Subscription services like satellite or the Internet don’t really have the bandwidth limitations of legacy broadcasting. They can be dynamically adjusted to customer demand and free market choice. Given the many differences I believe they should not be regulated the way low-spectrum legacy broadcasting was.

While FoCB were upset at these “primarily American” distributors of music getting a license in Canada, they have remained entirely silent on the “even more American” music distributors known as CRIA. When will they be lobbying to revoke any “licensing” that CRIA has? It seems to matter to them whether the American content is distributed to Canadian audiences via physical media or via wired/wireless means, something that no longer makes sense to differentiate in modern content distribution.

It seems like we need a Friends of Canadian Creativity that would have a mandate to help promote and protect Canadian artists being able to reach Canadians. A big part of their work would obviously involve breaking current distribution monopolies, including breaking free of old-economy overly-centralized “broadcasting” as being the primary wired/wireless distribution mechanism.

For music check out:

http://www.ciraa.ca/ “Independent artists represent over 95% of the musicians in the Canadian music industry”

http://www.indiepool.com/

And a plug for some cool, modern, Creative Commons supporting Canadian musicians: http://fadingways.com (forum at http://forum.fadingways.com )