The Parties on Technology Issues

Cross-posted to the BlogsCanada election blog.

In this election, digital rights, spam and other technology issues have quite reasonably taken a backseat to healthcare and national defence. However, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic and Digital Copyright Canada recently surveyed the major parties on their tech platforms. The Toronto Star reports the results (link from Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow, whose disappointed in the NDP).

Coincidentally, about two weeks ago, I emailed the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and Green Party (the Bloc doesn’t have an English language version of their site) with the following question:

Canadian copyright law is in need of reform. Recent technological innovations have rendered the current legal structure archaic. I’ve reviewed your party’s platform, but did not see any references to this issue. Could you please send me some information about your party’s position on this thorny issue.

The Green Party replied with a lengthy but irrelevant treatise about using supporting the open source software. That was, however, better than the other three parties, who didn’t reply at all.