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Canadian Music Stars Fight Against DRM

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the it's-ok-to-share-eh dept.

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."

8 of 506 comments (clear)

  1. Serious question by HeavensBlade23 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  2. It's a shame its too late for Sarah's last album by QX-Mat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

  3. Broken Social Scene - their action by Lieutenant_Dan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  4. Barenaked ladies changing foot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone remember... We fooled you, huh? We're sneaky like that.

  5. write to them and say thank you by Frag-A-Muffin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
  6. Canada: Indie Music Explosion by ironring2006 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It's nice to see some of the big names in the Canadian Music Industry stick up and fight for this. Although, the big thing in music right now, at least among my demographic (University Student) is an explosion in the indie music genre. We are the generation that was just discovering music during the hey day of Napster searching for all the stuff we saw on MuchMusic and on the local radio. We're tech savvy enough to seek out alternate sources of music. We're the ones that really do fill up those 60GB iPods.

    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!

  7. Barenaked Ladies - Tech Savvy guys by Phishcast · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  8. Bout time, I like the speeding ticket idea by KIDputer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.