Post Tagged with: "Copyright Microsite – Canadian CopyrightCopyright Microsite – Music Industry"

Unparalleled Access

For the past two mornings, CBC Radio's Business Network has featured an asynchronous debate between myself and CRIA's Graham Henderson.  The Henderson interview [Real] includes claims that it is the failure to reform copyright law that is to blame for industry woes.  Henderson adds that Canadians have a developed a culture where they won't pay for music and therefore investors won't invest in the Canadian music industry.

My interview [Real] hits on many of the points I've made in postings over the past few months:

  • Digital downloads actually grew faster last year in Canada in 2006 than they did in the U.S. or Europe. While Canada starts from a smaller base, that reflects the fact that iTunes only arrived here in late 2004.
  • The digital download figures fail to account for the revenues from the private copying levy.  Throw in the $30 – 40 million collected last year alone and the amount that Canadians are paying for digital music becomes very significant.
  • CRIA's push for copyright reform continues its ill-advised emphasis on DRM and anti-circumvention legislation.  The industry is shifting away from this as consumers don't want music that won't play on their iPod or allow them to transfer between devices.  Moreover, Sony rootkit-type cases cause real damage to the industry's reputation and drive fans away.
  • CRIA is increasingly isolated within the Canadian market.  Last year, the major Canadian indie labels left CRIA and the CMCC provided a new voice to many of Canada's best known musicians.  In fact, according to documents recently obtained under the Access to Information Act, last year eleven professional organizations representing most Canadian copyright holders in the music industry, including songwriters, composers, performers, record producers, and publishers, wrote to Ministers Oda and Bernier to reject CRIA's new opposition to the private copying system and to "express their reservations concerning the legal protection of technological measures used to limit access to, or reproduction of, musical works."

CRIA's insistence on focusing on copyright as the source of its problems – along with its continual derision of Canadian policy and the motives of Canadians – is genuinely difficult to understand.  Even more difficult to understand, notwithstanding the well-documented fundraising issues, is why the government keeps granting it unparalleled access.

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January 23, 2007 18 comments News

Grokster and the Future of Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

The release of the United States Supreme Court’s Grokster decision this past Monday generated, as expected, an avalanche of breathless headlines proclaiming victory for the recording industry and a “shutting of the tap” of music on peer-to-peer file sharing systems.  While the highest court in the U.S. did indeed unanimously […]

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June 28, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

The State of File Sharing and Canadian Copyright Law

The recent Federal Court of Appeal music file sharing case, in which the court rejected the Canadian Recording Industry Association’s attempt to uncover the identities of 29 alleged file sharers, raises important privacy and copyright issues.  Last week’s column reviewed the court’s test to protect personal privacy; this week’s column […]

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June 5, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

The Real Threat to the Music Download Market

The Canadian Recording Industry Association’s (CRIA) legal campaign against music file sharing heads back to court later this week.  A three judge panel will hear an appeal of last spring’s decision that denied a request for identifying information on 29 alleged file sharers due to insufficient evidence, privacy concerns, and […]

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April 17, 2005 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

Numbers don’t crunch against downloading

Last week the Canadian music industry, led by senior executives and star musicians, including rocker Tom Cochrane and Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, descended on Parliament Hill to lobby the government to reform Canada's copyright legislation. The industry sought meetings with government leaders such as Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla […]

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November 28, 2004 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive