Big Music Canadian defeat
p2pnet.net News:- The CRIA, the Big Four Organized Music cartel’s Canadian RIAA, has lost yet another important round in its fight to gain total control of how music is distributed online in Canada.
“The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a CRIA judicial review request of a Copyright Board decision that required it to notify its (shrinking) list of Class ‘B’ members of its decision to no longer represent them in the CSI online music tariff,” says Michael Geist, Canada research chair in internet and e-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.”
The CSI case, “involved mandatory DRM (Digital Rights Management) on all music stores wishing to sell music,” explains Slyck’s Drew Wilso.
“In a nutshell, if one were to start up an online music store in Canada, then that person has to put DRM on all of its sold music – and it wouldn’t matter what music was being sold. The problem is that CRIA [Canadian Recording Industry Association of America] didn’t want to be known as the collective that wanted a mandatory online music tariff.”
Who are the “B class” members?
“Perhaps the most well known examples were the 6 major Canadian labels that left,” says Wilson. “In essence, the ‘A class’ would be the big four multinational record labels. The 6 labels that left in April were Nettwerk Records, Aquarius Records, the Children’s Group, Linus Entertainment, Anthem Records and True North Records. For a better understanding of how big these labels were, Nettwerk housed major acts like Billy Talent, Sum 41, Avril Lavign, Broken Social Scene, and Barenaked Ladies. These labels left on the basis that CRIA is not representing their interests, but merely representing the interests of the multi-national labels.”
“We need to ensure that policy makers realize that what CRIA is asking for does not represent the interests of Canadians, and they should be trying to find out what Canadians want,” says Digital Copyright Canada’s Russell McOrmond.
“I believe a good indication is what is being said by the Canadian Music Creators Coalition: No to DRM, No to suing music fans, and Yes to stable funding for creators.”
Not one of the CRIA’s owners, Warner Music (US), Sony BMG (Japan, Germany), EMI (Britain) and Vivendi Universal (France) has a significant presence in Canada.
Also See:
Michael Geist – CRIA Loses Judicial Review of Copyright Board Decision, October 26, 2006
Slyck – CRIA Loses Appeal, October 28, 2006
Digital Copyright Canada – CRIA Loses Appeal and must inform Class “B” members that CRIA doesn’t represent them, October 30, 2006
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October 30th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
CRIA = Canadian Record Industry Association, not of America
The record companies don’t “own” CRIA – its a trade lobby
Vivendi Universal certainly does have a significant presence here, although it might be fading.
October 31st, 2006 at 1:31 am
De facto, CRIA = Canadian Recording Industry Association of America. Because it has no Canadian relevance.
October 31st, 2006 at 4:06 pm
“The record companies don’t “own” CRIA – its a trade lobby”
They pay the bills and control the direction it heads, that’s ownership.