Oh, Canada.  Land of people who wear red suits and drive around on snowmobiles 365 days a year while guzzling maple syrup and petting beavers.  

Oh, and we’re also a nation of evil pirates, apparently.  

In the USA, the International Intellectual Property Alliance is pushing the government to toss Canada on the same slag heap as China, Russia and Belize, saying that failure to modernise copyright laws has made it a hotbed of illegally copied movies, pirated software and game console modchips.  Actually, Canada’s been on a low priority watchlist for three years now, but the IIPA says that it appears that hasn’t made any difference, so they want us bumped up to the high priority list.  Failure to toe the line after that could result in heat from the World Trade Organization and sanctions.  

Industry Canada officials say the government is working on copyright reform and will take as much time as it requires to make sure that the revisions have been fully thought through.  The IIPA says that they’d better hurry up, because “highly organized international-crime groups have rushed into the gap left by Canada's outmoded copyright law and now use the country as a springboard from which to undermine legitimate markets in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and elsewhere”.  

Read more at The Globe And Mail.

Apparently, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia are as pure as the driven snow.