prentice

The
second lock is a technological one that restricts the device to the
Rogers network (and Rogers-approved roaming partners). This provides
Rogers with another guaranteed revenue stream for consumers who wish to
use their device in other countries and effectively locks consumers out
of wireless number portability should a GSM competitor enter the
Canadian market. While Canadian law remains silent on this issue, other
countries, including France and South Africa, have mandated that
carriers offer consumers the option of an unlocked device.

CBC Radio's Search Engine just posted/aired its interview with Canadian
Industry Minister Jim Prentice about his Canadian version of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act. They've been trying to get him on the
air for months now and he finally consented to ten minutes, but he
delivered nothing but spin and outright lies about his legislation and
ended up hanging up on Jesse Brown, the interviewer.

You have to listen to this -- in it, the Minister lies, dodges,
weaves and ducks around plain, simple questions like, "If the guy at my
corner shop unlocks my phone, is he breaking the law?" and "If my
grandfather breaks the DRM on his jazz CDs to put them on his iPod,
does that break the law?" and the biggie, "All the 'freedoms' your law
guarantees us can be overriden by DRM, right?" (Prentice's answer to
this last one, "The market will take care of it," is absolutely
priceless.)

Imagine if the federal government passed a law that would make nearly
half of all Canadians criminals. Imagine if your Internet Service
Provider was obliged to report any customers who up/download more than
20MB per day. Imagine if Canada’s laws were written to protect US
corporations rather than Canadian citizens.