3/06/2006
Canucks: Nation of Music Crooks
When they're not growing weed, playing hockey, or attending gay weddings, apparently Canadians are busy stealing music more than anyone else in the world, aye. And almost a decade of theft is hurting the music selling biz in Canada. Oh noes!According to an article in Variety, music sales in Canada dropped 4% last year. This dip is just part of a 10-year decline that the Canadian Recording Industry Assn. blames on illegal music downloading.
So why are the Canucks all crooks? Probably because Canada hasn't updated their copyright legislation yet to cover digital music. As a result, it has the highest online piracy rate per capita in the world, according to the Intl. Federation of the Phonographic Industry; the CRIA says 1.6 billion music files are swapped annually in Canada.
Worldwide legal digital revenues have jumped from zero to 6% of record company revenues globally in the last two years. In sharp contrast, digital revenues make-up less than 1% of record company sales in Canada.
As long as it isn't illegal, Canucks are happy just downloading music for free. Aye?
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8:26 AM
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Weed is not decriminalized in Canada... it's still quite illegal, on the books at least.
The fact that you wont' get more than a slap on the wrist for simple possession merely reflects two things:
1) Changing attitudes towards weed.... we just don't really care to make a big deal out of it
2) The police, courts, and government being more sensible and spending their time on more serious issues.
Non-commerical copying of music is okay in Canada. Distribution is not.
I can lend you a CD, and you can copy it, neither of us has broken the law.
If I make a copy and give it to you, I'm distributing copies without permission.
When this comes to downloading, the legal opinion, as silly as it sounds, is "Downloading is not illegal, uploading is"
IN the end, though, I think Canadians have better things to spend their time and effort on than criminalizing music copying.. it's made our society richer and more interesting, and coroprations often don't have the same amount of legal pull as they would in the US.
The fact that you wont' get more than a slap on the wrist for simple possession merely reflects two things:
1) Changing attitudes towards weed.... we just don't really care to make a big deal out of it
2) The police, courts, and government being more sensible and spending their time on more serious issues.
Non-commerical copying of music is okay in Canada. Distribution is not.
I can lend you a CD, and you can copy it, neither of us has broken the law.
If I make a copy and give it to you, I'm distributing copies without permission.
When this comes to downloading, the legal opinion, as silly as it sounds, is "Downloading is not illegal, uploading is"
IN the end, though, I think Canadians have better things to spend their time and effort on than criminalizing music copying.. it's made our society richer and more interesting, and coroprations often don't have the same amount of legal pull as they would in the US.
Hah ;) Pirating anything (music, games, movies) was legal until a year ago in Sweden :D And Bittorrent is still very much legal, regardless of content. An IP'adress is considered a 'personal id' and protected by our privacy laws. weee,, and that's how we defeat the us backed WTO with TRIPS(Council and intellectual property in the WTO).
[*] posted by 
: March 06, 2006 11:26 AM
: March 06, 2006 11:26 AM
In it decision a few years ago the supreme court of Canada heard arguments that sharing digital music was illegal, and a violation of copyright. They ruled that, although sharing digital media can be used in an illegal manner, they where not willing to circumvent our privacy laws to allow the recording industry to gain access to clients names. A persons privacy is more important that copyright. Further, the sharing of digital media is nothing more than an extension of the sharing of tapes, or other media which have persisted, up until now uncontested. The court ruled that it was not their place to make decisions regarding the digital use or non-use of copyrighted material.... they ruled that it was up to the industry to protect itself through technology, one it (the industry) proved it could protect itself, they could petition the courts for aid if this protection was being violated.
Exactly.
Canadian courts are generally of the opinion that a financial dissagreement between two parties is a matter for the civil courts, not the criminal courts.
Having courts that try very hard not to act as corporate bully boys is hardly something I'd consider a negative.
OB Ed. I am Canadian. I don't pirate music, but I don't buy music from "record companies" - I purchase CDs (and a few MP3s) from artists, directly. The reason being - mass market, mass appeal music is like one-size-fits-all clothing. Its just not good enough to buy.
Canadian courts are generally of the opinion that a financial dissagreement between two parties is a matter for the civil courts, not the criminal courts.
Having courts that try very hard not to act as corporate bully boys is hardly something I'd consider a negative.
OB Ed. I am Canadian. I don't pirate music, but I don't buy music from "record companies" - I purchase CDs (and a few MP3s) from artists, directly. The reason being - mass market, mass appeal music is like one-size-fits-all clothing. Its just not good enough to buy.
[*] posted by : March 06, 2006 1:56 PM
: March 06, 2006 1:56 PMPost a Comment
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