[d@DCC] Neil Leyton / Fading Ways news - For Immediate Release

From: Neil Leyton <nleyton _-at-_ gmail.com>
To: Neil Leyton <leyton (at) fadingwaysmusic.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 14:59:11 -0500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

- Fading Ways raises $1400 for new Palestinian Cultural Centre in Toronto
- Neil Leyton speaks at Sound Bytes, Sound Rights conference at U of T
Law School
- Valentine's Day with Leyton, Pariahs at Elvis Monday (The Drake, Toronto)


-- Fading Ways raises $1400 for Al-Awda's Palestine Community Access Centre:

Feb 10th at the Rivoli, Toronto, marked the date for what turned out
to be an extremely successful fund-raiser for Fading Ways and Al-Awda,
the Palestine Right of Return Group. The funds raised through the
artist performances, guest speakers, and benefit CDs will go towards
Al-Awda's new Toronto Palestinian Resource Centre. Performers included
Aceface, Ky, Leyton, Johnny Charmer from the Red Orkestra, and others.
Jaggi Singh was also one of the guest speakers. Fading Ways thanks the
Rivoli for hosting the event and wishes Al-Awda all the best in the
opening of the new centre.



-- Neil Leyton speaks at Sound Bytes, Sound Rights Conference at U of
T Law School:
(http://www.innovationlaw.org/tip/copyright/agenda.htm)

The next day, Leyton was part of a panel discussing BMG vs. Doe and
the proposed WIPO treaty ratifications at a one-day conference hosted
by U of T Law Students. The TIP conference opened with a great keynote
address by Michael Geist, who very eloquently exposed the dangers of
rushing towards WIPO ratification in Canada, and demonstrated that
Canada already has a great, functioning, copyright act that has been
updated more often in the last 18 years than in the preceding 100
years, effectively discrediting claims describing it as "outdated".
Fading Ways supports Professor Geist's views whole-heartedly, and
Leyton expressed the view of many independent artists that
downloading, instead of hurting sales, assists indie label promotions;
peer-to-peer and Creative Commons licenses having actually helped our
sales in 2004.

Fading Ways would also like to take this opportunity to reiterate our
position on this issue: Canadian artists are NOT monolithic in their
opinions. The major labels function in Canada primarily as importers
of foreign artists and do little towards the enrichment of Canadian
musical culture, or its exportation to other territories; the
Government of Canada should immediately cease to spend tax-payers
money, through Factor, towards the assisting of Canadian artists who
have sold their Intellectual Property (Copyright) to multi-national
business interests, and should instead re-route those funds to genuine
Canadian artists who still retain their own copyrights and are not
signed to major multi-national labels or their pseudo-indie
subsidiaries, but to truly Canadian independent labels. Furthermore, 
we urge the Government of Canada to not sell out the best interests of
our cultural artists by rushing to ratify WIPO in such a manner as to
produce a DMCA-like hard-line, abusive copyright act, but to act
instead in a balanced manner that favours Canadian business as well as
our Canadian artists' interests and those of the Canadian public.

"It is deeply disturbing for me to have witnessed first hand how tight
the relationship between CRIA members and Sarmite Bulte, the
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, really
is - at the reception following the conference Ms. Bulte was
surrounded by CRIA lawyers for well over 45 minutes, and made no
effort to come into contact with other view points. Her speech was a
smoke-screen presentation revolving on the word "balance" and her
affirmation of prioritizing Canada's leadership role on these matters,
when she in fact exhibited clearly to the sold-out conference crowd
that this government department has little interest in even
understanding the multi-facetedness of this issue or the nefarious
effects WIPO will have on local culture."

"If Canada heads down the same road as the US (DMCA), people will
cease to be able to access our own cultural history when the very
essence of democracy is the ability to participate fully in an
artistic, creative life. Education should not be fenced and limited to
the products mass-marketed by corporatist monopolies and cultural
cartels. We are running the risk of authoring ONE exclusive cultural
world at the expense of true art and cultural diversity. Ultimately
the very ability to create will disappear, once the monopoly of
culture desired by CRIA et al. is achieved through a ridiculously
strong copyright act, Digital Rights Management, and Technological
Protection Measures.'"

"At that pace, only major-label signed musicians who have yielded away
all their creative rights and artistic direction (along with their
masters, copyright, and intellectual property therein) will be able to
BE musicians and creators. Everyone else will not be granted access to
the use of the controlled technologies. The irony here is that through
DRM this control ultimately will not rest in the hands of CRIA, but
the DRM companies, most likely Microsoft".


-- Valentine's Day with Leyton, Pariahs at Elvis Monday (The Drake, Toronto)

Neil Leyton, the Pariahs, and others, celebrate this Hallmark(TM)
holiday by playing some rock n roll at William New's re-instated Elvis
Monday, now at the Drake Hotel (Queen St.. West near Dovercourt,
Toronto).

This will be Leyton's last Canadian live date of the season, as he
departs for solo dates as well as band dates in Dubai, Portugal,
Spain, the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia later
this Spring and Summer. His newest album, "The Betrayal of the Self",
will also be released in the Summer via Fading Ways UK and the
Feedback Boogie label in Sweden.

-30-
-- 
www.fadingwaysmusic.com
www.soulrevolutionaries.org/leyton
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