I've just been reading about ACTA, which is an international copyright agreement that nobody but the negotiators and some trade groups (like movie companies) has been able to see. Someone recently leaked a copy, and it's even worse than expected. If you're accused of copyright infringement (and let's be honest: who in my generation is entirely guiltless?) your property can be seized and you can be forced to pay damages far in excess of any potential damage without the accuser even having the need to prove damages. Yeah, I can't see that being abused.
It also mandates imprisonment for infringement for commercial purposes, which includes "significant willful infringements that have no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain." So now we've defined 'commercial' to include non-financial gain. Do these people even live in the same world as us?

I've emailed my MP (also leader of the Liberal party) to ask his opinion, but I haven't heard back yet. Personally I'm doubtful I will.

Considering how completely out of whack this agreement would be with copyright in the internet generation, I can only hope it will fail. More likely, I think that it will pass, and turn out to be so unenforceable and politically unpopular that it is quickly discarded.

Let's face it: people my age expect content online, and we expect it to be free or extremely cheap. Trying to cling to a model that depends on things being difficult to copy is moronic. Copying is what computers do. The internet is an extremely disruptive technology, and this is just one of the areas it is disrupting. When you can't make money by restricting the ability of others to copy your content, you've got to come up with something better. The music industry is in the process of making that change (i.e. charging for shows, or for first access) but the movie industry has yet to realize that their money making model is broken. Hopefully they get their act together before they alienate my generation. I've noticed we're generally willing to pay for things, but not if it's a 20 step process. It should be quick and easy, like every other media transaction in my life. Xbox Live is close, with having streaming shows online, although there I need Microsoft points which is another way of locking in my money with them.

Update: I heard back promptly from one of his assistants who said:

Please be assured the Liberal Party does not support closed door negotiations on important issues like copyright reform. It is unknown to us what will be the result of the ACTA negotiations but the Liberal Party stands opposed to any amendments to the Copyright Act that would force ISPs to enforce copyright law and impinge on Canadians' rights without due process. This is not the responsibility of ISPs. The Liberal Party believes Canada's copyright laws must be modernized, but done openly and in full consultation with Canadians

A bit of a vague answer, but considering it's not even ready to be voted on I'm willing to cut some slack.

Link