Artists' lawsuit: major record labels are the real pirates
Interesting article by Jacqui Cheng in Ars Technica, reporting on an article by Michael Geist, about seemingly confirmed allegations of massive infringement by the major labels.I think we should count...
View ArticleDon’t Blame Google
In an article for The Mark I suggest that we shouldn't blame Google when music blogs are shut down, since it’s the major record labels that are to blame.
View ArticleIIPA would rather people "pirate" than switch to legal competitors
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) tipped their hand a bit in this years submission to the “Special 301" report process. While they again attacked Canada for having strong...
View ArticlePodcast #35: The iTax & Fair Dealing
Jesse Brown interviewed Charlie Angus about his private copying regime private members bill and fair use motion.
View ArticleWhy do some people claim that Canadian copyright is "weak"?
In a series of postings over the years, lawyer Howard Knopf has detailed how Canadian Copyright law is strong (protects incumbent copyright holders), including many ways that Canadian law is stronger...
View ArticleFairness in an expanded Private Copying regime for recorded music
No matter what I feel about the Private Copying regime for recorded music, it is clear that the music industry wants this. When I say music industry I mean composers and performers who have come out...
View ArticleSeparating Science from Science Fiction on the Business News Network
Last week I had the opportunity to discuss the new copyright bill on the BNN show Squeezeplay. The other guest was Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Hill, and the hosts were Andrea Mandel-Campbell and...
View ArticleDifferentiating allies and opponents in the Copyright debate
Copyright is often claimed to be a balance between rights-holders’ interests on the one hand and the interests of users and society as a whole on the other hand. I only wish things were that simple. I...
View ArticleEMI Evolves Along With Music Industry Changes
More good news in a Wired article by Eliot Van Buskirk. While the article doesn't go into the nitty-gritty details, it looks like EMI is moving from being a label focused on sales of product to...
View ArticleMy response to Loreena McKennitt
Musician Loreena McKennitt penned an opinion piece where she spoke about declining revenues for a whole series of largely unrelated industries, and then made two wild unfounded claims: first, that...
View ArticleFalling off the edge of a flat world?
Professor Birgitte Andersen has posted a very interesting response to old-economy industry association critique of studies she has authored.While focused on copyright, I found the section talking about...
View ArticleThoughts about C-32 committee meeting 15
Today was a music industry day, with the morning session being representatives of the recording industry ("makers of sound recording"), and the afternoon session being music composers and their...
View ArticleMajor label lobby group CRIA's dishonest name change
I offered the following as a comment to a Billboard article by Karen Bliss discussing CRIA's name change to "Music Canada".Seems to be an ongoing thing where the more controvercial a group becomes, the...
View ArticleGroup submissions to C-11 committee : CBA submission in context.
A small group of lawyers have publicly disagreed with the submission to the Bill C-32 committee (the predecessor to the current C-11 committee) from the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), an association...
View ArticleNot so special 301 report
The yearly joke from the USTR of their so-called "Special 301 report" came out yesterday. Not surprisingly, they kept Canada on their Priority Watch List in order to keep up their special interest...
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