First I’d like to say I’m Canadian, and secondly I’d like to warn you that I’m injecting myself into the middle of this story, despite my better judgement.
Apparently the Canadian government is a little bit concerned that the iBookstore might overwhelm Canadians with American culture, leaving Canada’s cultural heritage by the wayside. Trust us, the world’s a better place with Margaret Atwood in it. That being said, the issue is also something that seems to be more important to baby-boomers than it is to their children. So, it’s no surprise the Federal government would launch a probe to figure out the implication of the iBookstore on Canadian culture.
Before our friendly brethren to the South get all up in arm and tongue in cheek about the situation, ask yourselves if we have reason to be suspect? How would you feel if 80% of your media consisted of people singing or writing about igloo’s, moose, and hockey? Exactly, it’s the same way we feel about tails from the ghetto, the eagles, and basketball. There’s only so much we can handle, and personally, I’m pretty happy our government is making sure they export Bieber to the US, and only import the good stuff.
John Brownlee, from the Cult of Mac asks, “How can the widespread proliferation of millions of books be suspected of being a detriment to culture?” It’s pretty simple John, most of these books talk about your heritage, not ours. We want to make sure our kids can still read about the Canadian experience in 10 years instead of having to force them to read Huckleberry Fin.
That being said, the iBookstore is a bit of a stretch, and if the Federal government has any real problem with the lack of Canadian representation in the iBookstore they should be talking with publishers in an attempt to get them included in the service. That’s the real problem here, ass backwards publishing / media objectives disguised as Canadian protectionism. Canada needs to stop protecting major television companies and book publishers who fail to innovate; instead, they should be forcing them to engage in the modern electronic world.
Article Via Cult of Mac
