US Federal government would be FUCKED if they ever tried to do anything that would actually effect its people.

I think there was some kind of analogy about a pot of water and a small animal. Help??

[Warsaw]

Not true. Most people in the United States have an apathy towards anything government related unless it affects how much money is in their pockets. All the government would have to do is say "free money" to distract everyone from the big picture.

[Mr Buckshot]

Crap, now I can't troll on sites like Stormfront and Chimpout and Newnation and post things like "Hitler was part Jewish" or "black people own your supremacist asses" :/ When I was bored, sometimes I'd just register on these racist websites and post a troll message and watch the anger flow in before the ultimate ban!

Seriously though, this kind of garbage is going to be as effective at stopping online crime as my high school's internet filters were at stopping Facebook access.

[TVTyrant]

Not true. Most people in the United States have an apathy towards anything government related unless it affects how much money is in their pockets. All the government would have to do is say "free money" to distract everyone from the big picture.
Damn you and your reality!

[Kornman00]

Easy way to solve this: assassinate this fucktard. I mean come on, there are plenty of crazy people who kill over less, surely one of them could be recruited to take this clown out...or just hire an ex-special forces guy, I'm sure they could always use the extra income.

Seriously, if one animal comes into another animal's territory like it owns the place, that intruding animal is either going to get fucked up, or killed. "Civilized" is just a word made up by big wigs to keep the lemmings inline while they have their way with them. So hide your kids, hide your wife, because Canada's Harper is going around and having his way with everyone.

The world can always use one less politician...

[Amit]

Easy way to solve this: assassinate this fucktard. I mean come on, there are plenty of crazy people who kill over less, surely one of them could be recruited to take this clown out...or just hire an ex-special forces guy, I'm sure they could always use the extra income.

Seriously, if one animal comes into another animal's territory like it owns the place, that intruding animal is either going to get fucked up, or killed. "Civilized" is just a word made up by big wigs to keep the lemmings inline while they have their way with them. So hide your kids, hide your wife, because Canada's Harper is going around and having his way with everyone.

The world can always use one less politician...

LOL. Auto-tune the news should do a Canadian version of the Bed Intruder song.

Harper...And this is the guy Freelancer supports. How and why? Fuck it's beyond god.

[Phopojijo]

Freelancer's a Conservative? I'm guessing it's for the guns.

Frankly I voted for whoever would give the biggest middle-finger to Bell/Rogers.

[Mr Buckshot]

I voted for whoever didn't hijack all my Youtube videos with annoying ads pleading people to vote for him.

[TVTyrant]

Easy way to solve this: assassinate this fucktard. I mean come on, there are plenty of crazy people who kill over less, surely one of them could be recruited to take this clown out...or just hire an ex-special forces guy, I'm sure they could always use the extra income.

Seriously, if one animal comes into another animal's territory like it owns the place, that intruding animal is either going to get fucked up, or killed. "Civilized" is just a word made up by big wigs to keep the lemmings inline while they have their way with them. So hide your kids, hide your wife, because Canada's Harper is going around and having his way with everyone.

The world can always use one less politician...
Only racists and... No thats it. I can't think of a single political assassination that didn't have to do with either race or nationalism (semi race). I seriously cannot think of one. Ghandi? Maybe. But wasn't he killed because he wanted to abolish the caste system or something?

[Amit]

Freelancer's a Conservative? I'm guessing it's for the guns.

Frankly I voted for whoever would give the biggest middle-finger to Bell/Rogers.

Ye. The Tories didn't even address the big telecoms in their 2011 platform.

[=sw=warlord]

Only racists and... No thats it. I can't think of a single political assassination that didn't have to do with either race or nationalism (semi race). I seriously cannot think of one. Ghandi? Maybe. But wasn't he killed because he wanted to abolish the caste system or something?

JFK?

[TVTyrant]

JFK?
Good point, I totally spaced. Although, if you believe J. Edgar Hoover was behind it you could make the case it was because of JFK's stance towards improving race relations.

[Warsaw]

Freelancer's a Conservative? I'm guessing it's for the guns.

Frankly I voted for whoever would give the biggest middle-finger to Bell/Rogers.

