(originally posted January 3rd, 2006)
Those of you who know me, know that the music industry has been a large part of my life, which (combined with my law school education) is probably why I find Intellectual Property issues so fascinating.
The CRIA recently released the figures from a recent poll, stating, among other things, that that 91% of Canadians are in favour of copyright protection. No big surprise there.
Michael Geist, one of Canada's leading privacy experts (and the Canada Research Chair in Internet & E-commerce Law), has written an interesting editorial about the poll, and I agree with his opinions on this issue, as I often do. He says:
"What is most important about this poll, however, is what it doesn't ask. What percentage of Canadians would say that the law should protect consumers against the secret installation of copy protection programs that threaten the security on their computer? What percentage of Canadians would say they should be entitled to view a store-bought DVD in their homes regardless of where it is purchased? What percentage of Canadians would say that they should be entitled to make a copy of their CDs to listen to on their iPod? What percentage of Canadians are aware of the $140 million that has been collected under the private copying system, the majority of which goes to Canadian artists? These are the sorts of questions that must be asked for this poll to have any real credibility since my guess is that the numbers [of people who see copyright as an election issue] would be even higher. Canadians are deeply troubled by issues such as the Sony Rootkit, DVD regional coding, and the shortcomings of the private copying system and copyright policy must take these issues into account."
Posted in:
music,
technology
on
March 01, 2006
