CRIA Prepares To Sue P2P Copyright Violators

ergo98 writes "The Canadian version of the RIAA, the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association), has begun laying the PR groundwork for an initiative similar to that pursued by the RIAA in the US - threatening to file lawsuits against individual file sharers (specifically uploaders). They claim that CD sales have dropped by 23 per cent since 1999, attributing that drop to P2P, and apparently it isn't enough that the Canadian music industry gets a hefty presume-you-are-a-criminal levy attached on various devices and media." Many readers also point to the Globe and Mail's version of the story. dsanfte writes "They will apparently only be targetting uploaders, because in the Copyright Board's judgement, P2P downloading is legal under Canadian law."

Comments

Re:Difficulty

[psychogentoo]

They don't have to prove anything. You get sued, then they ask if you want to settle out of court or go through a lengthy trial process.

Its a lose-lose situation for the parties involved except for the lawyers and Celine Dion.

Subpeonas

[Anonymous Coward]

They won't be able to go after as many file swappers (per capita) as they have in the U.S. because Canadian law does not allow you to subpeona their ISPs without a warrant signed by a judge. We have no DMCA yet. Also, there is also no legal precedent a la RIAA vs Verizon to get the names of file swappers from ISPs.

How does the Canadian RIAA plan to track down these uploaders without names, addresses and phone numbers from ISPs?

Of course, once we sign on to the FTAA, we will be forced to ratify it and adopt the insane IP provisions of that "free trade" agreement, including jail terms for file swappers, making open source software outright illegal, and allowing corporations to copyright everything except 12 distinct processes (ex calendars). I'm really looking forward to the human genome being copyrighted and having to pay licensing fees for my very existance.

I can't believe it! I'm *actually* planning on voting NDP in the next federal election, despite the fact that I'm a small "c" conservative. That would have been unthinkable for me as recently as two years ago. This fact that our government is whoreing us to virtually criminal organizations like the RIAA/MPAA and Microsoft makes me sick to my stomach.

Re:yes....

[MikeXpop]

We tend to think of the 1970's as the decade of Dark Side of the Moon or The Long Run or (insert your favorite classic 70's album here), but there was a LOT of crap back then, too. We've just pushed it out of our memory. The recent huge drop in CD sales can't easily be attributed to music quality, as it's a constant.

Ha! I laugh at you. The 70's did have a lot of crap, yes. But it also had more gold than Fort Knox. DSotM, London Calling, The Clash, Nevermind the Bullocks, Wish You Were Here, The Wall, Meddle, [Insert Led Zeppelin album here]. We have nothing like that now. Now it's both crap (Pop-drivel Green Day, Good Charlotte, Backstreet Boys) or just plain "good" (Radiohead, Tool). We have no exceptional bands. At least none that are being pimped by the RIAA.

Disguise it all you want, music has declined.

(Ready for the real shocker? I'm 16.)

Re:yes....

[dadragon]

Because most of the time there's one good song per CD of 10-20 tracks. One song is not worth $15, so people download it.

Re:yes....

[Saeger]

The complete laundry list of reasons why CD sales are dropping...

1. People want online convenience, either from free p2p, or cheap iTunes, or other.
2. People are conditioned to view p2p AS FREE LIKE RADIO, and think nothing of it - it's an advertisement for a concert and merchandise.
3. A down economy.
4. DVDs and Video Games are a much better value!
5. People are done replacing their old LP/cassette collections.
6. Quality of music has dropped thanks to the soulsucking megacorp cookiecutter and "independent" clearchannel promoters.
7. Used CDs are easier to trade through ebay and the like.
8. Independent artists are more accessible now.
9. People are actively sticking it to the RIAA because they know how badly the artists are getting screwed.
10. 192 people are protesting perpetual copyrights...
11. ...unf.

Assign weights to each as you deem fit.

--

Re:yes....

[thales]

You are missing one thing that isn't a constant, yhe number of titles released. As the RIAA members merge into larger and larger companies they are releasing fewer and fewer titles each year.

A CD that isn't released will sell ZERO copies

The RIAA is pushing formula music and not releasing as many titles, and it's the bands that haven't made it big that are getting hit the hardest. Some of these bands could have been this years big run away hit, but they never got recorded because they didn't have the formula sound the RIAA is looking for.