Archive for April, 2006

Report Questions UK File Sharing Costs

The Guardian runs a story on a Jupiter Research report that finds that the UK's recording industry has overestimated the costs of file sharing by as much as a factor of four.  The report doubts the industry's methodology and its claim of the impact of P2P on sales.

Read more ›

April 13, 2006 Comments are Disabled News

More Unintended Consequences

The EFF has updated its report on the "unintended consequences" of the DMCA, citing numerous examples of the law's chilling effect on speech and innovation.  With seven years of experience, when does unintended become intended?

Read more ›

April 13, 2006 2 comments News

The Internet Way To Address Canada’s Cultural Deficit

The departure of six leading indie labels from CRIA is timely given that my Lawbytes column this week (Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) focuses on Canada's growing cultural deficit.  Late last month Statistics Canada released data on Canadian trade in cultural services.  The data tracks the import and export of cultural services such as film production, television broadcasts, and music royalties. The latest report reinforces the economic importance of cultural services – imports and exports total nearly $5 billion per year in Canada – as well as the apparent inability to reduce the "culture deficit."  That deficit, which reflects the gap between the amount of money flowing out of the country relative to the amount coming in, now stands $546 million dollars, up from $477 million the year before. 

Virtually the entire deficit stems from copyright royalties and broadcasting fees.  The copyright royalty deficit, which stands at $358 million, comes from nearly every cultural sector. Two dollars of copyright royalties exit the country for every one that enters in the writing market, three dollars exit for every one in the music industry, and four dollars exit for every one in the film industry. The broadcasting industry is the most lopsided.  Reflecting the enormous popularity of U.S. television shows in Canada and the limited success of Canadian television productions outside the domestic market, Canada faces a broadcasting fee deficit of $363 million as well as a broadcasting copyright royalty deficit of $150 million.

The growing deficit signals the need for industry leaders and policy makers to rethink how Canada develops and promotes cultural services.

Read more ›

April 13, 2006 2 comments Columns

The Internet Way To Balance Canada’s Cultural Deficit

Appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on April 13, 2006 as Megaphone to the World Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage, the two government departments jointly responsible for Canadian culture, are generally perceived to focus on the issue from competing perspectives. The economic impact of the cultural sector falls within Industry Canada’s […]

Read more ›

April 13, 2006 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

Removing the C from CRIA

The Canadian Recording Industry Association's submission to the CRTC's Commercial Radio Review may go down as one of its biggest blunders.  Earlier coverage of its submission focused on the Pollara report (here and here) that contradicts many of CRIA's claims regarding file sharing and consumer music purchasing habits.  Earlier today, […]

Read more ›

April 12, 2006 7 comments News