And we have news of yet another massive copyright infringement lawsuit in the music industry. This one takes place in Canada, and the infringed party is placing a truly massive claim on the infringing party: 50 million USD, with the possibility of it exceeding 60 billion USD. Bad news? Well, no, not really – you really need to consider the infringing party in this one. This is irony not even the ancient Greeks could imagine.
The infringed party in this particular case consists of, among others, Chet Baker, a leading jazz musician in the 1950, who played various instruments and died in 1988. His legacy is maintained by his estate, which owns the copyright on 50 of his works. The infringing party has already admitted the infringing behaviour, meaning they own at least 50 million USD.
Now, here’s the real shocker: the infringing party is none other than… The Canadian music industry: Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada – the four main members of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.
This might seem odd, so a little history regarding Canadian’s recording industry is required. For a long time now, the Canadian recording industry employs a practice which the lawsuit calls “exploit now, pay later if at all”. The recording industry uses material on compilation CDs (“Best of 2009” and so on) and live recordings, but doesn’t obtain the necessary grants to do so from the rights holders. The industry creates, presses, and distributes these CDs, but they are technically not allowed to do so because the holders of the copyrighted works used for those CDs did not grant permissions.
Instead of seeking permission before making the CDs, the recording industry puts these songs on a pending list with songs with approval and payment pending. This practice started in the late 1980s, when Canadian copyright law changed. This list has grown exponentially since, now containing over 300000 songs – and for each of those songs, the industry has automatically admitted infringement (else they wouldn’t be on the list). This list contains artists from all walks of life, from Beyonce to Bruce Springsteen.
So, why haven’t the Canadian recording companies paid up? Why are they committing piracy on a massive scale? David Basskin, president and CEO of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency, explains in his affidavit that “the record labels have devoted insufficient resources for identifying and paying the owners of musical works on the pending lists”.
And here comes that sweet, sweet taste of irony, a taste sprinkled in fairy dust and brought to you by pretty pixies riding on pink unicorns: the recording industry successfully argued in Canada that pirates have to pay 20000 USD per infringement, which means that the potential liability exceeds 60 billion USD. “These numbers may sound outrageous, yet they are based on the same rules that led the recording industry to claim a single file sharer is liable for millions in damages,” says Michael Geist, Internet Law columnist at The Star. He also holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa.
“After years of claiming Canadian consumers disrespect copyright, the irony of having the recording industry face a massive lawsuit will not be lost on anyone, least of all the artists still waiting to be paid,” Geist further details, “Indeed, they are also seeking punitive damages, arguing “the conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers”.”
This taste will surely warm and enrich my mouth for days to come. This is fighting fire with fire, this is using their own methods against them – this is the method with which we need to fight. I have the strong urge to bellow the Canadian national anthem, which for some inexplicable reason, I know by heart.
I’ll be surprised if the recording industry don’t manage to wiggle out of having their own rules applied to them but I applaud an effort to try.
Also, in Canada, isn’t there a tax on CD-Rs etc to compensate the recording industry for piracy? That would mean that if you want to copy a CD then you’ve kinda paid compensation for piracy before you do the copyright infringement (even if you weren’t going to). automatically whereas if you’re the recording industry and don’t license copyright then you’ve not paid *anybody*. If that’s the case then it’s just messed up!
Yes, in Canada it’s true: “On March 19, 1998, new federal copyright legislation came into force. Among other things, the legislation provides for a levy to be collected on blank audio recording media.
It is called a levy (and not a tax) because it is not collected by any level of government, it is collected by a group representing the recording industry. In a letter to the Copyright Board of Canada released Monday, January 18, 1999, the five collectives that filed tariffs for a proposed levy on blank audio recording media announced the creation of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC).
The Copyright Board decides on the amount of the levy and what media it applies to. The CPCC submits its proposed levies and the Copyright Board holds hearings to hear any objections to the proposed levy amounts. Note that the Copyright Board CANNOT change the law, they can only determine the levy value and the media to which it will apply. The levy can be set for a 1- or 2-year period. So far, all of the periods set and requested have been 2 years.
The first time the Copyright Board set the levy was December 17, 1999.”
So of course, I download all the music I feel like. The industry also pissed me off by making me pay a licensing fee to play music I already own at my own wedding. SOCAN’s argument is that my private, invitation only wedding is a public performance.
Also:
“Can I legally copy music CDs for my friends?
The simple answer is NO, but you can legally copy your friend’s music CD for YOUR OWN use.”
It’s been amusing to watch the CRIA trying to “debunk” that interpretation. It’s boiled down to “No, even though you pay a levy on blank media, that doesn’t give you the right to make copies. Why? Well, uh… SHUT UP!”
IIRC, there is also a similar levy on photocopiers, printers, printer/copier paper, etc, for a decade or two. I know a few current and former print journalists who still get a cheque for a few hundred $ every year as a result of the levy.
The reasoning being that devices like photocopiers will inevitably be used for copyright infringement, so the levy is collected and used to compensate copyright holders for the infringement that’s assumed to occur. As a result, small-scale infringement is largely treated as “de minimis” (too insignificant for the law to bother with).
I think that’s a much more pragmatic/realistic approach than the RIAA/MPAA has used.
Oh, we know exactly why you know our anthem by heart, Thom. It’s because it’s always being sung at the awards ceremonies for speed skating competitions.
