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Canadian Music Stars Fight Against DRM
An anonymous reader writes "Some of Canada's best known musicians, including Avril Lavigne, Sarah
McLachlin, Sum 41, and Barenaked Ladies, have formed a new copyright coalition.
The artists say in a press
release that they oppose file sharing lawsuits, the use of DRM, and
DMCA-style legislation and that they want record labels to stop
claiming that they represent their views."
If Sarah McLachlan opposes DRM so much why did she have it on one of her CDs? As a matter of fact the CD I'm talking about was one of the Sony rootkit CDs.
I took it back to Woolworths the week I brought it. It skipped badly on my Sony Vaio - my computer is my audio rig, and with the speaks I had hooked up at the time, I certainly wanted it to stay that way.
Just last week I saw the Sarah McLachlan DVD and thought, "stupid drm" and not about the artist. I will force myself to see her in a better light now, but if she's not touring near me, I can't exactly give her the money I want to (by buying her material) because although she's going the right away about things _now_, her cds on the shelf are still DRMed.
In the end I was forced to I download Afterglow. I became a pirate because I couldnt experience the music on my, and on my creative zen.
For an artist I discovered via napster a long time ago, this sure does suck. Are they trying to lock me out of the market, or really fence us into a no-rip-no-choice era? Either way I see it, when I can't use WhateverAMP and my mp3 player, they've lost me as a customer.
Matt
from their record contracts.
p /DRM
Several of Sarah McLachlan's CDs are DRM'd:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004144.php
http://hcs.harvard.edu/~freeculture/wiki/index.ph
(data unavailable for the other members, but it wouldn't surprise me), and almost all (Broken Social Scene and possibly a couple others being exceptions) are currently signed to RIAA/CRIA member labels. Most have released albums with those labels in the last couple years - i.e., since the campaign of lawsuits started.
Put your money where your mouth is, folks.
Their last ("You forgot it in people") album had a limited initial run with the copy protection. When the band found out they put a stop to it. See this link for an interview excerpt. Mind you, they're the biggest act on Arts&Crafts' label so that probably had a huge influence too.
I actually bought the copy-protected one (which wasn't labeled as such) and the label offered to replace it. HMV wouldn't.
Wearing pants should always be optional.
Anyone remember... We fooled you, huh? We're sneaky like that.
I just sent them a short email thanking them for understanding that their fans are mostly NOT thieves. Is it any wonder that I in fact already own most of the CDs from most of the artists in that coalition?
:)
Proud to be a Canadian today.
P.S. I especially like what's on their front page as the #1 bullet:
1. Suing Our Fans is Destructive and Hypocritical
Well duh?! When was that last time you saw a successful business model where you sue the pants out of your customers?
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
The Barenaked Ladies have a song that is called "If I had $1,000,000".
Some of the lyrics of the song are:
If I had $1,000,000, we wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner (aka macaroni and cheese)
But we would still eat Kraft Dinner, we'd just eat more
The only thing Canadian about it is the term "Kraft Dinner". AFAIK, macaroni and cheese is generically refered to as Kraft Dinner there.
This was when the band was still on contract to Warner/Elektra/etc. They've since fulfilled that, and since then all their statements have been essentially the opposite.
The press release names Steven Page (the other lead singer of BNL) as the contact, so I think this is actually their baby.
I live in Montreal and the problem isn't the English. People here are just abrupt. They don't treat you nicer if you speak English and French fluently.
However, having lived here since 1998, originally from Vancouver, Montreal is one of those cities that really grows on you over time. I think the rudeness stems from the fact that nobody actually wants to work at their job and people just want to party all the time. That plus there's a certain inbred arrogance in Quebecois mentality.
I dunno. The people here are certainly more lively than the hippie deadbeats in Vancouver and the business people in Toronto, and ultimately that's what does it for me. Even if the food and scenery is lacking (esp. compared with Vancouver), the overall energy and enthusiasm for life is great here.
read about our history.
How we have been persecuted for years because of the languages differences.
Read about how england tried to destroy the french after the colonial wars were over. See how our people were vanquished on the battlefields yet never conquered,
all in the name of culture.
Then you might get a glimpse of why we are so sensitive about languages.
Of course, a tourist is not expected to know these things, and i think beign rude isn't the way to deal with this.
We are not elitists, we are just outnumbered and we fight daily to keep ourselves from beign flooded. And we fight well enough to have a separatist party at the federal level.
If you visit Québec, just try to mention you're a tourist. It makes all the difference on the reply you'll get if you don't speak french.
We should have been
So much more by now
Too dead inside
To even know the guilt
And you know what we're filling them with? Some of the most popular bands among my friends have been The Arcade Fire, Death From Above 1979, Controller Controllor, Broken Social Scene, Hawksley Workman, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Jimmy Swift Band, Matt Mays, and countless others. Many of them allow their live shows to be traded on etree.
You want to know why these groups are popular? They tour a lot, play a lot of gigs, put on great live shows and are overall in it for the music and the fans. We've identified with the artists that put the music before the money and appreciate the innovative sounds and artistic views that they bring.
