Steve, Prentice might be your strongest Minister, but don't put him in charge of CSIS

You would think that if you are the people in charge of developing the new copyright laws for the internet, you might be smart enough to know that your government IP addresses are recognizable.

The CBC reports that our Industry Minister, Jim Prentice has had his people busy editing his Wikipedia entry, "removing mentions of the recent copyright-reform controversy and hailing the minister as personifying "experience, confidence and competence, ability and capability."

From a leaked draft of the bill, expected to be presented today, Prentice's proposal is being compared to the highly contentious US DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

Critics claim that while Prentice has said that his bill would 'put consumers first,' the leaked draft of the legislation showed otherwise. Of course Prentice has remained silent on the details of his bill and has refused to meet with protesters that went to office to express their concern about his apparent about face.

Anyway, all that part was removed by an Industry Canada computer and replaced with:

"Recent developments have shown that no such draft legislation exists and that Minister Prentice has yet to publically release any documents on the copyright issue. Minister Prentice is expected to draft a bill on copyright that will strike a balance between consumers and producers, while bringing Canada in line with current WIPO international standards."

I guess that is one way to cover a leak and hey while there, why not polish up the boss's resume.

"Prentice has been praised for his strong management of the Industry portfolio. He has been dubbed the unofficial deputy prime minister, and is seen as the strongest Minister in the Harper government."

Apparently that last part was later removed. Anyway Michael Geist, the Internet law professor who has been all over Prentice and the new proposals has all the details here.

I guess the other thing that bothers me about wasting time answering critics through Wikipedia entries is that you could just release the damned bill and let the public see for themselves. These people have way too much time on their hands.