Canada, you wild land of contradiction, you! I've spent a decent amount of time discussing Nettwerk Records, the Canadian label who is taking on the RIAA on behalf of a consumer being sued for downloading an Avril Lavigne song, and I've also discussed the CRIA (that is, the Canadian Recording Industry Association) and their boasts, in direct contradistinction to their own in depth studies, that file sharing is tearing apart the fabric of the universe. The current media levy in Canada is probably one of the sanest things you could imagine, which is exactly why the CRIA hates it, and wants a legal paradigm shift towards a much stupider, meaner, greedier DRM based way of doing business.
an Ars Technica article reports that the president of the CRIA has opened his mouth wide about the dangers of the music levy as it currently functions. As I read it, I can almost imagine this propogandistic, anti-consumer, anti-technology babble pouring forth from his flip-top head.
Now Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) President Graham Henderson has told Billboard Magazine (subscription) that his industry wants no part of the media levy, saying that "we don't want a private copying levy that, in effect, sanctions online theft." Henderson here is referring to increasingly common arguments promoting the use of the media levy as a means of permitting P2P downloads for personal use. Henderson and others fear that the CAN$0.21 levy per CD could transmute into carte blanche for "unauthorized" downloads, but that's not the only issue on the table.
For years the CRIA and other music industry groups have supported the media levy because it generates revenue from "personal use" that was still derived (hopefully) from commercial music sales. For instance, the levy was seen as an ideal solution to the "problems" that stem from users ripping CDs and building digital music libraries using music that they had purchased. Now even that basic use is looking suspect in the CRIA's eyes, even though it has nothing to do with piracy at all. Why? It's the technology!
So basically, the CRIA were fine with the way that the media levy works - i.e., the way that the additional tax on music media (CDs, tapes, etc.,) namely that someone could buy a CD, then make a copy of it, hell he could make 10 copies of it, or he could throw the blank CDs out after buying them - but that 21 cents would be distributed to the artist, or the label, or somebody, as financial retribution for the copying. Sounds good enough for me, but it's not longer good enough for the CRIA.
Because it doesn't give the CRIA enough control over the consumer. The article continues on:
For years the CRIA and other music industry groups have supported the media levy because it generates revenue from "personal use" that was still derived (hopefully) from commercial music sales. For instance, the levy was seen as an ideal solution to the "problems" that stem from users ripping CDs and building digital music libraries using music that they had purchased. Now even that basic use is looking suspect in the CRIA's eyes, even though it has nothing to do with piracy at all. Why? It's the technology!
"We are moving into an environment where everything will be either copy-protected or mostly copy-protected," Henderson said.
What's that got to do with it? As I've argued time and time again, it's the whole story. Digital Rights Management, to repeat my argument, is not about stopping piracy, but about shutting down fair use. The aim of shutting down fair use is simple: the copyright owners want to nickel and dime users.
That's right, we're moving into an environment where everything will be either copy-protected or mostly copy-protected - unfortunately, it's exactly the wrong way to go. Since Lars Ulrich started all this nonsense so many years ago, I've gotten the impression that it will some day be compulsory to buy CDs and illegal to listen to them. These organizations like the CRIA care so little about art and so much about money, they just want you to buy - buy - buy, appreciation doesn't fit into their worldview.
