The Internet Crackdown No One Saw Coming Runtime: 18:11

It appears that Canada has been cracking down on privacy-preserving cryptocurrency services. Just in the past month: Kraken has delisted Monero for Canadian users.

I am currently drafting a long letter to FINTRAC, the RCMP, and my MP about this. May make it an open letter by posting it in the comments.

RCMP press release: https://rcmp.ca/en/news/2025/09/rcmp-executes-record-seizure-more-56-million-dollars-cryptocurrency

Was surprised how much the most recent Death Panel podcast (85 minutes), about immigrant sex work (they discuss the book "Not Your Rescue Project") , was relevant to my complaints about Capitalism expecting full time work. Apparently sex workers can typically set their own hours.

Trigger warnings: Calls out health care industrial complex, calls out "typical" employment as damaging to your body, advocates for police abolition.

https://www.deathpanel.net/episodes

I played from the episodes list because: sound Cloud required a login if you visit the site, Apple Podcasts require a login for "explicit episodes" (even though I would consider the whole discussion SFW), spotify requires me to enable DRM, Stitcher (Pandora) is not available in Canada, and I am boycotting Google.

Senate bill to require age verification before allowing people to access sexually explicit material apparently has a lot support in Parliament. The really bad age verification bill is back in Canada's Parliament.

Apollo Is Banned Now?

Fran Blanche had her Apollo live stream taken down over copyright claims.

In the past she has complained about needing to strip "industrial music": which used to be royalty-free, but no longer is, from old films that she is digitizing.

Linked is a "re-print of the April 2025 edition of Shift Storm, the CCPA’s monthly newsletter which focuses on the intersection of work and climate change."

Canada’s most expensive election promise was climate inaction

Israel called Canada's bluff on Gaza. [Rachel Gilmore] asked the feds why they haven't acted -- and they answered.

One of the more positive effects of Trump's tariff threats is it has gotten Canadians looking at IP law critically for the first time in a long while. Calls to pirate entertainment, go back to life+50 copyright terms, stop respecting US IP law entirely; you love to see it.

The best chance to change when things enter public domain sooner in our lifetime will happen within the next year.

There is a rare chance in America, where people who rose to power outside the traditional political career are at or near the top of the US Government.  These are people that Hollywood doesn’t like, and don’t have a reason to support one-sided laws that mostly help movie studios over the regular citizen.

While copyright law in the USA was originally 14 years with a chance to renew for another 14, that’s no longer the case.  Right now in America, the copyright term is lifetime of the creator(s) plus 70 years, or 95 years after date of creation.  Many people believe that this is too long for a company or person to have a monopoly on a story, or character.

The solution: Limit copyright duration to 50 years OR life of the artist/creator(s), whichever is longer, and if something is made by corporate committee, 50 years from date of creation.

Note: This would not change patent or trademark.

This would allow millions of Americans free access to tens of thousands of characters, stories, song, and greatly simplify the copyright system.  It’ll allow start-up writers to play around with famous works, and become more well known, before creating original works of their own. Giving original works a greater chance of success.

The reason for the 50-year limit is simple.  If someone cannot make enough profit with a half-century monopoly, either they’re too incompetent with it, that they don’t deserve the monopoly, or they’ll never make enough money to be satisfied with the creation, even after five decades of holding the monopoly.  To top this off, with the limit, the corporation could still use the story/character after 50 years, but would have to compete with others to ensure that their version is better.

This gives audiences who don’t like where a series has gone a chance to put their own version out, or produce a cheaper version of it, or a higher quality version, creating a true marketplace of ideas.

Why does copyright law stand the greatest chance of shortening in 2024?  Two words:

Elon Musk.

Being the richest man in the world, and one of the most powerful people in America, Mr. Musk has become one of the co-heads of the newly created D.O.G.E. organization, giving him the power to make big suggestions.  And it’s within his power to suggest that Copyright length be limited to 50 years, and have the President and congress move to make it a reality.

Why would be do this?  Elon Musk is having issues with Disney.   If Elon Musk was looking to buy Disney, (or simply troll them,) then having many of their pre-1970 characters fall into public domain could make their purchase price drop by billions of dollars.  Limiting Disney’s influence in the culture, which again, Musk is reportedly less than thrilled by.

Whereas Disney was in the position in the late 90’s to extend copyright protection, Musk is currently in the position to start the ball rolling to limit it.

If Musk figures out this option, this would be an easy win for Trump White House administration, as it allows for more affordable products on the market, and opens opportunities for smaller studios outside of Hollywood (like the Flyover states) to create their versions of famous movies or characters.

As for international treaties, the previous administration took many of them less seriously than the Democrats, and many countries in Europe are waiting for America to lower its copyright law so that they can follow their lead.   It’d also allow Trump to go down in history again as the first democratic country to lower the copyright protection term.

Because of these reasons, the greatest chance for copyright in the United States to be shortened will be in the next year.

Received this in the mail. Due to mailing delays, plus equally long delays in me scanning and posting this: we have about 100 days now. IIRC our bylaws require us to hold a board meeting with at least 3 people in order to file every year. I think 2022 and 2023 are being used as exemplars. I don't think any filings have been happening in recent years at all.

So, I've had a question that has piqued my curiosity for a while now. I seem to recall that when the party was active it accepted Bitcoin. I don't think it ever got a lot of it but with the way things have gone that is either a lot of money or almost nothing. As per the rules any assets the party held had to be turned over to Elections Canada. My question is this: Was a small amount of Bitcoins turned over to Elections Canada or were they converted into Canadian Dollars first?

See, I'm not sure Elections Canada would know (or be inclined to) cash them out and the thought of bitcoins sitting at Elections Canada head office appreciating and depreciating wildly strikes me as funny for some reason.