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Canadian Music Industry Says Downloading Declining
An anonymous reader writes "A new survey conducted by a Canadian music collective that counts the recording industry as one of its members has found that music downloading has declined dramatically in Canada. The survey found that only 14 percent of Canadians download, down from 21 percent in 2002. The survey also found that P2P is rarely a reason for people who purchase less music."
Though downloading may or may not be declining here in Canada, what do you think the chances are of them reducing or eliminating the blank media tax?
You're right it's not a tax and it is a levy AND there is a big difference. Taxes are collected by governments which in theory are accountable to the people. The levy is collected by a special interest group which is ONLY accountable to its members. A tax would be fairer.
In short, people object to calling it a tax because in common parlance, such a statement would be just as misleading as calling copyright infringement theft.
I think actually the slowing # of downloads if more a factor of crap. People would still be downloading large volumes of stuff if anything new and decent was coming out.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
The article does not tell us anything about the survey methods that they used. Did they use the same survey as reported from earlier data? Differences in survey design can have huge consequences on the outcome and may make comparisons moot.
Also, people might be more likely to say they are not downloading music when, in fact, they are downloading as much or more. The fear of recrimination for admitting to downloading may be pushing people to simply be dishonest when surveyed.
Canadians didn't download less! We just got smarter: if we keep saying "yes, I download music from the net for free" all over the place, our government tax us. So now we keep it quiet :)
I may be incorrect here, but as I understood Canadian law pertaining to file sharing (granted, from /. not exactly a degree-granting institution), Canadians already pay a levy on all recordable media which is then passed on to the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA to reimburse artists. In addition, Canadian copyright law makes unauthorized distribution (uploading) illegal, however downloading is not. If this is true, and I cede that I may have this muddled, then Canadians should be downloading day and night from every source they can find! You're already paying for it, might as well take advantage of the legal loophole while it exists.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
That's a really good point. Is it possible that the decline in downloading is related to the declining quality in music coming out?
I sense a big shakeup in the music industry, where the artists start taking control of the money they generate, instead of the big record companies gobbling it up to enrich a few unworthy executives.
So while it's possible that the lawsuits in the US are causing Cannucks to think twice, I tend to agree with the other sentiments on this story: the stuff coming out isn't worth the bandwidth it costs to download....
If you think imaginary property and real property are the same, when does your house become public domain?
In Wellington NZ, where I am from, the house I grew up in was never locked. I lived there until 18 and thought it was strange to lock the door, especially if someone is home. We wouldn't even lock it if we were going on holiday so that our neighbours could get in if they needed to (feed cats, get lawnmower + RCD, etc). It was commonplace for us to simply walk into each other's house as if it were ours.
For me, I'd much rather grow up like this, in a friendly neighbourhood, rather than lock my house knowing that my neighbours with guns can't get in. That's just me though.
Actually uploading on P2P apps is also considered legal in Canada, this has been tested in court even.
I agree that the number may well be accurate. At least one major ISP, Rogers, has installed software that seeks out P2P connections, and throttles them. My (cough) friends (cough) tell me that P2P downloads start up OK, but after a couple of minutes, the bit rate falls off to a trickle. A Rogers spokesperson said that "email, http, IM" were the priority services for their internet customers, and that "movies and video" were at the bottom. My friends that use Rogers tell me that P2P doesn't do very much for them.
What was once true, is no longer so
I don't think the radio is good for finding music anymore. It's just the internet is so much easier and better for that.
One exception is CBC radio 3, which does a program on CBC radio 2 (yea, they really make is simple for us) on saturday nights from like, 7:30pm-12am or something (it's live, so where I'm from it starts at 4:30pm). I just record the stream using this guy (probably linux only) and listen to it at work during the week.
CBC3 also has a chart here with links to a site where you can listen to full sample tracks streaming. Then you can grab torrents from the usual places to see if you really want to get an album, or take your chances and order it from amazon.ca or cdplus.com (which is canadian)
Also last.fm is awesome for finding new music. Just find someone who listens to music you like, and grab torrents of other stuff they're listening to.
My profile is here.
To my knowlege the following is true:
Downloading is perfectly legal.
Uploading is perfecttly legal.
However distributing (that is actively or passively) to multiple parties is a more sketchy ground. I wouldn't call it legal anyway.
The big differance is how the two legal systems (Canada vs the USA) are set up to allow for the proscutions of such offences. In the USA I hear what happens is the RIAA initially sues a "John Doe" on an ISP from a particular state that allows this. The whole point of this, is to force the ISP to reveal their user lists. Once the RIAA gets this list and thus a name, they drop all charges with "John Doe". It is at this point they start a new charge in the state and against the named individual. This is the point where people get a letter to extort, erm, I mean settle out of court, as most do.
This tatic does not work in Canada. In Canada you can't sue some fictional person. You actually have to sue a person. The Canadian version of the RIAA has repeadedly tried to force the ISP's to disclose their user lists, so they can get to a suein'. However as much as I hate the Bell's and Rogers's of the world due to their monoloplistic tendancies, and brutal customer service, it is at this point that I must applaud. As both bell and rogers has told the CRIA (or whatever it is called) to go to hell, as have the courts. The privacy laws in Canada will not allow it. If there is a criminal case and evidence then for sure the courts can force the ISP to disclose a name, but you can't go and sue 5000 John Doe's here.
So while sueing Americans is actually profitable, sueing Canadians would not be, as they would have to do due process on each individual BEFORE the extortion letters go out. Whereas in the USA, they only have to do that on those that refuse to pay up. Nice eh?
Currently it seems that the CRIA has changed their tatics, and are instead trying to lobby to try and change laws or implement new ones through bribing, erm, I mean contribuiting illegally (by illegally I mean in Canada there is a cap to how much a individual can donate to a political party. However I have heard of accounts where an individual will max out, as will their spouse, and their 3 children, including a baby that is 6 months old. While technically this might, and I stress might as I don't know, might be legal, it certainly isn't ethical, or holding to the sperit of the law) to copyright "friendly" political canidates... Which is pretty damn dirty pool if you ask me.
Anyway as mentioned by the parent we all pay an invisible media tax (never mind you might use said media to back up your data files), that goes to a pot that the CRIA controls. I have no idea if a single cent has made it to Sloan and other music folks, though it wouldn't surprise me a whole lot if I learned that some portion or even a large portion goes to the "administration" of the CRIA, and ultimaly to copyright "friendly" dinners and such.
Anyway this somehow turned into a big rant, so sorry.