(Zing!)
Nice! Need to step up the trash talk as we get closer to Vancouver.
Du kanadierne vil gjøre sirup buksa i frykt som vår tapre sild drevet kniver skive isen under din klovn føtter.
And the Mafiaa will pay it to wiggle out of this “situation”.
We need more direct democracy to defend our rights.
I LOVE it when things like this (at least theoretically) come back to bite people in the ass. Will be fun to watch.
Ditto, couldn’t happen to a more deserving group of “people.”
This has been a hilariously-bad year for the CRIA. A few months back, they were in hot water because they commissioned a report concluding that Canada needs a more stringent, American-style copyright regime – except the report itself was an example of copyright infringement, since it contained significant portions of another report, without any attribution.
I hope the northern cousins of our own friendly RIAA litigious bastards get crucified in court. Really I do. It’s just Karma at it’s best
This practice is not limited only to Canada. Recently an artist was denied to put his song on MySpace because the copyright was claimed by Warner Brothers. The label’s license had expired years ago.
“‘A Girl Like You’ is available for sale all over the internet. Not by Edwyn, by all sorts of respectable major labels whose licence to sell it ran out years ago and who do not account to him”
http://www.nme.com/news/edwyn-collins/47628
Oh Canada! 😀
The Canadian Government should make the record
companies pay for pirating music. An if they
refuse to pay the fine, seize all bank accounts
and property of the music companies.
If RIAA can sue 65 year old ladies and 9 year
children for downloading music … These companies
should be held to a higher standard and they should
pay twice as much as the standard person …
They should be paying closer to 120 Billion USD …
It is not either “difficult to understand why the industry has been so reluctant to pay its bills”.
They delay because they can.
I say forgive the monied interests, all of them, but do away with with the allowances of the financial systems we now have. (Punny.) Those aren’t, who stand to gain, starving artists,
What is financial crises other than loss of consensus?
What is ownership but responsible handling?
The CRIA should not have ownership of money
if they cannot “handle” it out responsibly.
Neither should State have Church (or Money).
Economics alone confuses life’s ecological decision-making.
The ancient Greeks? They say κÏίσις (krisis), “‘a separating, power of distinguishing, decision, choice, election, judgment, dispute’â€) < κÏίνω (krinÅ), “‘pick out, choose, decide, judge’â€)
Finally. The pits shall open and hell shall swallow them up … HAHAHAHAHA.
Now I wonder if the RIAA has a similar list and whether the artists can sue here too.
They ARE hell!
Aside from the delicious irony, there’s justice to be
done. For so many years we’ve heard the recording industry wail about stolen music when all along
they were the biggest thieves of all.
Not to mention, they make every dime off of the Blood, Sweat and Tears of musicians and performers who they ensnare in outrageous contracts and usually end up owning
their creative works.
A fine isn’t enough, much as I’d like to see them take a hit to the pocketbook. A year in a REAL jail should teach the thieving hypocrites a proper lesson.
This story made me remember Sunday school
I applaud the Canadian recording industry in taking the initiative in helping the American government with its stimulus package, the war in Iraq, and spreading the merits of universal health care by financing it with such largesse. Bravo!
Seriously, though: assuming that most of these artists are American, after taxes (or from the Canadian point of view, before taxes) this would probably be one of the greatest single transfers of wealth from one government to another if indeed $60 billion were ever to be exacted. Obviously that won’t happen, but the thought of Chet Baker’s tunes underwriting global wars is too twisted to resist.
(If historians of music ever had a thing called FUD, I think I just found it =)
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that this was going on everywhere else, not just Canada,as geleto pointed out by providing the link to the Edwyn Collins story.
[Grace’s MYSPACE post about it is here: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=81… ]
The problem is that corporations used to hold all the power, so artists had to give up copyright in order to be heard. That is no longer the case which is why the corporations are spending vast sums of money to attempt to legislate anti-progress.
They could be adapting to the new business model, but they don’t understand sharing.
I’ve tried to gather a heap of links about ACTA in my public service blog:
http://stopusagebasedbilling.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/a-c-t-a-is-ba…
ACTA is secret for a reason. Contact your political representative to tell them you want ACTA brought into the light of day. (Scary vthought: most elected officials don’t know as much as you do about ACTA.)
But ACTA has not yet come to pass; iif there is enough outcry governments will back down.
am looking forward to seeing the death of the Music Industry.
I’m just off to listen to Frank Zappa’s Joe Garage, ‘plooked’, huh-huh…
That’s interesting about the paper levy, I wasn’t aware of that one.
As far as the CD levy goes, I had heard a long time back that it was collected but never paid out. Does anyone know if any musicians have ever actually paid from that fund? I’m curious.
The result to consumers is that Canadians pay more for blank CDs than DVDs. I’ve heard various parties talking about extending the levy to all blank media, including thumb drives and DVDs. I’d expect the movie companies wouldn’t like that one much. Guess they won’t need it if they get ACTA passed.
Myself I feel ripped off by it because I have zillions of CDs backed up with my own digital photos and scanned family photos. (After the first time I lost six months worth of scanned and photoshopped images when my computer committed suicide I got paranoid. Now my 8Gig card can take 2,000 pictures… all I can say is i love external hard drives)