Michael Geist April 2005
Appeared in the Toronto Star, April 18, 2005 THE REAL THREAT TO THE MUSIC DOWNLOAD MARKET The Canadian Recording Industry Association's (CRIA) legal campaign against music file sharing heads back to court later this week. A three judge panel will hear an appeal of last spring's decision that denied a request for identifying information on 29 alleged file sharers due to insufficient evidence, privacy concerns, and doubts about proof of infringement under Canadian copyright law. CRIA is likely to use the hearing to again argue that peer-to-peer file sharing is hurting Canadian artists and the industry, which at long last is seeking to develop fee-based alternatives such as Apple iTunes, Napster, and Puretracks. Despite all the rhetoric, there remains much doubt about whether peer-to-peer is really responsible for declining sales. The industry's own numbers suggest otherwise since the popularity of DVDs, changes in the retail distribution of music, and reduced retail pricing on CDs have all played significant roles in the industry's self-proclaimed woes (which themselves are not so woeful with sales increasing by more than 10 percent in the six months following the federal court decision last year). Moreover, there is little doubt that Canadian artists' royalty losses have been offset by the private copying levy system. The Canadian Private Copying Collective has collected approximately $120 million over the past five years with much of that revenue earmarked for Canadian artists. While CRIA has argued that the private copying levy was not intended to cover music downloading those claims ring hollow in light of recent statements and collection practices. Last month, the industry acknowledged to the U.S. Supreme Court that users have the right to copy their CDs in order to listen to the same songs on devices such as the Apple iPod. Given that $30 million was collected from Canadians last year, it must surely have been paid for something other than activities already permitted under the law. In fact, the real threat to fee-based alternatives in Canada does not come from the peer-to-peer systems. Rather, Canada's copyright collectives are poised to kill the nascent industry by demanding the creation of a new iTunes tariff that would require music download services to surrender at least 40 percent of their revenues to the collectives. ... http://www.michaelgeist.ca/resc/html_bkup/april182005.html Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _______________________________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
