Don't Torch Musicians' Incomes, Burn Media Piracy
Brian Robertson,
Globe, Mail,
Oct 15, 2003
Though the purpose of this article is to launch PureTracks, a Canadian music subscription service similar to iTunes, the author, the president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, takes the opportunity to launch a one-sided harangue under the guise of a news article in Canada's national newspaper (guess which side of the debate they're on). Much of the article is misleading in the extreme, such as suggestions that "other alleged infringers were ignored," that file sharing in Canada has been "counted", that 10,000 people in Canada have been laid off due to file sharing, and so much more. The Globe should give me a technology column! But the chances of that happening are about as slim as the chances of a music industry paying fair royalties to artists. The author urges Canada to ratify WIPO, saying we are "behind the times" because we haven't - but the author (and our legislators) should understand that there is deep opposition stricter copyright in this country, albeit an opposition with rather less access to traditional media. Since (as predicted) the Puretracks server failed under the traffic load, here is some Slashdot coverage with some interesting tidbits and a lot of scathing criticism.
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