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The Power of Backroom Lobbying: How the Music Industry Got a Copyright Extension
An anonymous reader writes: The Canadian government's unexpected budget decision to extend
the term of copyright for sound recordings came as a surprise to most copyright watchers, but not the music industry lobby, which was ready with a press release within minutes. How did the industry seemingly know this was coming? Michael Geist reports that records show the extension is the result of backroom lobbying with monthly meetings between senior government officials and music industry lobbyists paving the way for copyright term extension without public consultation or debate.
Why should anyone surprised, given the industry's deep pockets and demonstrated penchant for bribery?
IMNSHO anyone "surprised" by this outcome is naïve.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
...when the copyright on Celine Dion's horrible music expires anyway?
from the same site.. interesting insight into what really happened... http://www.michaelgeist.ca/201...
the songs themselves had a longer copyright term than the recordings of them. an enterprising company started selling music that fell in that gap.. songwriters still got paid but the original distributing labels (sony, universal, etc) got left out.. they got mad and did what big companies with governments wrapped around their corporate fingers do.. they got laws changed the way they want.
10,000 records sold gets you Gold certification. Let's not make out what Canada does to be more than it is, okay. Okay. Hang in there a few more months, Canada. The summer month will arrive and the snow will be gone. For some of you. Those huddled along the border. Which is most. I wonder why there. Here most are away from the borders. Cause we don't like no illegals, that's why. No, Canada, I kid. You are the most important state we have.
It's a disgusting, dirty, sordid job, and deserves all the contempt it gets.
But the real traitors are the politicians in bed with those lobbyists. Supposedly representing the greater interest, in reality just serving their own greed.
Those should go to jail, no less.
I'm not saying corporate lobbyists aren't burrowed like ticks into every major government, because they are. But let's be real. They were "ready with a press release within minutes" because they wrote both press releases, and read the one that fit the situation. That's how it works.
Bribes.
Calling it lobbying is just sugar coating it.
Who is this Pisney anyway.
Don't the people have a say in this?
I do not care how deeeeep the industry's pocket is, in a democracy the ultimate decider is still the PEOPLE --- those who vote, that is
The industry can only get something going if the people let them - and in this case, the people still have the right to SUE the government (and indirectly sue the politicians) over the passage of the laws
Since this happens in Canada the Canadians have to mobilize themselves to see that such laws be overturned and the politicians who are on-the-take be punished accordingly
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
For some reason I read that as "paying the way for copyright term extension". After realising that I'd misread it I corrected myself. Then corrected myself again when I realised that the misread version makes more sense.
There need to be mass protests and rallies. This is the kind of reasons there should be people marching on government buildings. These are real issues.
The logic is simple.
1- money talks
2- the music industry has money and therefore bribe power.
3- The people have next to no money as individuals and little motivation or organization to fight these things day in and day out and still live their lives
4- Politicians are greedy people who hold the reigns of the lawmaking machinery.
5- The music industry will therefore go to the politicians and try to use their money to get more money and produce less.
I have laid this logic out so simple a 3rd grader in America could understand it but the WOW freakout kid, who on here goes by the name narcc will probably be by to try to "take apart" my logic and say why it is wrong and stupid and "a mess" but we all know what an idiot narcc is, all of his supposed "Knowledge" comes from haphazard google searches and all he does here is troll. Meanwhile, the truth is unassailable, Money talks.. and 2 through 5 and everyone knows it. Narcc gets embarrassed by his mother and brother for the idiot he is.
Lobbying is a polite name for bribery and coercion.
Fuck politeness.
If you have sufficient funds, you can buy any law you want.
When asked to comment on private meetings with Music Canada lobbyists Canadian Heritage said
“It is not our practice to comment on the content of meetings with stakeholders.”
So their practice is to separately negotiate with each stakeholder privately.
I can see the need for private initial meetings to sort out what needs to be done and not.
As long as no related action results, these meetings remaining private is probably ok.
If they result in public action, then I can't see the justification for preventing a public report for what was discussed.
That seems the limit for relaxing a sunshine rule in a democratic government.
I certainly can't see the public action affecting the public without a public comment period.
Perhaps it never dawned on them that the public might be a stakeholder.
More likely there was an operational security issue.
Like they could not get away with it if there was a public debate.
"Michael Geist reports that records show the extension is the result of backroom lobbying with monthly meetings between senior government officials and music industry lobbyists paving the way for copyright term extension without public consultation or debate."
You mean "Paying" not "Paving".
Let the corporations have their own representation and completely ban them from lobbying the other branches.
that's bullshit man...music should be, ya know...free, because...reasons
They can have all the secret talks they like so long as there is no conflict of interest.
I find it hard to believe however that their isn't a conflict of interest when you have the Minister in change of copyright (Minister of Heritage or something or other, which I don't even fathom how they are in change of copyright in the first place) whole election campaign is/was predominantly funded by big media. How is that not a conflict of interest. They'll come out and say they were not influenced, and that they always believed in whatever bunk they are selling that day. It is a ridiculous farce.
