Ever since Industry Canada released
an independent
study
it sponsored on the impact of peer-to-peer file sharing in late 2007,
the Canadian Recording Industry Association has worked overtime to try
to discredit it. The independent study, completed by two European
economists, reached the following two key conclusions:
When assessing the P2P downloading population, there was "a
strong positive relationship between P2P file sharing and CD
purchasing. That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P
file
sharing increases CD purchases." The study estimated that 12 additional
P2P downloads per month increases music purchasing by 0.44 CDs per year.
When viewed in the aggregate (ie. the entire Canadian
population), there is no direct relationship between P2P file sharing
and CD purchases in Canada. According to the study authors, "the
analysis of the entire Canadian population does not uncover either a
positive or negative relationship between the number of files
downloaded from P2P networks and CDs purchased. That is, we find no
direct evidence to suggest that the net effect of P2P file sharing on
CD purchasing is either positive or negative for Canada as a whole."
In recent years, Warner Music has become infamous
for "muting" the sound on hundreds of YouTube videos that include music
over which they hold copyright. While takedowns of full copies of songs
is their prerogative, the effect of muting user-generated content that
may have a snippet of a song as background for a non-commercial work is
precisely why the Canadian government introduced the so-called YouTube
exception into Bill C-32.
This weekend, Warner Music's policy hit an unlikely target - NDP MP
Charlie Angus. Angus reports
that he tried to post one of his old CBC radio documentaries on Carrie
Chenier, the first woman underground miner in the uranium mines of
Elliot Lake, on Youtube.
She discusses work as a single mother as well as the fight for
compensation for the cancer victims in the uranium industry. At
least that's what Angus says the discusses. Since there is
apparently some Warner Music owned audio in the background, the entire
video has been muted so that it cannot be heard. It is
these kinds of situations - non-commercial new uses of works that do
not have a substantial adverse impact on the underlying work - that
make the UGC provision in Bill C-32 a positive step forward that users
and creators.
The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics has released its study on privacy and social media.
The report includes recommendations for new Privacy Commissioner
guidelines. The NDP supplemented those recommendations with nine
additional legislative proposals that include mandatory security breach
disclosure, order making power for the Privacy Commissioner of Canada,
and the inclusion of privacy issues as part of a national digital
economy strategy.Apr.23/13Comments (1)
The federal government has responded
to a question from MP Charlie Angus on privacy and security breaches by
revealing that there have been thousands of breaches over the past
decade. The stunning response acknowledges over 3,000 breaches that have
affected over a million Canadians.Apr.23/13Comments (0)
The debate over the state of wireless competition in Canada continues to rage. Last week, I appeared on CBC's The Current,
as part of a 30 minute segment devoted to the wireless industry. The
issue was also discussed during Question Period at the House of Commons,
with Industry Minister Christian Paradis focusing on competition and consumers:
We want to enhance competition and investment in this country, and
this is why we adopted this policy back in 2008 for the AWS spectrum.
Let me say that the price went down by an average of 11% since then, and
we will continue this way with the 700 megahertz spectrum. We launched
consultation with the industry to make sure that we enhance competition
and provide better choice and better rates for our consumers.
OpenMedia has an interesting post
that takes a close look at the claim that the large Canadian geography
is responsible for high cell phone prices. The post notes that coverage
actually focuses on as little as 20 percent of the country. Apr.22/13Comments (0)
Ted Menzies, the Minister of State for Finance, yesterday delivered a talk
on the Canada - EU Trade Agreement that marked an important shift in
the government's rhetoric on the agreement. Aside from a bizarre
reference to the value of the agreement being $17 trillion dollars
(total Canadian GDP is $1.8 trillion), the talk is most notable from the
move away from promising swift completion of the agreement. After years
of setting missed deadlines, Menzies now says there is no deadline for
completion, suggesting that the government is beginning to hedge on
whether there even will be a deal. I wrote about the prospect of the agreement dying altogether last month.Apr.11/13Comments (0)
Peter Nowak is back with another thorough debunking of many of the wireless myths about the competitiveness of the Canadian market. Apr.11/13Comments (0)
Peter Nowak has a great post
that takes another look at the state of the Canadian wireless market.
Nowak uses the latest data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wireless
Matrix to find that the Canadian carriers' ARPU ranks as the highest in
the world, that profit margin is the fifth highest in the world, and
that Canada's smartphone penetration is not nearly as strong as some
suggest.Mar.18/13Comments (2)
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has released a report that finds that online music piracy does not harm sales. The report
examined the browsing habits of more than 16,000 European consumers. It
found that an increase in clicks on infringing sites led to a small
increase in clicks on authorized music sales sites.Mar.18/13Comments (2)
The National Post has a disturbing story on a new code of conduct at Library and Archives Canada, which appears to muzzle librarians, going so far as to describe teaching or speaking at conferences as "high risk".Mar.18/13Comments (7)
Last week I wrote about the National Post seeking $150 licences for posting short
excerpts online. It appears that the paper has now dropped the system.