Lol, that's probably the most sensible reason I have heard from anyone about why they voted for who they did. If we get a candidate in 2012 that gives the finger to AT&T, Time Warner, and Verizon, I will probably vote for him/her as long as there isn't something else that is compromising.

[thehoodedsmack]

Whaaaaaat. As a Canadian, and as an internet user, but more importantly, as a personal who has even the slightest comprehension of modern technology, I hate this. This is dumb, and the people who drafted it are dumb.

[Limited]

Wow, that's his way of adapting common law to the internet?

Could be worse, people are being taken to court in UK for simply re-tweeting a message that basically said someones name.

[=sw=warlord]

Wow, that's his way of adapting common law to the internet?

Could be worse, people are being taken to court in UK for simply re-tweeting a message that basically said someones name.

Ryans name is all over the news papers, even if people were taken the court I doubt they'd get far.

[Limited]

Ryans name is all over the news papers, even if people were taken the court I doubt they'd get far.
The twitter posts were before ANYTHING else was made public. Thats where it all started. Ryan's taking them to court, they have already served papers to Twitter.

[Rainbow Dash]

Who the fuck is Ryan

[PlasbianX]

Who the fuck is Ryan

Andrew Ryan.

[Rainbow Dash]

Who the fuck is Andrew Ryan

[=sw=warlord]

Who the fuck is Ryan

Some football/soccer player who cheated on his wife with a woman and has been granted a super injunction on his affair getting out to the public.
Basicly a bigger idiot than tiger woods was.

[Rainbow Dash]

Some football/soccer player who cheated on his wife with a woman and has been granted a super injunction on his affair getting out to the public.
Basicly a bigger idiot than tiger woods was.

Christ

Sounds it.

[Limited]

Some football/soccer player who cheated on his wife with a woman and has been granted a super injunction on his affair getting out to the public.
Basicly a bigger idiot than tiger woods was.
Expect Giggsy was known more of a family man than Tiger. He was well respected by everyone (even myself) yet I have lost a lot of respect for him.

What a bitch imogen is though, she sold out and is receiving a 6 figure salary to appear in a betting advert wearing a (Ryan) Giggs shirt.

Anyways, so is the whole hyperlink idiocy actually going to become a law or is it currently just a possibility?

[=sw=warlord]

What a bitch imogen is though, she sold out and is receiving a 6 figure salary to appear in a betting advert wearing a (Ryan) Giggs shirt.



Whose the bigger sell out?
A woman reigning in all the cash she can from an affair or the man she had an affair with who had a married family and yet still chose to trade them for the woman he had a affair with?

[Rainbow Dash]

Anyways, so is the whole hyperlink idiocy actually going to become a law or is it currently just a possibility?

Harper has a majority government now and he can do whatever he wants now, and he's already expressed his desire to bring this into law within the first 100 days of office.

[Warsaw]

Get ready to start singing Heil Harper, guys.

Fake E: Ooooh, that sounds too close to the original...same number of syllables AND the same consonance...

[=sw=warlord]

Get ready to start singing Heil Harper, guys.

Fake E: Ooooh, that sounds too close to the original...same number of syllables AND the same consonance...

Better start learning those harper youth songs Freelancer.

[Amit]

Better start learning those harper youth songs Freelancer.

LOL. For some reason I feel like this isn't actually going to happen. It's just doesn't make any sense. How in the world could they possibly enforce something like this? Get the ISPs to block all websites that have hyperlinks? And do they plan to make illegal all forms of hyperlinks? You can have local hyperlinks to other locations on a secured local network or computer that are guaranteed not to be changed by anyone.

[thehoodedsmack]

They're not outlawing hyperlinks, they're saying that hyperlinking to offensive material would be a crime. Therefore, it would be in a person's best interest not to use hyperlinks, in case it ever accidentally linked to something that met those requirements.

[Amit]

But you couldn't know if the link has changed so the only way to do what they want their law to do is to make hyperlinking illegal altogether. Not unless you right-clicked, copied the location of the link, and then pasted it into notepad to see if it could have hints of offensive material.

