Part one of this essay ended with the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) was putting forth a motion to force ISPs to give up the names of P2P file-sharers.
On this motion, the CRIA provided an affidavit from Gary Millin, President of MediaSentry, a company that specializes in detecting the distribution of materials on P2P networks. The record labels supplied MediaSentry with the names of songs that were to be investigated. The company then searched for and downloaded the songs, matched the sources of the files to specific IP addresses and took screenshots of the users shared folders to show the volume of copyrighted material being made available for download. Read more…
Digital Music, Legal Studies, Media Technology
CRIA, DMCA, file sharing, Finckenstein, ISPs, PIPEDA, privacy, RIAA, WIPO, WPPT
Short answer: yes.
Well, it is more accurate to say that file-sharing is not illegal in Canada.
In 2005, I wrote and essay: “Copyright v. Privacy: A Review of the Legal War Between Record Labels and File Sharing from a Canadian Perspective”. I am going to review it here, in my blog and discuss what has happened since. Here is part one of the essay:
In February of 2004, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) filed a federal lawsuit against 29 alleged file sharers for copyright infringement and requested their identities from the five major Canadian Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This was the first suit brought by the record label trade group against individual peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharers whom the CRIA claim have caused the loss of millions of dollars and dozens of jobs in the Canadian music industry. Citing privacy concerns, the ISPs refused. The CRIA proceeded to file a motion in the federal court to order the ISPs to disclose their clients’ private information. Read more…
Digital Music, Legal Studies, Media Technology
CRIA, DMCA, file sharing, Finckenstein, ISPs, PIPEDA, privacy, RIAA, WIPO, WPPT
Dr. Bakker uses an objective tone, rational arguments and an abundance of references to show that the traditional music industry is defending its interests with inconsistent logic and rhetoric in “The end of the CD as we know it… Shifting consumer behaviour and changing business models in the music industry”. The article clearly explains the position of the music industry by citing reports by the RIAA and the IFPI that show declines in the sales of CDs, and a detailed explanation of the industries dialogue with the public.
The industry argues that “downloading music is illegal…and unethical, it is hurting the industry and artists… takes away the incentive for creativity… and is therefore harmful for national music cultures.” (Bakker, 2004) He then systematically “deconstructs” these “discourses” to show that although the industry “strengthens the argument that all kinds of illegal activities are harmful”, they “fail to reveal how much downloading contributes to the decline in music sales”. Read more…
Digital Music, Media Technology
CD sales, CRIA, Digital Music, diversity, IFPI, RIAA, soundscan
