Post Tagged with: "music industry"

Canadian Music Industry Takes Aim At Google, Facebook, Reddit & Tech Startups With Bill C-11 Demands

The steady procession of Canadian music industry representatives to the Bill C-11 committee continues today with the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) ready to add to an already long list of industry demands to completely overhaul the bill. The music industry demands keep growing, but CIMA’s list is the most radical to date as it would create liability risk for social networking sites, search engines, blogging platforms, video sites, aggregators, and many other websites featuring third party contributions. If that were not enough, the industry is also calling for a new iPod tax, an extension in the term of copyright, a removal of protections for user generated content, parody, and satire, as well as an increase in statutory damage awards. Taken together, the music industry demands make SOPA look like some minor tinkering with the law.

Note that industry had already called for SOPA-style reforms such as website blocking and expanded liability that could extend to sites such as YouTube before the hearings began. This week has seen an industry lawyer inaccurately portray global approaches to digital lock rules and a musician association demand full statutory damages of up to $20,000 per infringement for non-commercial infringements by individuals.

Those demands are nothing compared to what CIMA has in mind, however. Topping the list is a massive expansion of the enabler provision. The music industry wants to remove a requirement that the so-called pirate sites be “designed primarily” to enable copyright infringement. It states:

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February 29, 2012 39 comments News

Why Copyright Reform Is Not the Cure for What Ails the Music Industry: Sources & Background Material

Since the posting of Why Copyright Reform Is Not the Cure for What Ails the Music Industry, my recent keynote lecture to the Nova Scotia Music Week conference, several people have written to ask for supporting documentation and background materials. The talk focused on CRIA’s conventional talking points and assessed Bill C-11 provisions on statutory damages, ISP liability, the enabler provision, and digital locks.  Below I’ve posted links to many of the supporting documents along with links to additional articles and sources on each issue.  The video is embedded at the bottom of this post.


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November 9, 2011 2 comments News

Restrictive Copyright Plays Into Music Industry Myths

Dwayne Winseck’s Globe column dissects the music industry claims and find that the total industry has grown over the last 13 years. Winseck links the claims to copyright reform, concluding that “only once the myth that the music industry is in peril, and that it is the canary in the […]

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May 17, 2011 29 comments News

The Economist on the State of the Music Industry

The Economist features a lengthy examination of the state of music industry, concluding that the “music business is surprisingly healthy, and becoming more so.”  It notes that “rising income from live performance, merchandising, sponsorship, publishing, online streaming and emerging markets has come to counterbalance losses from declining CD sales.”

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October 12, 2010 Comments are Disabled News

Pandora Blames Licensing Costs, Not Copyright for Blocking Canada

The Canadian Press runs an interesting story on some of the mobile music services that have yet to enter the Canadian market.  Tim Westergren, the founder of the hugely popular Pandora service, places the blame squarely on the fees being demanded by record labels and rights societies, indicating that Pandora […]

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September 23, 2010 40 comments News