Rob Hyndman, who has been following the tangled tale of Sarmite Bulte — the parliamentary secretary to the Heritage Minister, who is responsible for copyright laws in Canada, and is even now attending a fundraiser financed by the entertainment industry — notes that musician Steve Page, the singer for the band Barenaked Ladies, has posted a comment on the subject.
Page says that he’s been trying to think of a way of expressing himself on the issue, but that boingboing.net founder (and Canadian) Cory Doctorow said it best in his recent opinion piece in the Toronto Star. Page says:
“we can’t expect to tell our fans “see you in court” and then “see you at Massey Hall next fall” – we have to choose one, and I choose the latter. This current litigious atmosphere is simply a product of the record business trying to prop up a dying, obsolete business model.”
The singer says he is in favour of new copyright legislation, but “not at the expense of the creators,” and that the bill Ms. Bulte supported “did not look forward to the new frontiers, but only helped industry maintain their business model, which is not the responsibility of the Heritage Ministry.” Another artist who has spoken out is Matthew Good (who coincidentally enough helped redesign Rob Hyndman’s new website), whose post on the topic gets props from Page as well.
Meanwhile, Bulte told the Globe and Mail’s Roma Luciw that she is considering a defamation lawsuit against Michael Geist after the election is over. This story just keeps getting weirder.