Canadian Music Industry Calls For Internet Regulation, Website Blocking

An anonymous reader writes "Canadian law professor Michael Geist reports that the Canadian arm of the RIAA is calling for new Internet regulation, including website blocking and search result manipulation. While the Canadian music industry experienced increased digital sales last year (sales declined in the U.S.) and the Ontario government is handing out tens of millions of tax dollars to the industry, the industry now wants the government to step in with website blocking and ordering search companies to change their results to focus on iTunes and other sales sites."

Drowns CRIA in poutine.

[Chas]

So, basically a gun to people's heads while the other hand rifles through their pockets.

Greed. The one thing that's in truly infinite supply.

Good luck with that

[sandbagger]

They get a tax subsidy in Canada, new copyright legislation protecting broken-in-principle DRM and now they want search engines -- which make more money than them -- to be subservient to their industry. Wonderful.

Cute to see the CLUELESS trying to hijack laws ...

[UnknownSoldier]

From the Fine Article ...

Music is becoming a hobby, not a career.

Translation: "We can no longer buy popularity with pop music and no longer manufacture the latest fad of boy-bands or girl-bands. These indie bands can do it cheaper, and that cuts us, the middle man, out of the picture! We don't get our fair share from YouTube, etc."

"Oh Noes! People are using this internet to freely share things and we aren't getting our cut ! Must maintain artificial scarcity of the source else we can't over-charge for numbers! Suckers! Er, mean, 'customers'."

Never mind the fact that the easier it is for people to find music, video, that is akin to free advertising.

Nah, let's shit on our potential customers and treat them like pseudo-thieves because "How dare they share something they value with someone else!"

Only cowards use censorship

Kiddie porn to porn to IP

[TWiTfan]

It was the plan all along. First you establish the ability to block and censor. Then you find an excuse no one can NOT support (stopping kiddie porn). Then you move on to the obvious next level (we must protect our children from porn in general!), then intellectual property (it's illegal!!).

Next up, blocking whistleblower sites and newspapers that publish whistleblower revelations.

Soon enough, all political speech that challenges or threatens the government status quo.

Re:Those canucks are really pissing me off now

[Nemyst]

Don't put us all in the same basket please. There's the Harper government and the idiots who elected them, and then there's the rest of us who just want them to fuck off and leave the country alone before we turn into the US but worse. There was a time where Canada was a leader in diplomacy, environment, science, copyright, social policies and much more. Now we're slaves to whatever industry Harper is licking the butt of at the time, any other consideration (such as the well-being of the citizens under his charge or the reputation of Canada outside of his cabinet) be damned.

Re:Good luck with that

[Dunbal]

No one is buying blank cassette tapes or CD-ROM/DVD's anymore. Waaaaa we need more money!

RIAA = pig stuck in mud, dying

[acidradio]

The recording industry, the biggest bunch of middleman thieves ever, is finally losing its free ride. You don't NEED a record company anymore, you can be your own! If they didn't think they were dying they wouldn't be violently throwing tantrums everywhere - lobbying for really radical unilateral changes to the law, suing regular everyday people for "piracy" to the point of bankruptcy, hassling bars/restaurants (usually mom and pop operations, barely making it as it is) into paying commercial licensing fees for music, etc.

A band now can cut their own album and sell it on iTunes, Amazon or a host of other music sites and retain a lot more of the proceeds. Back in the day even large, famous acts were getting stiffed by the record companies! Thanks in part to the way that record companies have pushed musicians up against the wall now for many years the market is now to a point where the artists don't even make money on the albums themselves. Instead they make the money at concerts, both on tickets and on merchandise. An artist now almost has to *give away* the music (many seem to - look on Youtube for all of the "full album" videos) as the loss leader in hopes of getting people to their concert. Artists can post samples on Youtube (at no cost) to drive sales and exposure. The record company middleman has less and less importance in a marketplace like this.

I'm glad to see that more and more musicians are standing up for themselves and taking advantage of the offerings that don't involve RIAA-related entities. If the entity doesn't add value they shouldn't have a role in the marketplace anymore.

Re:Those canucks are really pissing me off now

[TWiTfan]

Now you know how U.S. Americans feel when everyone lumps us all together, as if we're all cool with the corporatist pricks who get elected these days.

Media Tax

[MCROnline]

I assume that if all these governments from around the globe have successfully 'blocked' all these nasty web sites offering pirated content, then it stands to reason that the recording industries tax on blank media no longer would be appropriate or relevant, so we can have cheaper blank media again?