Fight file sharers with tougher Copyright Act: CRIA head

In Ottawa this week to kick off a campaign to protect "products of the mind," the Canadian Recording Industry Association’s president urged the federal government to adopt tougher measures against unauthorized file sharers, in line with other nations, when it considers a bill to revise the Copyright Act this fall. "The Internet has become swamped with illegal and immoral activity," Graham Henderson said in a breakfast speech at the National Press Club. "What we are seeing here is an unprecedented state of moral lassitude coupled with confusion." Bill C-60, an act proposing amendments to the Copyright Act of 1985, was introduced in June (CNM, June 24/05). It has received first reading in Parliament, and a Parliamentary committee is expected to begin the hearing process this fall. With other jurisdictions such as the U.S. and Europe revising copyright legislation to bring it up to speed with the Internet era, as well as Canada’s signing of two copyright treaties put forward by the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1996, Henderson says the federal government is out of step with the times. "Canada has drifted listlessly into the digital age without clear signposts," he said. Both Industry minister David Emerson and Canadian Heritage minister Liza Frulla have said they intend to implement WIPO treaty-compliant reforms by the time Bill C-60 is passed; however, two more complex and contentious issues – private copying and educational use of the Internet – will be subject to further rounds of public consultation (for more on the Internet in schools, see page 1). However, a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development named Canada as the top nation in terms of peer-to-peer activity, a fact Henderson said contributed to a 41% drop in music industry revenue in Canada over the past five years. "Peer-to-peer activity is 80% of all last-mile traffic in Canada," he claimed. Those opposing tougher technological protection measures (TPM) have cautioned against following the lead of the U.S.’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying digital watermarking, copy protection and other forms of TPM could erode user rights and consumer privacy, but Henderson said there have been "clear benefits" for consumers in countries where TPM measures have been adopted. "Flexibility in the law, the legal environment and the digital imperative appear to be creating new business models that work" for all parties, he said. A small percentage of teenagers and young adults are responsible for the bulk of unauthorized music sharing in Canada, far from the popularly held belief that many see the phenomenon as innocuous and inevitable, Henderson said. "The pro-file sharing lobby has promulgated the view that everyone is engaged in file sharing, and left our lawmakers with the impression that the digital horse has left the digital barn," he said. "Their behaviour should not be used as an excuse to write copyright law out of existence." Although Henderson said that adolescents and young adults are motivated by simple self-interest rather than the ideals of what he called the "copyleft" movement, CRIA certainly has a battle to fight winning the hearts and mind of today’s younger generations. Research commissioned by the association found that Canadians, especially younger ones, viewed downloading music via peer-to-peer services as a much less severe crime than shoplifting a music CD, proof of a "continental divide" between the public perception of unauthorized music downloading on one hand and physical theft on the other.

Fight file sharers with tougher Copyright Act: CRIA head

Broadcast | September 30, 2005

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