Canadian Songwriters' Collective Licensing Bid Goes Voluntary 93
Last year, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) proposed a plan to legalize the file sharing of copyrighted songs, which involved a small monthly fee to people using an internet connection. Critics of the plan complained that it amounted to another tax, and the Canadian recording industry said it violated copyright law. Now, as an anonymous reader writes,
"The SAC has renewed its bid to legalize peer-to-peer file sharing in return for a levy on Internet service. The SAC is now calling for the plan to be voluntary, with both consumers and creators having the right to opt-out. ACTRA, the leading performer group in Canada, now says it is also supportive of a legalized approach with the prospect of extending the plan to video sharing."
Next election... (Score:1, Interesting)
...I'll vote for the party that supports this (Probably NDP/NPD).
Re:Letting artists opt-out makes sense (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:So I can choose... (Score:3, Interesting)
You make one mistake, in my estimation:
"...only heavy utilizers are going to opt-in (or rather, not opt-out)."
This is where they'll make their money: If they implement the fee, 90% of users won't notice it or bother to opt-out. It's going to be a voluntary overpayment, with the money going to the middlemen as usual. (Will the artists get a cent of this? No, of course not! Why would THEY be the ones to profit from their music?)
Yeah, it's stupid. Stupid, immoral, and corrupt--like the music industry everywhere.
Negative Option Billing (Score:4, Interesting)
Foreign artists and other media (Score:4, Interesting)
Obviously, they cannot be covered by this agreement. Thus, most file-sharing will remain illegal in Canada.