Post Tagged with: "copyright"

Fearing Legalized P2P Downloading, CRIA Declares War on Private Copying Levy

The Canadian Recording Industry Association this week quietly filed documents in the Federal Court of Appeal that will likely shock many in the industry. CRIA, which spent more than 15 years lobbying for the creation of the private copying levy, is now fighting to eliminate the application of the levy on the Apple iPod since it believes that the Copyright Board of Canada's recent decision to allow a proposed tariff on iPods to proceed "broadens the scope of the private copying exception to avoid making illegal file sharers liable for infringement."

Given that CRIA's members collect millions from the private copying levy, the decision to oppose its expansion may come as a surprise. Yet the move reflects a reality that CRIA has previously been loath to acknowledge – the Copyright Board has developed jurisprudence that provides a strong argument that downloading music on peer-to-peer networks is lawful in Canada. Indeed, CRIA President Graham Henderson provides a roadmap for the argument in his affidavit:

"First, the Board has stated, in obiter dicta, on several occasions that the Private Copying regime legalizes copying for the private use of the person making the copy, regardless of whether the source is non-infringing or not. Therefore, according to the Board, downloading an infringing track from the Internet is not infringing, as long as the downloaded copy is made onto an 'audio recording medium'…

Second, also in obiter dicta, the Board stated that the private copying exception in Section 80 is not conditioned on the existence of a tariff to collect royalties covering the medium onto which copies are made.

Third, in combination with the aforementioned obiter dicta in the Board's other decisions, the Decision [the iPod decision] could potentially be interpreted to allow the copying of music files from any source – whether legitimate or illegitimate – onto any type of device ordinarily used by individuals to copy music, such as personal computers…"

While Henderson and CRIA make it clear that they disagree with this interpretation, they are obviously sufficiently concerned that it reflects Canadian law that they have burned their remaining bridges with Canadian music in order to try to persuade the Federal Court of Appeal to allow them to intervene in iPod hearings.

September 15, 2007 — 29 comments — News

The Value of the Fair Use Industries

Lots of attention being paid to a new study commissioned by the CCIA on the economic value of fair use in the United States. Using WIPO's own guidelines, the study concludes that the "fair use industries", including consumer electronics, education institutions, software, and ISPs, generate $4.5 trillion in revenue, far […]

September 13, 2007 — Comments are Disabled — News

“We Don’t Have Any Choice”

Last week, the Vancouver Sun ran a lengthy article on the music industry. It was a reasonable piece – comments from CRIA, CIRPA, and many artists presented some (though not all) perspectives. That said, CRIA's Graham Henderson provided comments that merit a response. According to Henderson:

We want laws that offer choice. Right now we don't have any choice and we want the ability to be able to try our business model in a digital environment and have at least the majority of people respect our wishes, recognizing all along that there are going to be people who take from us.

Leaving aside the fact that much of the copying that Henderson characterizes as "taking from us" is covered by the private copying levy that has now generated nearly $200 million since the CPCC began collecting the levy in 2000, CRIA is effectively saying that the only way the industry can offer digital music online is with DRM supported by anti-circumvention legislation. Anyone with even the slightest familiarity with digital music in Canada recognizes that this is utter nonsense.

September 5, 2007 — 5 comments — News

Unlocking the Mysteries of Locked Cellphones

Appeared in the Toronto Star on September 3, 2007 as Unlocking the Mystery of Locked Phones From the moment of its debut, the Apple iPhone has attracted enormous attention. Its biggest impact may go beyond the consumer electronics market, however, as the iPhone has forced politicians and regulators to confront […]

September 3, 2007 — 8 comments — Columns Archive

CRIA Stands Alone

This week, HMV announced that it was reducing the price on hundreds of back-catalog CDs generating a surprising amount of news coverage (Post, CBC). The move is good for everyone – the recording industry gets an important retail outlet to reduce prices on increasingly hard-to-find CDs (their largest retail outlets such as Wal-Mart do not carry many older titles), HMV gives a boost to music sales at a time when digital downloads, DVDs and video games command a growing share of the market, and consumers may find that the $20 sticker shock on some older CDs disappears. Yet leave it to CRIA to use the opportunity to spin this as a copyright reform story. HMV said absolutely nothing about the issue, because high-priced, older CDs have little to do with P2P file sharing or copyright law. CRIA's Graham Henderson claims, however, that "it's an effort to stem the tide of illegal downloading that threatens retailers and everyone else in the recording industry" and argues that other countries have reduced P2P through copyright reform while "a succession of Canadian governments have sat on their hands and done nothing."

Leaving aside the obvious – P2P is not down in other countries, HMV has not indicated that the reduced prices has anything to do with downloading, the Liberals introduced Bill C-60 in 2005, and that so-called "illegal downloading" often isn't illegal in Canada given the compensation that comes from the private copying levy – it is worth noting that these latest claims may drive a wedge between CRIA and one of its most important retail channels. In this case, HMV generates millions in free publicity for sale prices and CRIA jumps in with misleading copyright claims that only serve to undermine the goodwill created by HMV.

In many respects, this is nothing new.

August 30, 2007 — 13 comments — News