Post Tagged with: "cpcc"

Survey Finds Declining P2P Usage in Canada

The Copyright Board of Canada conducted hearings today on the private copying levy.  Included as part of the evidence was a major survey (not online at the moment) on music copying conducted for the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) by Reseau Circum.  The CPCC, which counts CRIA General Counsel Richard Pfohl as one of its board members, has tracked music copying habits since 2001-02. 

The headliner in the latest survey is that file sharing activity is in steady decline in Canada.  The survey, conducted in June 2006, finds that just 14 percent of Canadians have downloaded music in the last 12 months, down from 15 percent in 2005, 19 percent in 2004, 21 percent in 2003, and 21 percent in 2002.  It goes without saying that this finding comes despite the absence of lawsuits, the absence of copyright reform, and the continual (yet questionable) claims that Canada is a world leader in file sharing.

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October 24, 2006 12 comments News

30 Days of DRM – Day 14: Private Copying (Circumvention Rights)

Several postings have noted that Bill C-60, the last failed attempt at copyright reform, sought to link anti-circumvention with copyright infringement by only making it an infringement to circumvent for the purposes of copyright infringement (thereby preserving user rights such as fair dealing).  There was a notable exception, however – private copying.  By excluding private copying, the bill made it an offence to circumvent a TPM (such as a copy-control on a CD) even if the purpose of the circumvention was to make a private copy.  The rationale behind the exclusion was that the private copying system is designed to be compensatory, with the rate reflecting the amount of copying that is actually occurring in the marketplace.  Supporters of the private copying exclusion argue that if copy-controls become pervasive, the amount of private copying will decline and so will the private copying levy.

This is pure fiction.

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September 1, 2006 1 comment News

The Private Copying Survey

The Canadian Private Copying Collective is out with an Environics survey it commissioned on Canadians' attitudes toward the private copying levy.  While I give full marks to the CPCC for releasing the survey results in full (presumably it would have been made available as part of their submission to the Copyright Board anyway), it is time to declare a moratorium on the use of polls as policymaking.  As I have noted before, CRIA's regular Pollara polls are rendered useless by virtue of the omission of key questions, inconsistent results, and the lack of public awareness on the issues.

This CPCC study falls into the same category.

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August 31, 2006 5 comments News

Federal Ct Issues Nearly Million Dollar Fine For Failing to Pay Levy

A federal court judge has fined Vortek Systems, a Montreal-based electronics retailer, nearly one million dollars for failing to pay the private copying levy.  The company was ordered to turn over the unpaid levy amounts ($1.65 million plus interest) along with a penalty of just over $900,000.  Vortek denied that […]

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March 17, 2006 1 comment News