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Music Media The Internet Your Rights Online

Proposed Canadian Laws to Nix P2P Music Sharing 60

Posted by timothy from the what-about-artists-who-want-you-to-download-for-free? dept.
limber writes "During this past weekend's Juno awards (a vapid Canadian music industry shindig) Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla brought up proposed new legislation that would make downloading music on the Internet without paying for it illegal. High (or low) lights of the legislation include: forcing 'ISPs to monitor individual customer Internet connections for suspicious activity,' and giving the music industry and songwriters 'the tools to sue' illegal downloaders. Frulla further noted she 'wanted to persuade children that downloading music for free is wrong.'
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Proposed Canadian Laws to Nix P2P Music Sharing More

Proposed Canadian Laws to Nix P2P Music Sharing

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  • Fine (Score:4, Funny)

    by unleashedgamers ( 855464 ) * on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @08:36PM (#12149621)
    I guess I'll have to steal from the store! (Its not as bad if i get caught)

  • Music Levy Repel (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 9mm Censor ( 705379 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @08:38PM (#12149636) Homepage
    Ok, so if its going to become illegal to download music and let the record industy sue people, is the tax on media going to be repeled?

  • As opposed to the many vapid american shindigs (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MerlynEmrys67 ( 583469 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @08:39PM (#12149642)
    When will these groups stop giving awards for bad music to artists that sell out so their fans can't even access their music if the artist wants to let them

  • Downloading to yourself (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sfcat ( 872532 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @08:40PM (#12149646)
    What happens if you are copying music you have bought to yourself (say from home to work), or music that is "opensource" (i.e. smaller bands than encourage mp3 distributions). Does this law allow loopholes for these circumstances? If Canadian politicans are anything like American ones, there will be a script that autosues file traders even if the file is only named after a song (and doesn't actually contain the music, i.e. song lyrics).
    • "auto-sues" - Thanks for the laugh. (It's so tragic, it's funny)
    • The legislators making the laws probably do not even know that 'opensource' music exists. They will have been briefed by the music 'industry' who would rather such freely (as in beer) available music did not exist and who pretend that it does not. They act as though the only legal source of music is through their members. It is the same as when legal downloads are mentioned in the media, the sites and artists offering free music are never mentioned.
      • It always seems to be the people who know the least about a given subject are the ones who make the laws. Just as people trying to outlaw Bittorent have never heard of Linux distro's. Sadly it's proof positive to me that politicians can be chosen and bought by those with a vested interest. Even sadder is the fact that it's near impossible for a technical person to explain the truth of it to a muggle.

      • Re:Downloading to yourself (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I agree. There's a similar thing in UK entertainment licensing at the moment: you need a licence for any public performance, which has been welcomed by "the entertainment industry", which has been extensively consulted.

        People who like to play music for fun rather than profit do not apparently exist, and so are not catered for.
    • music industry doesn't want there to be free music. pretty simple.

      but well.. it's not like it would change anything in the long run anyways as people would move to anonymous networks..

    • Honestly, this is a license to print money. (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      For the common man.

      Step one. Start a Garage band.
      Step two. Record everything you play, quality is not an issue.
      Step three. Name every one of your songs after another pop song you hate and add "sucks" to the end of it.
      Step four. Download and upload your songs with reckless abandond across all the P2P networks that are easiest to pinpoint clients with.
      Step five. Wait to be sued.
      Step six. Reply to said suit. With "I own this music. Suck the corn out of my stink nuggets, you prissy faggot! Leave me alo

  • stoopid government (Score:3, Informative)

    by BortQ ( 468164 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @08:52PM (#12149705) Homepage Journal
    The liberal government is going to fall pretty soon anyways. There's no way something as invasive as this would pass.

    Not to mention that there's already a fricken levy on CDs and other media to compensate artists for downloading.

    • Except for the fact the NDP support these measures, and would be willing to go even further. This could quite easily pass, unfortunately. Besides, one moment the conservatives are saying that they won't topple the government and won't block the budget from being passed, the next they're saying they will.

      Now, the law we're getting [canada.com] is far less lopsided than the one the Heritage Committee proposed. Unfortunately, private copying, the CD media levy and how it works with the anticircumvention measures is not

  • Innovation massivelly stifled (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jamienk ( 62492 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @08:58PM (#12149755)
    * Connect 2 iPods with a Firewire chord -- iShare

    * IMDB links -- "download now!"

    * On-demand TV, for real, any TV show ever made

    * Level playing field for musical artists -- disincentivize massive investment in ad campaigns, encourage band competition through P2P blogsphere

    * Encourage competition in the following fields:

    - Attribution.com -- tries to authoritatively attribute chain of creative credit for original/derived work...

    - Who can sell "IP" at the lowest price? Can the USA compete with China? 1cent books, anyone?

    - What are TRUE value adds when "IP" is (almost) free? e.g., purchased CD comes with concert tickets; $500 purchase buys you a free Bar Mitzva concert...

    etc... More to come...

  • iTunes (Score:2)

    by Rolan ( 20257 ) *
    Just going off what summary.... Think they realize that this would make the iTunes free download of the week illegal? Politicians just prove what we think of them more and more each day....

  • Woohoo! (Score:2, Informative)

    by canwaf ( 240401 )
    It's great! This leglislation will die, because we're probably going to have an election soon.
    • Only problem is all the parties support it. And no matter who wins next time, or even if we have another minority, you can bet the intense special interest pressure to carry on down the same path will continue.......

