Canadian ‘piracy’ in perspective
p2pnet news | politics:- Canada has lately been getting it in the neck from Hollywood in a series of attacks with adjustable statistics and customizeable assertions to back up the claims.
Michael Geist collaborated with law student Daniel Albahary to make a short movie which, he said, went beyond the headlines, “to demonstrate how the claims do not tell the whole story”.
Now, “Several people have written in response to the release of Putting Canadian Piracy in Perspective to ask for the data to support the claims made in the short film,” he says, going on >>>>>
I admittedly should have provided that from the start, but, better late than never, here are links to the various source documents:
The film opens by referring to movie piracy legislation and two government committee reports (INDU and SECU). It then follows with quotes from Graham Henderson of the CRIA, U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, and the U.S. Trade Representative. The film lists a series of copyright reform demands, drawn from the CACN and other copyright groups calling for copyright reform.
The response begins by noting that Canada currently meets its international copyright obligations. The lengthy list of other countries facing U.S. criticism on intellectual property is taken from the 2007 USTR Special 301 Report, while the claim on compliance with WIPO ratification, term extension, and anti-camcording law was based on research published this spring.
The movie industry claims section of the film begins with a quote from the MPAA. The wide range of camcording claims came throughout the winter and spring (20, 23, 30, 40, 50, 70).
The film responds by noting that Canadian copyright law already addresses the issue and that C-59 was based on a draft bill provided by the industry itself. The movie industry statistics pointing to growth in the Canadian market come from a June 2007 report in the Hollywood Reporter.
The music industry claims section of the film begins with a series of quotes (1, 2, 3) from the CRIA. It then highlights Statistics Canada data that show that 89 percent of new Canadian releases come from Canadian music labels and notes that CRIA is distinctly non-Canadian as measured by its board of directors and the fact that the major indie labels left the organization in 2006. After citing the emergence of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, the film points to the growing share of Canadian artists as reported by Canadian Heritage and the growth of digital download sales in Canada. Data on private copying revenues come from the Canadian Private Copying Collective. The claim that reduced prices were responsible for the majority of CRIA company declining revenue comes from CRIA’s own statistics, as measured by the difference between units shipped and revenue. There have been many reports on labels and music sellers dropping DRM (Puretracks, Amazon, EMI, iTunes).
The counterfeiting section begins with a quote from the CACN. It then references the Industry Committee report and the OECD statistics on counterfeiting as well as the GAO study that includes data on counterfeit seizures. The RCMP data comes from two RCMP appearances before parliamentary committees on counterfeiting (INDU, SECU) and from an RCMP report I obtained under the Access to Information Act.
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