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Copyright Expert Uninvited From Canada Policy Forum
earthforce_1 writes "The vested interests of restrictive copyright are stacking the deck in Canada. The Public Policy Forum Symposium on intellectual property reform has bowed to pressure from certain interests and dis-invited noted copyright scholar Howard Knopf. The forum's stated mandate is '...to strive for excellence in government — to serve as a neutral, independent forum for open dialogue on public policy, and to encourage reform in public sector management.' For some reason, the US Ambassador to Canada and the former head of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry Association have been invited — apparently they are perceived to have a more neutral view of what Canadian copyright laws should be? More information at Howard Knopf's blog."
i have to say, i do support the levy, because it means i can download all i want and never get sued.
but here is the part where the levy is a miserable failure:
independent bands.
many of my friends are in unsigned bands, playing bar shows on a regular basis, and they are actually making a living off of it. not a good living by any means, they are just scraping by, but they are doing it on their own.
But...lets say they want to burn some of their songs and sell them at their shows. every black CD has that nice levy on it, they pay it, but because they are unsigned, they get nothing back for it.
IF any of the money does make it past the labels and into the artists hands, it's going to acts like nickleback.
thats right, supporting independent music helps the big guys, too.
thank you, blank media levy!
-I only code in BASIC.-
He was merely doing the opposite of what the PPF did, stacking the deck to get answers they wanted. He merely rephrased their questions to get the opposite answer. As a Canadian I'm rather disgusted in this. Luckily I'm in a Conservative riding, and can easily change my vote if they ever try anything stupid.
Here's a little advice for you and your friends
The blank media levy does *NOT* apply to the importers. If your friends are able to purchase blank CD's from outside of the country in bulk (like 1000's) then the levy does not apply to them since they are the importers. Also recording onto the blank media and then selling it ensures that the purchaser does not have to pay the blank media levy as well thereby bypassing the entire corrupt blank media levy system.
Seriously, tell your friends about this. It should help them.
09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
+2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
Yes, Knopf likes classical music and doesn't like pop, but that's a side issue. He mentions it on his blog, but it has nothing to do with the main issues he discusses concerning copyright. As far as copyright goes, he isn't extreme at all. He doesn't propose abolition of copyright or anything really radical. Much of what he does is just point out the facts. The talk that he was going to give is on the same topic as a recent post in which he pointed out various ways in which Canadian copyright law is actually stronger than US copyright law, contrary to the US propaganda. I've seen no substantive response to his points. Indeed, the highly respected Michael Geist recently pointed out that according to the far from radical World Economic Forum, Canada ranks well above the US in its adherence to and enforcement of copyright norms.