Indeed. But maybe we should choose our battles better. Copyright extension - essentially to infinity - seems silly, but the harm from it pales next to the damage being done by the patent system. Bad patents prevent you from innovating on your own ideas - that, yes, have some basis in what came before (what doesn't?). Copyrights just prevent you from 'free as in beer' access to something that we all agree isn't ours. Sure, there have been stupid cases - like Oracle's insistence to exclusive access to Java API's based on copyright. But for the most part, life and technological and cultural progress would go on fine with Mickey Mouse the exclusive property of the Disney corporation for the next millennium.
I - along with most typical slashdotters - am in knee jerk opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership. Why? Because of the threat that US patent standards will be extended worldwide. And the primary reason corporate lobbyists have inserted themselves into the process is more likely copyright protection. Music and movie studios - and yes, Microsoft and their ilk - want to stop content piracy in China, and other places where copyrights are not respected. I can understand that. Much as I like getting music for free, I get that it's a form of stealing. From what I gather, the TPP has now become so laden with corporate giveaways, that it may not be fixable. But a good trade agreement is certainly possible. It would certainly be better to level the environmental playing field by improving standards in China than by imposing least common denominator standards in the West. Same for worker protections. And I'm willing to believe that the TPP even attempts to do such things. But extending US patent standards to the rest of the world is least common denominator in reverse. Bad enough IMO to scuttle the deal.
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
If only bribing government officials was illegal... think what that would solve!
Please call it what it is: theft from the public domain. It is theft of public property, plain an simple. They are stealing from Canadian citizens that which is rightfully theirs. A reasonable solution might be to treat copyright in a manner similar to a natural resource. Have the owners pay for the extended exclusive copyrights. That's a win/win solution. Hey, you could even put all of the copyrights that are expiring up for public auction, like we do for access to RF spectrum in the U.S. Have a minimum bid for everything. If no one bids the minimum value, it falls into the public domain.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
Bad patents prevent you from innovating on your own ideas - that, yes, have some basis in what came before (what doesn't?). Copyrights just prevent you from 'free as in beer' access to something that we all agree isn't ours.
"We all agree"? Not everyone agreed about the ruling in Gaye v. Thicke to apply exclusive rights to the overall feel of a musical composition. Not everyone agreed about the ruling in Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music to penalize someone for having copied a melody completely by accident. What steps should a songwriter take to keep from infringing (and remain a songwriter) in this sort of legal landscape? At least expiry keeps, say, the Shakespeare estate from claiming that the entire world is guilty or liable of "nonliteral similarity". It acts as one of the checks on "stupid cases".
When did Obama become President of Canada?
Since he took office as President of the United States during the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
Michael Geist reports that records show the extension is the result of backroom lobbying with monthly meetings between senior government officials and music industry lobbyists paving the way for copyright term extension without public consultation or debate.
Because that pretty much sums up the way the Harper government operates -- and has, ever since they were elected.
licet differant, aequabitur
For the citizens of democratic countries: Canada (and many English-speaking countries) is not a democracy but a geocracy, which ensure geographic regions (called ridings) are fairly represented. As can be seen on this official GoC website less than 4 in 10 Canadians voted for the party that somehow has an absolute majority in parliament.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
Our problem with all of this is that public resources are being abused to force legislations and other law binding implications that outweight the benefits of copyright laws.
I can not make up from this post if you are trolling, but most of us don't mind paying for music. But if it comes to the restrictions that come with it. And how hard it is to have 1 consistent library of music we can listen to and enjoy anywhere we like.
Specifically here we get stuff like you could never remix a song unless the copyright holder lets you. Even if the artist that made it is long dead. Making it virtually impossible for a lot of people to actually make the said remix, because they lack the funds / man power to jump through the required legal hoops.
We go to change laws normally used to track terrorists and use them to find people that upload mp3's... In US it's apparently more of a crime to share a piece of music then it is to steal a 5000 dollar neck chain.
Some of this stuff make it so companies can completely bankrupt people just for the 'loss in revenue' of sometimes even a single song. Hell give me tank and I could probably not make enough property damage within an hour then what these companies ask in fines for copyright infringement.
Completely forgetting that music has to go by. People can only know it exists if we can listen to it somewhere. And a lot of us want to support the artist by buying their albums, going to their concerts and buying their merchandise. But as soon as you see everyone as a criminal within the rules of this little game you will get a lot of solemn faces and angry people that want to get back to what music is all about. Emotion, and sharing these emotions, world views and ideas.
How stuff currently is going is not beneficial for anyone except for the people with the deep pockets and tall buildings.
Maybe we could name this the "Rita McNeil Copyright Extension Act". Whaddaya think?
A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth