News

Linking Ottawa Record Seller Case With CRIA $6 Billion Class Action

As a follow-up to the Ottawa record store that pleaded guilty to copyright infringement over 100 CDs, the store owner's lawyer makes the connection between CRIA bringing a case against thes store owner while facing a $6 billion class action lawsuit for failing to pay artists.

11 Comments

  1. Dallas Hockley says:

    Can somebody explain to me how they violate Canadian copyright?
    Ok, I’m at a loss to figure out how imported CDs are violating Canadian copyright if they aren’t replicas of discs otherwise available in Canada or are illegal copies of other discs made overseas. Can anyone point out more information on this aspect and details on how this can occur?

  2. Who Cares…
    For what it’s worth, the CRIA deserves every cent of it off their goddamn pockets. No matter what they did, karma has come back in their faces.

  3. Ok…Never Mind
    About the record store problem, that crap feels like a so-called “drug sting operation”, which is ridiculous. But the last comment I said about who cares, I meant the CRIA not the record store owner. The record store owner doesn’t deserve it at all.

  4. @ Dallas Hockley
    It’s all about control – they tell you what you can listen to and when and they will NOT be challenged.

    “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”. – Martin Luther King

  5. Dallas Hockley says:

    Karma for sure… control… you have choice
    I have no problem with the CRIA getting hoisted by their own petards on this, right up to their own maximum penalty. As for control, look for indie labels, not just “not the big 4” but labels not owned by the big 4, which takes a bit. Buy direct from the artists.

    As for the store owner, I don’t know if he’s fully in the right, but he is certainly a lot cleaner than the CRIA is!

  6. @Dallas Hockley
    When I went back to the Ottawa Citizen article that described the guilty plea, it doesn’t describe why the CDs were considered to be copyright infringement. That would have been useful in trying to understand why he was charged, and would have added to the discussion.

    If he bought them from offshore bootleggers, then I can see why. It gets grayer if it was legal production in the source country; for instance if the the copyright term had expired, but not in Canada. Unfortunately the article did not cover the why, just that he pleaded guilty.

  7. Some collectors will purchase “bootleg” music that are rare recordings of old concerts, etc that were never officially published. It could be that these were the sort of cds that were infringing. It doesn’t explain why he would be targetted though.

  8. Appeal Fund, Anyone?
    Just a thought re: Legend Records, is all…

  9. @crade
    “It doesn’t explain why he would be targetted though. ”
    -The RIAA et all are fishing around to ‘produce’ (they think their good at producing) as much evidence of the rampat piracy of ALL forms in Canda before the laws they are attempting to purchase come in to effect. This way after their purchased laws come in to effect, they ignore all infringments and claim the infringments decline therefore the purchased law is doing it’s job.

  10. @db – wouldn’t that be the opposite of that the “purchased law” is supposed to do? If we are busting people it means the current laws are working. (Even though they are applying them with a blindfold on).
    But if they want to bust counterfitters, there are *good* examples of stores that *do* need to be busted sitting right in the open making no attempt to hide their counterfitting at all. (As there also is in the open in the US, in mall of America for example).
    I am completely baffled that the cops would go to such lengths to go after the small infringments while leaving the big obvious ones on display for tourists.

  11. tell the police where
    I can state that these discs were overseas bootlegs, copies of CD’s. They are still available from legal wholesalers, if the store owner wanted to acquire them legally. He chose not to, and then tried to suggest it wasn’t his fault because they were “offshore” disc’s. The newspaper story never mentions the warnings he received to remove the offending items either. My point is he had knowledge that he was infringing, asked to stop, but made a decision to continue selling anyway. The police had to then do something to call his bluff. The point is well made that others infringe, so all you need to do is tell the police and the rights holders to look into those other infringing stores as well. They will do it, so instead of complaining about it here, give the police a call about the stores you are talking about and see what happens, if they don’t stop after their warnings.