The other morning The Portable Consultant caught the second part of a two part interview (RealMedia ram) with Canada’s Industry Minister Jim Prentice on CBC’s (very) early morning business show, The Business Network.

(It’s sad that this business show is relegated to the ridiculously early time slot of 5:45 AM in Canada’s centre of business, Toronto. As well, it’s ridiculous that the content of this show is not available via RSS as a podcast/netcast that could be accessed at a reasonable hour given that there are now dozens of other shows available in that format! …but I digress.)

It was telling that the whole second half of the minister’s time was on the issue of copyright legislation. Secondly, it was somewhat odd that he chose the example of a software program rather than anything related to the real issue of digital rights management versus fair use in the area of consumer entertainment media such as music CDs or movie DVDs.

Did you catch that? He said Canada needs “cutting edge” copyright legislation and gave computer software as an example, not DRM. Now I could just assume he’s been burned by Michael Geist’s ongoing Facebook campaign against the Conservative government’s proposed legislation. Or I could sarcastically suggest he hasn’t been listening very well to the lobbyists who have been pounding at him to align Canada’s legislation with the United State’s Digital Copyright Millennium Act (DMCA) rather than taking a more reasoned approach such as jurisdictions such as the European Community…
…or… or… I could make the paranoid suggestion that someone has been talking to the Minister about how Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is threatening software companies who follow the proprietary software model… and he’s become a bit confused about the two issues.

So, which is it?

• Avoidance of the issues? – expected of politicians.

• Confusion of digital media versus software programs? – expected of politicians renowned for their lack of technical understanding.

• A whiff of anti-open source lobbying going on in the wings? – ok, so that’s a paranoid thought… but… but… entirely plausible.

Since the Minister gave fully half of his interview time to this issue it would be very interesting to know, but unfortunately none of them reflects very well on the Minister’s approach, his knowledge, or the drivers behind his legislative agenda.

The host of Business Network, David Gray, did not delve into the Minister’s position at all… in fact, he only served as a platform for the Minister’s bland statements. He let the Minister off far too lightly, even for a business reporter. Hopefully, other CBC reporters will take up the slack. In any case, Canadians can inform themselves at Michaels Geist’s excellent blog post: Ten Questions for Industry Minister Jim Prentice.

Happy New Year!
-pmh