Archive for the ‘Music Industry’ Category

Canadian copyright bill to arrive…finally?

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

There are rumours that a new copyright bill is imminent. Copyright issues are increasingly gaining public prominence and there are views of every stripe. See below for a distinct view by Barry Sookman, copyright expert and co-chair of the Technology Group at McCarthy Tétrault, on the copyright debate as we await the ...

Some Share the Files, All Share the Costs

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) recently proposed legalization of peer-to-peer music filesharing via the imposition of an obligatory $5 monthly fee on all Canadian broadband users. It is estimated that this would result in the collection of $500 million to $900 million per year, to be distributed to musicians ...

Music Previews: Should Use of a Marketing Tool be Considered Fair Dealing for the Purpose of Research?

Monday, January 28th, 2008

In October 2007, the Copyright Board of Canada rendered a decision regarding tariffs payable to SOCAN by online music services.[1] As part of the Board’s decision it concluded that music previews do not infringe copyright as they constitute fair dealing for the purpose of research. While I agree in principle ...

Is content blocking coming to Canada?

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

According to this story in the Globe and Mail, the music industry is keen on getting Internet service providers (ISPs) to block traffic for users who sharing copyrighted music files. Canadian ISPs like Bell and Rogers already shape traffic to some extent by limiting the amount of bandwidth available to ...

CRIA Suddenly Against Private Copying Levy It Lobbied So Hard For

Monday, November 19th, 2007

With the recent Copyright Board preliminary decision which incorporates digital recorders as an audio recording medium[1]; you would think that the CRIA would be jumping for joy as the inclusion of digital recorders would generate more revenue. Furthermore, the CRIA has been lobbying for a private copying levy for ...

Who Cares about Copyright Infringement of Mp3’s Anymore?

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

The recent closure of AllofMP3 is coming to an end. The site that was closed in July 2007 has recently been reopened under another name and site location. The site that has users pay a flat rate to download music was thought to be in violation of copyright laws in Russia. However, a ...

What is the Value of a Song?

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

  Our ability as a society to transmit vast amounts of information has grown exponentially over the last decade. Volumes of encyclopedia, books, magazines, newspapers—let alone music—have become almost instantly downloadable and retrievable, further feeding the frenzy of electronic consumption. While to downloaders and users it may seem that there is little or no real ...

Different jurisdictions- same outcome?

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

  Advances in technology facilitating dissemination of digital files inevitably poses challenges on enforcement of existing copyright laws. Prince’s lawsuit, if filed, would be of significance in setting the standard of care to which file-sharing providers (YouTube), indexing services (The Pirate Bay) and online trade forums (EBay) should exercise to prevent making copyright-infringing works available ...

The Sound of Music - and Money: Getting What You Pay For….Online

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

  In the early days of the dot.com boom, internet commerce presented opportunities for information providers (websites) to sell inexpensive digital goods to web-users and have the benefit of reaching a far larger consumer base than just a local market.  But with the growing free-rider ethos of the World Wide Web and the increasingly ...

Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

In Canada, it has been a long-standing policy to place a levy on recordable devices such as tapes and blank CDs and redistribute those proceeds to recording companies and the artists that they represent. The core purpose of this practice is to compensate artist for private copying that these blank ...