Quebec taxpayers fund Big Music puff piece
p2pnet view Kids & Kartels:- The Quebec government is spending an unknown amount in taxpayer dollars promoting hard-core corporate music anti-piracy doctrine to Secondary 5 students.
A p2pnet Reader’s Write in October last year cited “brainwashing propaganda on behalf of the media kartels coming out of the Government of Quebec”.
And yesterday, “Here is an updated link to kartel propaganda made available by the Government of Quebec to teachers of economics …”
It’s an official government of Quebec release entitled ‘Presentation and Activity Guide for Secondary V Economics Teachers’.
Says Get ‘em while they’re young! – the story under which the comments appear >>>
The corporate record industry is under fire, “after launching a scheme to teach primary schoolchildren — possibly as young as five — not to illegally download music from the internet,” says Britain’s the Daily Mail.
“Lessons teaching pupils about copyright law are already being piloted in six schools and could be rolled out across the country.
“Critics suggest the initiative is designed to protect commercial interests rather than provide a valuable educational experience.”
The get ‘em while they’re young child mind-rape scheme is organised by music industry ‘consultant’ Ruth Katz who, by an amazing coincidence, also works for Big 4 music gang member EMI.
“[ ... ] an act as commonplace as copying a compact disc deprives authors, producers, retailers and the government of substantial income,” says the Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music puff piece, produced and paid for by the Quebec government.
“Producing and marketing a compact disc costs tens of thousands of dollars. Copying a compact disc is taking unfair advantage of other people’s talent and work.”
And then, parroting the now standard line originally developed by deceased Hollywood spokesman Jack Valenti, “Why do something that is harmful to so many workers?”
The item also includes an interesting break-down of where the money from a CD sale in Canada goes. And guess what? By far the smallest amount is take-home pay for the performers and creators.
On the sale of a compact disc at $15.39 >>>
- The retailer keeps $2.96.
- The distributor receives $4.38.
- The record company receives $4.36.
- The disc manufacturer gets $1.44.
- The performer receives $1.41.
- The author-composer receives $0.84.
- These figures are estimates and averages that can vary from one production to the next.
Source: Québec, Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), L’industrie du disque au Québec : Portrait économique, (Montréal, October 1998).
Says the piece: “The authors, composers and performers pool their talents to create the contents of the compact disc, over which they have exclusive rights.”
Try telling that to the Big 4 record labels.
According to the Quebec government, a la Big Music, “Effects of piracy on honest workers” amount to >>>
- These people do not get the royalties they would have received on the sale of the noriginal compact disc. They receive only am much smaller share of royalties on the sale nof a blank compact disc (as required by nthe laws governing private copying).
- All of these workers risk losing their jobs because the producer and the promoter will not invest in a new production. This means that the workers lose income.
- Subcontractors normally hired for copying and distributing the discs lose income because of the illegal production.
- Retailers lose sales revenue they would have received on the sale of original compact discs and receive only a much smaller amount from the sale of blank compact discs.
And under “Impact of piracy on government revenues” >>>
- The government loses thousands of dollars since income tax is collected not on the royalties paid to the authors, composers and performers for sales of original compact discs, but rather on the much lower royalties paid on the sale of blank discs.
- Since the disc was not produced, the government does not receive the income tax that the companies and workers who make discs would normally have paid on their income from the disc.
- The government collects sales tax on the blank compact discs sold to the pirate. However, since the purchase price of a blank disc is lower than the price of an original compact disc, the applicable sales taxes paid by the pirate are lower than they would otherwise have been, and the government is deprived of revenue.
- The government is deprived of the sales tax it would have received on the sale of original compact discs and collects only the sales taxes paid on the less expensive blank discs. Moreover, income tax is collected not on the profits that the retailer would have made on the sale of original discs, but only on the profits from the sale of blank discs. No income tax is collected from the pirate, whose profits from illegally selling copied discs go unreported.
Now you know.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
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Get ‘em while they’re young!, October 5, 2009
January, 2010
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January 26th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
“The disc manufacturer gets $1.44.”
Why is the disc manufacturer getting anything? Don’t get they get paid up-front to manufacture the discs?
January 28th, 2010 at 2:13 am
“Why is the disc manufacturer getting anything? Don’t get they get paid up-front to manufacture the discs?”
Yes they do, but that is still part of the cost of the disc.