An article in the Ottawa Citizen says that the federal government plans to enact a new law making it illegal to use handheld cameras to copy movies in theatres. This follows intense pressure from the US entertainment industry.

While I don’t condone that practice, one has to question whether the law is necesssary. Existing laws may be sufficent, and stats used to show Canada is a haven for that activity are inconsistent at best. Surely our legislators have more important things to deal with.

Shows the power of the entertainment lobby, and also the willingness of governments to bend to the pressure. This is not a comment aimed at the current Canadian governing party – it seems to be the same no matter who is in power, and is not limited to Canada.

Read the Ottawa Citizen article

Read a recent comment by Michael Geist questioning the problem