If you haven’t been following the Canadian music industry (shame on you) then you might not know that a group of recording artists recently split off from the Canadian Record Industry Association or CRIA — which is pretty much controlled by the four major record labels for their own purposes — and formed their own group called the Canadian Music Creators Coalition. This is something that law professor and blogger Michael Geist has spent a lot of time on, if you want to catch up.
Today, the group had a press conference at the venerable Horseshoe Tavern, and Barenaked Ladies frontman and blogger Steven Page wrote a great op-ed piece that was in the National Post, Canada’s other national newspaper. For fans of Canadian music, the group of artists supporting the new coalition includes Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sum 41, Billy Talent, Broken Social Scene and Sloan.
Here’s an excerpt of Steven’s excellent op-ed:
“We believe that suing our fans is destructive and hypocritical. We do not want to sue music fans, and we do not want to distort the law to coerce fans into conforming to a rigid digital market artificially constructed by the major labels.”
and another:
We believe that the use of digital locks… are risky and counterproductive. We do not support using digital locks to increase the labels’ control over the distribution, use and enjoyment of music, nor do we support laws that prohibit circumvention of such technological measures, including Canadian accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Internet Treaties. These treaties are designed to give control to major labels and take choices away from artists and consumers.
Music to our ears, Steven. More coverage at IPDemocracy and BoingBoing, as well as the aforementioned Dr. Geist.