Also, the government has ONCE AGAIN approved my school of extra ancillary fees and increases to the current ones. One of the added fees is an ancillary fee FOR the ancillary fee. They also removed the following payment options: credit card, debit, and cheque payments. Do you believe that shit? The institutions are free to increase charges year by year and the government isn't even checking to see if the charges make any sense! Fuck this Conservative HELL!

[Rainbow Dash]

Hahah so who else is jumping ship whenever they get a chance?

[Warsaw]

LOL. For some reason I feel like this isn't actually going to happen. It's just doesn't make any sense. How in the world could they possibly enforce something like this? Get the ISPs to block all websites that have hyperlinks? And do they plan to make illegal all forms of hyperlinks? You can have local hyperlinks to other locations on a secured local network or computer that are guaranteed not to be changed by anyone.

It's the idea that's the most dangerous part. It takes root and starts festering, infecting all of your liberties. Before long you are living in a state that controls everything you do. It happened to Germany in essentially the same way, though towards the end of the conversion Hitler sped things along with some mass assassinations.

[TVTyrant]

Nazi Germany, in MY northern neighbor? Its more likely than you think.

[Cortexian]

Not concerned about this at all, nothing will get done about it. Similar things have been tried before with no success, this is no different.

[Warsaw]

Doesn't make it any less fun to poke at while we can.

:v:

[Cortexian]

It's pretty simple really, the RCMP handle all cyber-crime in Canada. They've stated that they don't have the man-power to worry about pirates let alone people posting links to websites that are probably nothing more than e-bullies running their mouths.

heh.

[Rainbow Dash]

What does that matter at all, if they get the law in place and wanted to they could pull this bullshit on anyone in the country.

[Rook]

What does that matter at all, they have the law in place and if they wanted to they could pull this bullshit on anyone in the country.

Although I think it's another thing that won;t come to light, simply having the law in place if it went through is complete bullshit.

[Cortexian]

Even if the law were passed, the RCMP wouldn't enforce it so it's kinda pointless in the first place.

[Kornman00]

It's like a "gateway drug", expect in law form. They start here, what's to stop them from approving other absurd laws, that could wind up being enforced? They get that itch and they just want to keep on itching it.

You can learn a thing or two from us southerners and our pansy ass gov't, who just chanted "four more years!" to the Patriot Act :fail:.

[Rainbow Dash]

^^

Pretty much if they can pass this kind of bullshit, whether or not they would enforce it, just opens the way to even more ridiculous laws that they could enforce, along with deciding to enforce this.

This just has no place in our legislation.

[TeeKup]

Why the fuck was Harper elected into office again?

[Amit]

For many reasons. Take your pick:

-Downplaying of the election in non-Conservative areas + huge upplay of the election in heavily Conservative areas
-Conservatives called up people in Liberal/NDP regions and told them that their voting station was changed. They ended up getting confused, lost time and weren't able to vote
-Liberals campaigned like shit
-Conservative attack ads worked?
-Lord Voldemort wanted it this way

[thehoodedsmack]

It's really because we have two liberal parties and one conservative party. If people voting for NDP and Liberal combined all their efforts into one party, I'll bet they would have beat out the Progressive Conservatives, but people aren't coordinating their votes. The mindset should have been keeping conservatives out of power, not electing their preferred liberal choice. Either would have been more palatable for the country. People should have just sucked up their pride and worked together to keep conservatism out.

[Hotrod]

Not to mention that Conservatives were also campaigning on election day, which is illegal. But hey, since they now have a majority government nobody can do shit about it...

[Cortexian]

Not to mention that Conservatives were also campaigning on election day, which is illegal. But hey, since they now have a majority government nobody can do shit about it...
The Conservatives = / = Steven Harper.

[Rainbow Dash]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2009/06/19/tech-internet-communications-electronic-police-bills-surveillance-follo-privacy.html

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5733/125/

just gonna leave these here

[Amit]

The Conservatives = / = Steven Harper.

Steven Harper is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Therefore, the Conservatives were campaigning on election day. President Bush was the commander-in-chief of the US armed forces. He sent American troops into Iraq in 2003. Therefore, the United States of America engaged in combat operations in Iraq. Same thing.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2009/06/19/tech-internet-communications-electronic-police-bills-surveillance-follo-privacy.html

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5733/125/

just gonna leave these here

You just can't defend Harper on things like these. I don't even hate Activision this much.

