This camcorder law is the movie industry's first step to making ALL copying illegal in a criminal sense (not just in a civil sense). If they manage to accomplish that they will then use the police to go after the 'offenders'. Today they have to hire their own lawyers and go to civil court, which costs them money. Once they manage to 'criminalize' this, they NO LONGER HAVE TO PAY FOR THEIR OWN LAWYERS. They can have the Canadian taxpayers pay for ALL of it, while they continue to reap all of the profits.
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CAMCORDER RECORDINGS.
As several people already observed – these are crap, no one likes them and few would actually watch them. It is easy to see that this camcorder law is a solution in search of a problem. It is instead, actually just the first baby step of something much more insideous.

We the Canadian Public must not continue to tolerate our own politicians caving in to Special Interest Lobby Groups – particularly ones that are not even Canadian. This issue will eventually affect all of our lives as much as global warming does today – just give it the same 50+ years to ferment. If you think I'm crazy, then ask 'How much sense would it make to let the manufacturers of industrial chemicals, determine what the pollution laws should be, for the amount of industrial waste allowed to be dumped into a major waterway? Do you think that any laws made in those conditions would help the general public who is living near those waterways?' 50-75 years ago, that was viable thinking.

Tell every politician at every level of government, who comes to shake your hand and ask for your vote: "Stop giving your political attention to the special interest lobby groups – Start working on matters of concern to the GENERAL PUBLIC or we will NOT vote for your sorry ass."

Even the big kahuna, Mr Harper got on the global warming bandwagon once he saw the polls that showed his non-green policy was dropping his party support through the floor.

PUBLICIZE every detail of every politician who supports these corporate weasals. If enough people do this we may start to uncover the political favours that are being traded behind closed doors. And then we can replace or jail (depending on circumstances) the ones who are responsible for the continued pusuit of profit at the expense of all else and all others.

If a business can't stand on it's own; can't be profitable without asking for new restrictive laws to be passed in order to change the market conditions – then it's not a business anymore. Politicians need to let it die so that something more suitable and efficient can take it's place. It is not the job of the politician to do the work of the business owner.

The best way I can think of to improve the situation is through massively available public knowledge of which politicians do and don't support these kinds of special interest laws. It should be somewhat easy to see that a politician is 'in bed with' a particular lobby group where everyone is able to watch their historical performance record as time goes by.

The Canadian Public needs to take back control of Canada – our voice is only getting weaker and weaker.

Maybe we need some more, new, criminal laws to protect our politicians from undue corporate influence – including mandatory jail time for corporate executives whose companies are found to be in violation?

As to the pirating issue, there are several things to consider with "pirated" movies/games/TV-shows/books/etc…

number 1: "pirated" is the wrong word. If your friend buys a film, and you borrow it, watch it at home and return it to him, is that pirating? no. The downloaded movies are the same thing. You always have the legal right to make a personal back-up copy of your media, if you let someone borrow this, for no financial gain to yourself, you have done NOTHING wrong. Many of the best internet "pirates" provide films and DVD-rips free, posting copies where all can access them and download them for no financial gain. These people are doing this simply to share an artform. This is not pirating, it is sharing and what did we all learn in kindergarten? Sharing is good.

number 2: if they pirates really were killing the movie industry, they would stop. They know that if there is no more money for movies, then no more movies will be made. The good pirates always say: "If you liked this (game/movie/TV show/etc…) then support it and buy a genuine copy. There is nothing better than an original." Pirates don't want to kill Hollywood, and Hollywood knows that.

number 3: if Hollywood was concerned with artistic celebration, they would understand that making movies for the pure pleasure of making a great movie means that you don't care HOW your movie gets out there, only that people see it and can enjoy it. This is something that has, unfortunately been lost. In Sweden, home of thepiratebay.org, several prominent bands have distributed their ENTIRE album free via torrent from thepiratebay.org these people know that if the fans like them for their music, they will be supported. They also know that a CD is distributed in one region while a torrent is global. They receive donations from people who have listened to, enjoyed and want more music. They figured out that donations of few dollars donated DIRECTLY to the artist is better then the ten cents per CD sold a record company would have given them.

number 4: pirates will ALWAYS find a way. No matter the laws, the code, the encryption, they will ALWAYS find a way. The thing is, the stricter the system becomes, the more turned off people will be, and the less people will go. Yes, they can stop people from filming in the cinema, but honestly, who wants to pay 30 dollars per person to be stripped naked, and packed into a well illuminated room surveyed by armed guards just to watch "bratz: the movie"? No one. But, even then some brave pirate will be wearing a papier mache shoulder and head with a camera hidden inside, ready to share with the rest of the world.

number 5: Canada has about 33 million people, the greater New York metropolitan area has 22 million, the greater Los Angeles area has 17 million. So, Hollywood is complaining because a country with a population less than two United Stats cities is copying some movies? It's honestly, a joke. The only people I know who have bought pirated DVDs, got them on trips to New York.

number 6 (only has to do with TV-Shows): stations like ABC, NBC, CBS, all provide their top shows, streming on the web free of charge the day after they air. But, only to Americans. That's right, it's all there, but only if you're an american citizen, with an american IP, sitting in your american home. So, I download the show, two days after it aired, from someone who saved it in HD, and has happily removed all the commercials. That's right, I get my one-hour program, (now only 40-mins with the commercials removed) two days after it aired. I would have gone to NBC.com and watched that episode of "Heroes" but, I'm proudly not an american. If the show is great, I'll still buy the DVDs when they come out.

Truth of the line is, hollywood actors don't need to make 40 million dollars per film. Watch IFC, there are actors there who work for free, the entire movie was made on a shoestring (literally, you can see it hanging in the background) and it is ten-fold better than the current hollywood blockbuster.
I am one person, if I didn't download the movies that I watch, I would never see them. I can't afford to go to the cinema regularly, and I can't afford to buy the DVDs. (although Hot Fuzz may be worth a week with no groceries…) There was a cinema I used to go to that sold tickets the way tickets should be sold, 5$ for adult, 3$ (includes a small popcorn) for children and 2$ for anyone on tuesday. Life was good, i could go 15 times for what I pay now.

For those of you concerned with viruses, the good torrent sites remove any files found to have viruses. As well, the people who comment on the torrent will state that there is a virus and there will be no seeders for that file. Guaranteed, if you find it on a good torrent site (thepiratebay.org is the world's best), and from a good source (see the dedication below) there will be no viruses, only quality.

Note: I only download TS, R5s or DVD-rips of movies, no cams.

This comment is dedicated to those who struggle to produce great-quality work for no financial gain, aXXo, PUKKA, TRiBAL, LTT, RELOADED, Razor1911.

As for supporting the film and music indutries, I'm sick and tired of having to pay a levy on recordable media especially when I use it for distibuting my own developed software.