The Rants of Issachar
Monday, May 01, 2006
A barenaked guide to copyright reform
Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies has an interesting article in the National Post today. Also available here). He, (along with several other Canadian musicians) has founded a group called the Canadian Music Creators Coalition. They're holding their first public meeting today in Toronto.
Their opposition to digital rights management is certainly different from the overall trend in music south of the border, and that's a very good thing.
Still, it would seem to make it very difficult to run any sort of Napster-like music "leasing" service without some DRM. On the other hand, people do keep paying for cable even without any sort of DRM on television, so it might well work. (And Napster-style services are going to die anyway if they can't get the copyright holders to stop making some of the tracks "buy only". If I wanted to buy music, I'd buy it. I subscribe to Napster because I want to lease it. Leasing only works if you've got everything.
I'd also be interested to know what the CMCC think of our Canadian Content laws. They're a fairly coercive system for promoting Canadian music and they do restrict consumer choice.
It's an interesting development. They oppose the recording industry practice of suing music fans over downloads, and they oppose using "digital locks". They oppose so called "digital rights management" technology and iTMS' DRM is listed as a bad thing. Finally they want government cultural policies to support Canadian artists in the form of programs such as the Canadian Music Fund and FACTOR.What I'm saying is I think that looking at sharing music, (which is not a new phenomenon), as some kind of crime that should be sued or punished by law is wrong.
I think that suing our fans is the wrong attitude to take when we're trying to nurture our fan bases.
-Steven Page on Canada AM
Their opposition to digital rights management is certainly different from the overall trend in music south of the border, and that's a very good thing.
Still, it would seem to make it very difficult to run any sort of Napster-like music "leasing" service without some DRM. On the other hand, people do keep paying for cable even without any sort of DRM on television, so it might well work. (And Napster-style services are going to die anyway if they can't get the copyright holders to stop making some of the tracks "buy only". If I wanted to buy music, I'd buy it. I subscribe to Napster because I want to lease it. Leasing only works if you've got everything.
I'd also be interested to know what the CMCC think of our Canadian Content laws. They're a fairly coercive system for promoting Canadian music and they do restrict consumer choice.
