Luc Latulippe

Despite electing ourselves a slimy extreme right-wingnut anti-gay, anti-women, anti-minority Conservative government yesterday (y'know, to replace our ethically-challenged Liberal government), some good things did happen in some ridings. For one, Toronto's "Hollywood MP" Sam Bulte lost to NPD rival Peggy Nash. Bulte has recently been

embroiled in a scandal when it was revealed that she had financed her election campaigns at the entertainment industry's expense, and subsequently brought down proposal for extremist, US-style copyright laws. (source: BoingBoing.net)

I'm extremely grateful for people like Peggy Nash, along with folks like Canadian law professor Michael Geist and Cory Doctorow, as well as bloggers across Canada for speaking up on Bulte's actions, and for voters who listened to what was going on. Bulte claims to be defending creator rights, but I'm not convinced she was the least bit sincere about that, particulary because until she began receiving huge "donations" from the entertainment industry, she never cared two cents about creator rights. It doesn't help that she allegedly plagiarized materials for an article she wrote, ironically in order to defend herself and speak up about the importance of copyright.

Some gems from Ms Bulte:

"I will not allow Michael Geist and his pro-user zealots, and Electronic Frontier Foundation members to intimidate me into silencing my voice," she said, adding that she believes Mr. Geist's comments are nearing the point of being defamatory (see video here).

And afterwards, regarding Mr Geist again, she added:

"I am not going to sue him before the election but dammit, watch me after the election."

So, while I'm all for protecting creator rights, it should be done for the right reasons and be in the hands of those very creators.

Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya on yer way out, Sam.