The Bulte CRIA saga continues
p2p news / p2pnet: Don’t play it again, eh, Sam?
Don’t play the video of you telling the world you’re proud of your support of the entertainment and software cartels’ efforts to turn Canada into a mini-America – a place where Hollywood rules and where innovation is a slave.
Online Rights Canada, jointly organized by CIPPIC (Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic ) and the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), is demanding that all Canadian politicians sign professor Michael Geist’s Copyright Pledge which states:
No Member of Parliament who has accepted financial contributions or other benefits from (i) a copyright lobby group, (ii) its corporate members, or (iii) senior executives as well as (iv) a copyright collective shall serve as Minister of Canadian Heritage or as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, nor sit on any legislative committee (parliamentary or standing committees) conducting hearings or deliberations on copyright matters.
Why is that necessary?
In Canada, Organized Music is represented by the CRIA, these days fronted by Graham Henderson.
Although CRIA is short for Canadian Recording Industry Association, not one the Big Four – Sony BMG (Japan, Germany), Vivendi Universal (France), Warner Music (US) and EMI (Great Britain) � actually has a significant presence in Canada.
Bulte, who’s been tagged Hollywood’s Canadian MP, is enthusiastically supported by the corporate movie and recording industries, as exemplified primarily by her flagrant involvement with the Organized Music cartel.
The CRIA is hosting a $250-applate fundraiser for Bulte a mere four days before the Canadian election on January 23.
Canadian indie musician and producer Neil Leyton calls it a shameless sell-out.
As Leyton puts it, the CRIA, “via their statistics-heavy press releases, persist on manipulating opinion polls and numbers to claim that they speak for Canadian citizens and the majority of Canadian artists – nothing could be further from the truth.
“In fact, the interests of intermediaries like CRIA are not the same as the interests of the musicians, songwriters and other creator groups. CRIA can no more legitimately claim to politically represent musicians, than bank owners can claim to represent those who have bank accounts.
“Furthermore, CRIA’s boast that they represent more than 95% records produced and sold in Canada is misleading.
“In fact, they represent the interests of the ‘Canadian’ major labels, who are in fact cultural importers (largely of US acts) rather than exporters of Canadian artists. Very often Canadian artists like Danko Jones have to sign to foreign labels in order to export their own music.”
The reason for the CRIA’s interest in Bulte is obvious. But is it recent?
Last year last year, the University of Toronto’s law school hosted the Soundbytes, Soundrights conference and among those attending were Henderson and Bulte and, “Bulte and Henderson hardly left one another’s side, and became pretty unapproachable,” says someone who was at the conference.
“Even the CMRRA’s (Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency ) David Basskin mingled!”
Henderson and Bulte, however, “hardly interacted [with others], even leaving a little early.”
‘The danger of drawing directly from the CRIA playbook’
“While Ms. Bulte has expressed a willingness to debate me on copyright issues sometime in the future, yesterday we both discussed the fundraiser issue on CBC Radio’s Ontario Today,” posts Geist on his blog.
“I was interviewed first, followed by Bulte (real audio streams of interviews available at Geist, Bulte not working at the moment). Bulte raised three points that I think merit comment (not including taking another swipe at me at the end of the interview).
“First, she tried (unsuccessfully in my view) to distinguish between the hosting of a fundraiser and the sponsorship of a fundraiser. She argued that CRIA, CMPDA, et al are merely hosting the event, rather than sponsoring it. I don’t think the argument did much for host Alan Neal as it feels like a Canadian version of “weapon of mass destruction related programs”. The problem here is holding a fundraiser directly linked to industry lobby groups four days before an election. Whether sponsored or hosted, the concern remains the same.
“Second, Bulte demonstrated the danger of drawing directly from the CRIA playbook. She professed to represent the interests of artists in her riding, yet again made a point of raising the downloading issue. The problem with this approach is that downloading has little to do with the interests of those same individual artists. Fighting for Canadian artists is admirable but Bulte is seemingly using that support as a cover for advocating U.S. backed policies and organizations that contribute very little to the development of new Canadian music much less Canadian culture.
“Third, Bulte made the startling claim that while artists were not well represented, Internet users have great support coming from Industry Canada. This will be news to Industry Canada and once again does not stand up to scrutiny. Consider the hearings before Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in the spring 2004 which led to the Bulte report. Bulte chaired that committee and certainly could have ensured that the hearings were balanced. Unfortunately, user groups were scarcely heard from and there was no government ministry there to defend user interests. On the other hand, the copyright industries were out in full force with the music industry and collectives represented by CRIA, SOCAN, ADISQ, CMRRA, and the CPCC among others.
“In fact, there is more to this story. According to documents obtained under an Access to Information request, as chair of the committee Ms. Bulte actively opposed the inclusion of an industry perspective in deliberations on copyright before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. An email request from a senior Canadian Heritage official days before committee hearings in March 2004 asked whether invitations might be extended to members of the Industry Committee. The terse response from an official says it all:
“The chair of the heritage ctee is not open to the suggestion of inviting industry ctee members.”
“So while Ms. Bulte claims that users can rely on Industry support, the truth is that she has actively opposed inclusion of that perspective.
“That kind of balance is precisely why so many Canadians are troubled by the revelations involving Bulte and the financial support of some of the groups that appeared before her committee.”
‘I am very troubled’
Bulte is unacceptable on many levels. But there is an alternative – the NDP’s Peggy Nash. “Recently, both the media and voters have been asking me what I think about a $250-a-plate fundraiser being organized for my Liberal opponent by a group of powerful interests with a lot at stake in an important issue before Parliament,” she says in her web site. “My opponent, Ms Sarmite Bulte, is parliamentary secretary to the Liberal Heritage Minister responsible for this issue, and has great influence on the content of any legislation addressing it.”
She goes on, ” The fundraiser, as well as campaign contributions to Ms Bulte from these well-funded, well-connected groups, came under scrutiny last week at an all-candidates� meeting in Swansea, in the blogosphere, in news stories, and in the Toronto Star.
“I am very troubled by what has come to light. Those who seek public office need to be especially careful not to allow themselves to be compromised – or even appear to be compromised – by accepting campaign contributions from groups representing one side in a controversial debate on a current issue (in this case copyright) four days before a general election.”
Meanwhile, “Accordion Guy has a personal mission in the upcoming federal election,” says the darkerside to rants: “To unseat the current liberal incumberent Sam Bulte after it became clear she is bribed by the Canadian IP industry in an American fashion.”
The post points to a YouTube video. You can get an Accordion Guy BT torrent for the full, raw video featuring all the candidates’ responses here. And for good measure, we have one here.
You can also get Sam Bulte.m4v (8.4MB) here and again, to be sure, we have a copy here as well.
Definitely stay tuned.
Also See:
enthusiastically supported – Hollywood’s Canadian MP, January 4, 2006
the truth – Bulte’s shameless sell-out, January 10, 2006
blog – Debating Bulte, January 11, 2006
March 9th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Where does a (potential) MPP stand on the right of being HONEST. The fact of being in a true-monogamous relationship? No lies to her husband and children?