Slashdot Mirror
Canadian Music Industry Wants Royalties on Net Usage
Dr. Zoidburg writes "Apparently Internet music and movie sharing in Canada has gained enough popularity to turn the heads of the music and movie industry. CTV has a report about a Canadian organization named SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada) that will "ask the Supreme Court of Canada next week to force Internet service providers to pay them royalties for the millions of digital music files downloaded each year by Canadians". Says the president of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, "Consumers could very well see an increase in their Internet costs and they could see a slowdown in the transmission speed of their Internet communications"."
The judge in this article says that caching of popular web-pages by ISPs changes their role as mere conduits for information to providers.
Next my modem will be impounded by **AA because it buffers the data coming into it.
There are so many things wrong with what SOCAM are proposing it makes my skin crawl. This is the same principle as the Recording Industry getting a tax on blank CDs because of course they are all being used to pirate the music of those artists owned by them. The principle is that everyone is judged guilty and punishment (fines in the form of tax) are automated and mandatory.
Extending this principle beyond the music industry, you would then logically get the movie tax, a tax on news to reimburse newspaper distributors and those who turn off FOX half-way through, a literature tax to reimburse Random House and McGraw-Hill etc etc.
In fact, what the proposed laws are doing are creating the following viable business model
1. Fail to sell stuff.
2. Introduce laws to make other industries compensate you.
3.???
4. Profit!
Actually, I think number 3 is probably incarcerate any civil liberties campaigners and fine a few people loudly and publicy to financial ruin to scare any transgressors.
Go back to sleep, Canada - your Government is in control.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Well, I was speaking about viewership not accessability (I have the travel channel, speed network, boom, etc. etc. and have never once watched them...)
But as to the link between the viewing of American programming on telivision to the choice of what type of programming is downloaded online... If I have to make the connection for you then you must be more like the "Canadians" of South Park than I had believed possible.
I was just looking where to post
"I do NOT want any of my money going to Celine Dion and her old husband. Isnt 400$/person/show in vegas making her rich enough?"
I would pay this fee if I could direct where it was going at. Trish Stratus, Pamala Anderson, Tragically Hip, and other cool Canadians would get my money.
And on a side note, Celine Dion is not Canadian. She is French (canadian). And who likes the french?
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]