      So enjoy it for however long it lasts.

  • Sounds like... (Score:5, Funny)

    by breon.halling ( 235909 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @09:36PM (#12150014)
    ...Juno awards (a vapid Canadian music industry shindig)...

    Sounds like someone didn't get nominated!

  • No DMCA, soo... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by boingyzain ( 739759 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2005 @09:49PM (#12150105)
    The DMCA was shot down [slashdot.org] in Canada so this is just another pathetic attempt to fight fair use. I have no doubt that this bill will fail just like the rest.

    Canada has a lot more liberals than the US, and many less politicians who are swayed by corporate interests. Very little chance Canada will ever have a "real" anti-freedom law like the DMCA or like this one.

    Its a wonder why I still live in the US.
    • I wonder why ANYONE lives in the US. I wouldn't pay taxes there knowing who's in control of it.
    • Would this be a good time to point out that it was during a liberal administration that the DMCA was signed into law? It's said that neither major party in the US is really any different from the other. They're both beholden to the pockets of huge SIGs, and there's not a good shot at change in the near future.
  • Frulla further noted she 'wanted to persuade children that downloading music for free is wrong.'

    Just like Americans were persuaded by Al Qaeda to give up their superficial cupidity for fear of having planes crashed into them. When a punishment does not fit a crime, it is terrorism, not justice.

    Are we (America) gonna go to war with the Canadian terrorists now?

  • Wow. That's a friggin' broad term. Why can I see this being (ab)used a whole range of intrusive stuff.

    All of sudden the role of the ISP is to monitor the content you download?

    So a commercial entity has the right to have your ISP to monitor you for 'suspicious activity' (subject to their determination) when the RCMP would need a warrant to do this exact thing?

    And if the RCMP was going to have the power to have your ISP randomly examine your data for 'suspicious activity' there would be people going ape-
  • Downloading music "for free" from the internet should be illegal?

    Hypothetical situation. I am a young independant unsigned artist. I make music, and would like to increase my listening audience. I put MP3's of songs I composed and performed on a website and I seed the songs onto a P2P network. What is the duration of my jail term?

    Also a few people are commenting that the "copying levy" on blank media should be repealed - under this juristiction, it shouldn't. That levy is to pay for "fair use" copyin

  • Its' not about compensating greedy artists or... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    greedy record labels.

    Its' about access to our cultural heritage, from both our present and our past, being denied to us in the name of increasing someone else's profits.

    I repeat, culture should be freely available to every member of our society.

    How?

    IDK but perhaps, music should be accessable to anyone at anytime for a reasonable price, and then be free a short time later (15-30 years perhaps?). This is not what we have had in the past.

    Its' all water under the bridge though, by the time these laws are effe

  • Anyone know if there is any kind of campaign already in action to let the government know how ridiculous this is? If not then I'm gonna have to start tracking down some addresses and writing some letters. I really don't want to see this kind of crap happening here in Canada.

  • I've said it before... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by petrus4 ( 213815 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2005 @02:17AM (#12151586) Homepage Journal
    ...And I'll say it again.

    These laws are almost entirely unenforceable. As an ISP, if any government wanted to force me to monitor individual users' bandwidth, I'd ask them if they were going to provide me with extra staff to help me do it, since there would be no possible way that I could do such a thing myself. Let's also see if they can persuade their usually understaffed, underpaid police forces to do the job, as well...My guess is that that is unlikely.

    Any government that wants to can pass as many laws like this as it wants, and then sit back and watch as the general public completely ignores them. Governments, the RIAA, and WIPO need to get it into their empty heads once and for all:- We *want* to pirate music, we're *going* to pirate music, and apart from a few token lawsuits here and there against the odd big fish, for the most part there is exactly jack shit you can do about it. Get used to it, because it (and we) are not going away.
    • Any government that wants to can pass as many laws like this as it wants, and then sit back and watch as the general public completely ignores them.

      Yup. C-68 is a prime example of a liberal law ignored by most parties and most provinces as well.

      Drug and prostitution laws are examples of more conservative laws that are also not worth the paper they are written on.

      As a libertarian, I ignore in an equal opportunity fashion. :-)

  • I gotta admit.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Kwil ( 53679 )
    ..they're wearing me down.

    Each time a story like this comes up, I find the address of the minister responsible (and it seems like it's a different one every time. How much is the music industry paying these people?) and write my letter, CCing it to the leader of the opposition, the Prime Minister, and my MP.

    It's getting to the point where I'm just getting tired of doing it.
  • Anyone visiting a Flash website is guilty. Because you are downloading music from a website without paying for it. How about online games like miniclip.com or yahoo Games?

    On another note: what about the archives with classical music in MIDI format? It's music and can be downloaded for free. And it's free of copyrights.

    And what about online games (the type of WoW or GTR), these may download new music from their home server without the user knowing about it !

    This is an impossible law to be valid, there'

  • Write your MP.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xtal ( 49134 ) on Wednesday April 06, 2005 @08:54PM (#12161032)
    If you're really concerned, write to the opposition party leaders and/or their shadow cabinet representatives as well. I am uncertain how to get this information directly, so I send it to the opposition party leaders.

    http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html [canada.gc.ca]

    Your voice DOES MATTER IN CANADA. People will pay attention. Write something.

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