The true Canadian music scene is alive and prospering already without the help of the major music labels, with or without all their evil tactics. Anyway, at the very least, just check out these bands!
This is kind of off topic, but it's fresh in my mind. I just got back to my hotel from the EMC World conference in Boston where the Barenaked Ladies were tonight's entertainment. The skinny lead singer guy was talking about how the band was like-minded with the technical crowd. He said, "I've got Windows XP running on my Macbook with an Intel Pro Duo processor". He said it was only so he could update his GPS. That comment got a lot of applause. The wider guy mentioned ethernet and how it was really just tiny pneumatic tubes like at the drive-up bank teller. They were pretty funny guys.
Understanding this is key. BNL is known for trying other tactics to *persuade* fans to buy their stuff, rather than retaliation via lawsuit, and it's exactly this distinction that much of the music industry seems to be missing at the moment.
Tweet, tweet.
CRIA stands for Canadian Recording Industry Association. RIAA stands for Recording Industry Association of America. No "A" in either group's acronym stands for artists. I am glad they are finally forming organizations of their own. Boycott the big labels!
How ya like dat?
Bout time somebody without bazillions has a say. Makes sense why come down hard on the fans. I say just make downloaders pay $50 fines when caught. Like speeding tickets. You can NEVER stop people from speeding or downloading p2p, but you can give them a little fine to make them be more cautious. Plus paying $50 from time to time is not big deal. It is not what Shawn Fanning had in mind, but it can work. Paying $5000 for a hard disk with a few hundred songs of music is just insane, and makes people like me ready for a full out boycott. I have not purchased a single CD since they shut Napster down. Poor RIAA dudes don't even know there is a boycott going on, they think illegal downloads are the cause for stale sales. Mostly, I find it ironic and moronic that the record lables laughed in Shawn Fanning's face when he mentioned $5/mo. for unlimmited downloads, and now this is a reality at Yahoo, that's crap. Things like this should not happen. Shawn Fanning was the founder of P2P and he should be as rich as Bill Gates for pioneering a technology, not abused and left out to dry. The RIAA and all supporters of Nazi DRM deserve whats coming to them. Best bet is to BOYCOTT, BOTCOTT, BOYCOTT until this "fair use" deal is resolved in a manner that is acceptable to ALL.
Having Access to information is "theft"... ...while dumping 180 litres into your Hummer H2 while munching on a big mac grown
in a field that USED to be amazon rainforest is "your fundamental right"
in our free market dream-land...
you don't think hoisting that flag of yours is rationalising your Theft ??
And it means that artists who can't cut the mustard on stage go to the wall. Which is a bad thing because...
ian
Ok dude... Just because the English tried to eradicate the French 300 years ago does not mean everybody is out to get you! I have lived in Quebec, married a Quebecer, and now live in Europe, in a small country that has managed to live quite well with four languages (Switzerland).
... STOP ... What does a stop sign say in Quebec? Hmmm, could it be stop? No that would be too easy. It says Arret, which is stop in French. Right there you see that Quebec has a chip on its shoulder.
The Quebec people need to take a downer! And Quebecers need to realize that the union they seek a'la EU would actually take away rights that they have now. The EU looks like a rag-tag bunch of countries, but in fact there are many common laws and rights. You just don't hear about it. If you want to know about the EU common laws ask a Brit and they will cry you a river of regulations.
Now about being outnumbered and being flooded. Oh give me a break that is an overused argument. In Europe there are countries that have less people than Quebec (Luxembourg) and yet have no problem in keep their culture and identity.
The problem that I see with Quebec is that they have a chip on their shoulder and keep feeling sorry for themselves. They need to get over it. For example, we all know how the French of France are "Vive la France". Yet when there is a stop sign in France it says
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
"Frankly, I think these celebrities are a bunch of attention-whoring narcissists who want people to care more about this crap then they honestly should."
:s ). When copy protection stuff starts to get in the way of normal usage, then I think it's actually going to force people to start using illegal methods to play their music/games (I certainly would rather download a crack for my legally bought game so that I dont have to find a CD to put in the drive). These 'celebrities' are just people too, and they probably have the same problems with DRM as us.
You'd have to apply that to most slashdot posters also. DRM just 'feels' wrong, though if it is only stopping you from doing something illegal, then really it's not bad. Giving other people music which they've not bought is wrong, though I and many people do it sometimes.. I dont think DRM should have to be necessary though, and I dont have a problem with sharing CDs with friends etc, though if it means that the artist makes less money, that's a shame (though it seems to be the record companies screwing over the artists rather than the public). It's maybe something that shouldnt be such a big deal as it has now become, but it's also something that we shouldnt just let continue without making sure they're not going 'too far' with it etc. I like to play games, but I get fed up if they need me to swap a CD every time I want to play that game (and in some cases have chosen not to play a game just because I didnt want to swap out a CD
which is totally what she said
Now, if we could get Bob Barker, William Shatner, Pat Sajack, and Richard Dawson in a tag-team, caged death match... That would be worth paying to see. :)
Method of processing duck feet