[TPBlinD]

If any of you think that the NDP would have been a better option.... lol

[Amit]

NDP, Liberals...either are preferable to this mockery of the Canadian people.

[TPBlinD]

Not at all. NDP isn't really viable when it comes to leadership... What up Bob Rae?

[Warsaw]

Is there any acceptable middle to you guys? If so, at least you have options.

Down here, neither party is viable for leadership. Too many connections, too many backs to pat, too many political booby traps. Finally, there is no middle.

[TVTyrant]

Is there any acceptable middle to you guys? If so, at least you have options.
I have been thinking this the whole time about the recent Canadian election. It seems like there is no middle ground politically.

[Rainbow Dash]

If any of you think that the NDP would have been a better option.... lol

lol hi guys I'm blind and I say the ndp isn't a good party despite the fact they have never been in power and I can't base this on anything.

[=sw=warlord]

lol hi guys I'm blind and I say the ndp isn't a good party despite the fact they have never been in power and I can't base this on anything.

If you believe that just because a party has never been in power that they couldn't possibly be a negative influence then you would probably believe the [UK] BNP would be the greatest political party in the history of UK politics.

[thehoodedsmack]

Conversely, if you think that just because the current official opposition has never been in national power that they couldn't possibly be a positive influence, then you're equally naive. I'm not a personal fan of the NDP, but Blind's position here is unsupported.

[=sw=warlord]

Conversely, if you think that just because the current official opposition has never been in national power that they couldn't possibly be a positive influence, then you're equally naive. I'm not a personal fan of the NDP, but Blind's position here is unsupported.

I'm simply saying, you cannot base an opinion on how a party would react to being in power without looking through their policies first.
These kind of thing's (http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Canada+undermining+treaty+toxic+substances/4947897/story.html)are what people should be looking for rather than whether or not they've been in power before.

[Rainbow Dash]

I'm simply saying, you cannot base an opinion on how a party would react to being in power without looking through their policies first.
These kind of thing's (http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Canada+undermining+treaty+toxic+substances/4947897/story.html)are what people should be looking for rather than whether or not they've been in power before.

Seen.

How terrible they're trying to enforce safety over economics?

I'm not sure where you're trying to go with this example.

[=sw=warlord]

Seen.

How terrible they're trying to enforce safety over economics?

I'm not sure where you're trying to go with this example.
Economics can go screw itself, what use is economics if the people it relies upon are dying due to carelessness.
What I'm saying is you simply cannot base an opinion of whether or not a party has been in power or not.

[thehoodedsmack]

Agreed, but I can base my opinion on whether this particular issue, namely internet anonymity, would have been better handled by a non-conservative government, by simply policy analysis. And on that front, the answer is a resounding: YES, it would have been handled MUCH better.

[Rainbow Dash]

Economics can go screw itself, what use is economics if the people it relies upon are dying due to carelessness.
What I'm saying is you simply cannot base an opinion of whether or not a party has been in power or not.

Oh, ok, thought you were trying to say something a little less obvious heh, but yeah, I agree.

E: Also what Smack said.

[Kornman00]

too many political booby traps. Finally, there is no middle.
Yeah, they really need to stop putting traps in their cleavage :maddowns:

Oh wait, we're talking about politics? Nvm, nothing to see here :cop:

[TPBlinD]

really?
Because they have been in power. What up 12 billion deficit......

[CN3089]

really?
Because they have been in power. What up 12 billion deficit......

Hmmm yes tell us more about basing your opinions on an NDP government that was left holding the bag after the Conservatives and Liberals lead Ontario into the biggest recession since the 1930s :allears:

[TPBlinD]

Yeah. So an NDP leadership couldn't handle economic downturn due largely in part to their leadership inexperience.....
Wait, wasn't there just a recession?

[Warsaw]

Yeah, they really need to stop putting traps in their cleavage :maddowns:

Oh wait, we're talking about politics? Nvm, nothing to see here :cop:

Political boobies are saggy, flaccid, wrinkly bags. They are traps by themselves. Do not want. :v: