April Reign is the latest blogger to try to stir up controversy in regards to the March for Life banner, which contains a Canada logo.
In this most pathetic attempt at scandal-mongering, not only does April Reign get her facts wrong, but I am virtually certain she infringes on someone else's copyright.
She writes:
It seems passing strange to me that those who so devoutly wish to force their religious beliefs on an entire country are so out of touch with the tenets therein.
When the question was rightly asked why the official Canadian logo appeared on some March for Life banners a spokesperson replied that such theft is a common occurrence. How odd.
I have been the most prominent pro-life blogger to address this issue. So I assume this is about what I've said.
I wish to make clear: I am not a spokesperson for Campaign Life.
April Reign could have had the decency to reference the comments in question, but as the women at Bread n Roses have a habit of boycotting my name because they don't want to give me or my blog any publicity, they don't feel they have to properly attribute my words. I remember learning in college that when you take other people's words and re-word them in your own work, you're supposed to give proper attribution. It's basic courtesy to the original author and to the reader. But I guess basic courtesy is too much to expect. Innuendo is what matters. Not facts.
Indeed, copyright infringement is a common occurrence among the general population. If you look on April Reign's blog, she quite readily swiped a still from this video:
If you go to about 3:45 or so, you will see that still is the same as the image on her blog.
How interesting that when it serves her purposes, she denounces copyright infringement in others, but she feels it's perfectly okay for her to do it.
The bible I read specifically spoke of theft as wrong, certainly not something to be justified and brushed off.
I do not know of anyone who made a justification for copyright infringement. My point was that the moral outrage shown by certain bloggers in favour of legalized abortion is greatly disproportionate to the offense. Why is it disproportionate? Because many people do not consider copyright infringement to be a serious offense, especially when it is inadvertent and involves no severe loss of money, and most people do it.
I anticipate the next objection: are you saying morality is determined by public opinion?
Of course not. But what constitutes a scandal IS determined by public opinion. Public personalities and elected officials can commit serious breaches of morality, and the public will not really consider it a scandal because they don't care..
And the nature of the alleged breech is fairly minor. It was most probably inadvertent. It was most probably done without malice or bad intentions. It consisted of a point a law that could be easily overlooked and often is.
But don't try to explain that to them.
There is, of course, the real possibility that such use of logo was sanctioned by the Harper Government™. In either case I believe we are owed an explanation.
I have repeatedly said, and I know for a fact, there was no government money going towards the March. Of course, they will misrepresent my words as being from Campaign Life when it is politic for them, but when I speak the truth as someone who attends Campaign Life meetings, they won't take it.
How very convenient.
There is simply no government sponsorship whatsoever. They would love for it to be the truth so that they can make a scandal out of it, but they have simply jumped the gun.
They are trying to make a scandal out of the alleged misuse of a trademark. Even if such were the case, I am certain there was no malice in this alleged misuse, no more than April Reign had in using a still from a video.
I don't think these bloggers understand the underwhelming nature of this pretend scandal. They do not understand that the innocent oversight of trademark law of a government of Canada logo is not a scandal in most people's minds.
They are certain that there must be some dark underbelly to this whole affair, because that's what they're hoping for.
There's nothing to find. They fuel speculation for the purposes of smearing the Conservatives and Campaign Life, but there is simply not a whole lot to see.
The worse that's going to happen is that a government lawyer will write Campaign Life a "cease and desist" letter and the logo on the banner may be painted over next year. I predict nobody is going to end up in court over this. No elected official is going to publicly answer for it. Campaign Life is not going to suffer. The only people who are going to lose out in the end are the scandal-mongerers themselves for jumping to conclusions before having the facts and for creating a tempest in a teapot.
_________________________
Visit Opinions Canada
a political blogs aggregator
_________________________
