Supposed 'Grass Roots' Site Pushing For Canadian DMCA Admits That It's Funded By The Recording Industry

Tech Dirt
Jul. 01, 2010

It didn't take long for people to see through the bogus astroturfing site, BalancedCopyrightForCanada.ca, designed to look like a grass roots site in support of the new Canadian DMCA law, Bill C-32. Pretty quickly, people suggested that the site was obviously a front for the big record labels who have been behind the push for a Canadian DMCA for years. The site started hiding some information, but now Michael Geist points out that the site has finally 'fessed up to the fact that it was funded by the CRIA, which is really just the RIAA in Canadian clothing. How very grassroots. It also seems noteworthy that on the advisory board for the site is Richard Owens, the copyright lawyer who, just before the new bill was introduced, got some media attention for his ridiculous attempt to smear the public for their input during last year's public consultation on copyright reform. Of course, those consultations showed an overwhelming majority of those who took part were against a ridiculous digital locks/anti-circumvention policy, which is found in the law. It seems downright laughable that a group pretending to be a "grassroots" group would put on its board a guy who went out of his way to mock and discount an actual grassroots effort.