Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased with this question. We do not expect any questions from the green foreheads because they have difficulty standing.
I want to answer the question with respect to property rights. One of the best kept secrets in the world is that I have a little company called Epp Software. What I used to do, and still do except it has become rather rusty now, is write computer programs. I used to have a small business and I sold some custom programs.
I was the owner of that intellectual property. When I purchased a blank disk it had a value of $1 or $1.50. After I added my program to it, I was able to sell it for $25 or $30. I added some value to it and it was my right to do that. I was hoping that I would have a copyright that would prevent other people from copying my disks and giving them to other people without penalty. That is what copyright acts are all about. They are to preserve the property of the person who actually made the invention.
It has become a tough situation. The Liberal government has completely failed on this issue. We now have the tax on blank cassettes. In other words, it assumes that people are going to break copyright laws, so they pay a penalty whether or not they break the law. It is the same as giving people speeding tickets in advance.
I am appalled that there are agreements in Bill C-4 that will protect the intellectual rights of the participants in that program, but the Nisga'a people do not even have the simplest of rights. That the government has failed to address that is even a greater travesty.