Digital Copyright Canada

A CBC Arts article hilights the fact that the tabling of proposed copyright law changes is coming in the next couple of weeks.

The article repeats a common misinterpretation of BMG vs. Doe which CRIA has been abusing to justify radical backward-facing changes to the law. This case did not say that unauthorized filesharing of music wasn't an infringement, what it said was that the industry needed to provide a minimal level of evidence of infringing activity in order to fulfill the requirements of Canada's privacy legislation to find out who was sharing. So far the industry has been unwilling to collect trivially obtainable evidence of infringing activity.

Please also see a CityNews article that makes the same serious mistake. We need to ensure that adequate letters to the editor are sent to ensure they are aware of this mistake!

A CBC News article talks about a coalition of 18 artist and business groups who are opposing the current direction taken by the CRTC.

"By removing one stone, you threaten the entire structure. When the CRTC no longer strongly supports the policies under its responsibility, it sends a message that all of our cultural support framework can be called into question."

The problem is, that stone was already removed by advances in information and communications technology, and the entire cultural support framework has already been called into question.

Mediacaster Magazine has an article on the The Canadian Music Creators Coalition's (CMCC) renewed calls for the Canadian government to ensure a made-in-Canada response to copyright reform. See CMCC press release. Also carried by Tech Media Reports.

Michael Geist's latest Law Bytes column suggests that Music Industry Needs A Dose of Innovation, Not Intervention. I believe he sidestepped one of the most important dynamics, which is the growing separation of the majority of players that make up the music industry from the recording industry that historically dominated it.