U.S. senators ask Ottawa to stop movie 'piracy'

Two U.S. senators have written to the prime minister and three cabinet ministers asking the government "to crack down on video and audio piracy, specifically banning the recording of movies before they are released to video."

"Walking into a cinema and surreptitiously videotaping a movie is clearly wrong, clearly inappropriate, and something that should clearly be prohibited," Senators Diane Feinstein and John Cornyn said in the March 1 letter.

Clearly these two need to get themselves a thesaurus and/or proofreader. Better yet, keel-haul them!

They said that since the U.S. introduced tougher rules, the business has simply moved north: Camcordings made in Canada rose 24 per cent in 2006, compared with 2005. The illegal recording and sale of movies will "continue to mushroom" unless the government passes a new law to "help end this most egregious form of copyright piracy," the senators wrote.

The Conservative government is reportedly trying to develop a new copyright law. A bill proposed by the previous Liberal government died before it could be passed.

Canadian law today allows patrons to copy movies in theatres, as long as it's for personal use. It's illegal if the copy is to be resold, but once the copier says it's personal, all theatre owners can do is throw them out, the senators said.

Shiver me timbers! Don't these swabs have something better to do?