So, let’s say you bought a Hollywood movie on DVD for, say, twenty bucks. And that twenty bucks went to the distributor and studio, as it should. You’re going to the cottage for the weekend and want to watch your movie there but your damned DVD player is busted so you rip the copy-protected DVD to your iPod.

Problem solved, right? Well, if you read the fine print of Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s Bill C-61, which criminalizes at least half of all Canadians, you could find yourself forced to pay statutory damages of $20,000 per infraction.

Let’s say you’re even more of a thieving scumbag than the person in the example above who, by the way, did actually pay $20 to the film industry. Let’s say you mutter “fuck you, Hollywood” under your breath and download (while simultaneously uploading using P2P software, as is the norm in such endeavours) the aforementioned movie, paying no money to anyone. Under Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s Bill C-61, which criminalizes at least half of all Canadians, you could find yourself forced to pay statutory damages of $500 per infraction.

So now you’re perhaps thinking “wow, that Bill C-61 is fucked-up and totally retarded.” And you would’t be alone. But lest I repeat myself unnecessarily, let’s allow Mr. Prentice the opportunity to prove, with his own words and abrupt departure from a CBC radio interview, how very little the man who’s tabled the bill actually understands about the implications of his own proposed legislation.

And you can do exactly that right here:

Kind of takes your breath away, huh? Could legislators (and the industry lobbyists who probably wrote the bill) be any less aware of how modern technology is utilized by ordinary Canadians? Or, if they are, could they hold ordinary Canadians in greater contempt? Doubtful.

Seriously, people, get informed and speak out against this idiotic legislation.