| Subject: Canadian copyright petition |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 06:55:32 08/30/04 Mon
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "RIAA & goofy laws." on 17:09:22 02/01/04 Sun
So far, close to 4,000 people in the US have been sued by members of the Big Four record label cartel for not buying their music.
Canadians have managed to escape a similar fate. And Chris Brand has organized an online petition aimed at making sure things stay that way.
In the US, it works like this:
Big Music turns its RIAA enforcers loose against innocent people whom, it says, are "devastating" the huge, multi-billion-dollar international industry by sharing music online.
Its RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) files John Doe lawsuits that identify alleged p2p file swappers by the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of computers sharing the file. Then the RIAA files a motion demanding that the ISPs who in effect own the addreses hand over the names of the customers behind them.
The cartel then sends nasty 'see you in court' letters to the victims who are still legally innocent of any wrong doing.
However, the letter also offers to settle out of court and, faced with that or going up against Big Music's bottomless pockets and heavyweight legal teams, the record label cartel victims unfailingly agree to pay up, allowing the music industry to float the scam that they've successfully sued these people.
The Big Four labels are, though, batting zero in Canada, despite non-stop efforts on the part of their CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) to change the picture.
Brand's petition is, "a way of letting Parliament know that ... you don't want your rights to be abraded every time the music industry's profits slip a little".
The new Parliament will meet on October 4 and, "The government has promised to introduce legislation to amend the Copyright Act before the end of 2004," says Brand.
"We want to ensure that the petition has been presented before any such Bill is first read. That means that we're likely to present the petition in October or November 2004."
Canada's new minister of Canadian heritage is Liza Frulla and given that her boss, prime minister Paul Martin, is on record as saying he thinks the music industry is part of Canada's sovereignty, make sure Canada's copyright laws aren't re-jigged to let Big Music open Canada and Canadians up to lawsuits.
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