tamarisk
April 3rd, 2004, 03:53 AM
By GUY DIXON
Executives at the major record labels have always been clear on the matter: File sharing is wrong. Dead wrong. No court decision will ever likely change their minds.
But ask anyone else connected in some way with music -- from artists and small record company managers to listeners and file sharers themselves -- and you'll get myriad views on the matter, pro and con. The decision Wednesday in a Toronto Federal Court against the Canadian Recording Industry Association's attempt to sue file sharers in Canada doesn't seem to have changed opinions much.
"I think there should be a celebration. I think music lovers in Canada should immediately go to their favourite peer-to-peer software and just download something and listen to it. And have a big silly grin on their face," said David Jones, a computer science professor at McMaster University and president of Electronic Frontier Canada. The civil liberties group promotes freedom of expression on the Internet and made a formal motion in the case arguing against the recording industry's moves to stop file sharing.
Jones shares music files himself, in other words, accesses songs on his computer directly from other computer users through on-line, peer-to-peer programs such as Kazaa, while also making songs on his computer available for others to copy.
The judge ruled that CRIA didn't present sufficient evidence that these file sharers were infringing copyright law or that Internet service providers should have to release the names of users behind 29 file-sharing addresses -- presumably 29 individuals -- that the recording industry had hoped to sue in order to get them to stop. CRIA said Wednesday that it expects to appeal the decision.
"Their claim is that this case was so important.
"It's like the lifeblood of the industry, that we have to get these 29 teenagers because they are killing our industry," Jones said. "And the judge tells them, your evidence is deficient, that you have no evidence of infringement. Period. They dropped the ball."
For artists and smaller independent labels, however, the mood seemed more mixed.
"There are a lot of things involved in the decision. It's the whole battle over copyright," said Trevor Larocque, label manager for Pager Bag Records, an independent label in Toronto that continues to be a favourite among critics and hip, indie-store crowds, with bands such as Stars and controller.controller on its roster.
"I think that we are pro file sharing as a company," he said. Because most of Paper Bag's artists are new or lesser known, for a potential listener to be able to access a song or two by one of the label's acts only helps them to get noticed. The company's discs, though, are distributed by industry giant Universal Music. So Paper Bag isn't immune to the concerns of industry biggies.
Scott Kaija, guitarist with controller.controller, who also works with the music-promotion website UmbrellaMusic.com, is a little troubled by the industry's legal tactics. He feels that record companies need to "hold a mirror to themselves to answer questions about why the industry is failing. It kind of sickens me that they've turned it into a kind of lynching, like a witch-hunt for these kids who are downloading. I just don't see downloading music as the problem. It's a symptom of a larger issue."
On the West Coast, Joel Kroeker has a somewhat different take. A pop-oriented singer-songwriter from Vancouver, he is signed to independent label True North Records and feels that, in some respects, the court decision wasn't necessarily a good one.
"I think the general public is under the mistaken notion that the artists don't actually need the sales. I've heard people say it's about greed or things like this. At my level, it's definitely not. I'm struggling to pay my rent, right? So every sale is directly related to my own existence," Kroeker said.
Like many musicians, he believes the whole file-sharing debate cheapens the art. "I don't think people realize the amount of effort that goes into making an album. It's years of work. For me, I'm self-managed, so it's literally [working] 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for years at a time."
Toronto-based technology analyst Rick Broadhead, on the other hand, falls on the side of those who were outright stunned by the court decision.
"With all due respect to the judge, he doesn't seem to have a good grasp of what the Internet is and how it works," he said, describing it as a huge blow to the music industry, if not all areas in which artistic works are protected by copyright. "The very nature of these file-sharing services is that they allow distribution, worldwide distribution. To compare the Internet to a photocopy machine is ludicrous."
As part of his decision, the judge said he didn't see a real difference between a photocopier in a library and a personal computer with songs on its hard drive and linked to a peer-to-peer network.
The timing of the court decision had at least one plus for major Canadian labels. Nearly everyone who is anyone is en route to Edmonton for the Juno Awards, and they will be able to occupy their minds with parties and promotions over the next few days. On the flip side, guess what the No. 1 topic will be at those events?
Executives at the major record labels have always been clear on the matter: File sharing is wrong. Dead wrong. No court decision will ever likely change their minds.
But ask anyone else connected in some way with music -- from artists and small record company managers to listeners and file sharers themselves -- and you'll get myriad views on the matter, pro and con. The decision Wednesday in a Toronto Federal Court against the Canadian Recording Industry Association's attempt to sue file sharers in Canada doesn't seem to have changed opinions much.
"I think there should be a celebration. I think music lovers in Canada should immediately go to their favourite peer-to-peer software and just download something and listen to it. And have a big silly grin on their face," said David Jones, a computer science professor at McMaster University and president of Electronic Frontier Canada. The civil liberties group promotes freedom of expression on the Internet and made a formal motion in the case arguing against the recording industry's moves to stop file sharing.
Jones shares music files himself, in other words, accesses songs on his computer directly from other computer users through on-line, peer-to-peer programs such as Kazaa, while also making songs on his computer available for others to copy.
The judge ruled that CRIA didn't present sufficient evidence that these file sharers were infringing copyright law or that Internet service providers should have to release the names of users behind 29 file-sharing addresses -- presumably 29 individuals -- that the recording industry had hoped to sue in order to get them to stop. CRIA said Wednesday that it expects to appeal the decision.
"Their claim is that this case was so important.
"It's like the lifeblood of the industry, that we have to get these 29 teenagers because they are killing our industry," Jones said. "And the judge tells them, your evidence is deficient, that you have no evidence of infringement. Period. They dropped the ball."
For artists and smaller independent labels, however, the mood seemed more mixed.
"There are a lot of things involved in the decision. It's the whole battle over copyright," said Trevor Larocque, label manager for Pager Bag Records, an independent label in Toronto that continues to be a favourite among critics and hip, indie-store crowds, with bands such as Stars and controller.controller on its roster.
"I think that we are pro file sharing as a company," he said. Because most of Paper Bag's artists are new or lesser known, for a potential listener to be able to access a song or two by one of the label's acts only helps them to get noticed. The company's discs, though, are distributed by industry giant Universal Music. So Paper Bag isn't immune to the concerns of industry biggies.
Scott Kaija, guitarist with controller.controller, who also works with the music-promotion website UmbrellaMusic.com, is a little troubled by the industry's legal tactics. He feels that record companies need to "hold a mirror to themselves to answer questions about why the industry is failing. It kind of sickens me that they've turned it into a kind of lynching, like a witch-hunt for these kids who are downloading. I just don't see downloading music as the problem. It's a symptom of a larger issue."
On the West Coast, Joel Kroeker has a somewhat different take. A pop-oriented singer-songwriter from Vancouver, he is signed to independent label True North Records and feels that, in some respects, the court decision wasn't necessarily a good one.
"I think the general public is under the mistaken notion that the artists don't actually need the sales. I've heard people say it's about greed or things like this. At my level, it's definitely not. I'm struggling to pay my rent, right? So every sale is directly related to my own existence," Kroeker said.
Like many musicians, he believes the whole file-sharing debate cheapens the art. "I don't think people realize the amount of effort that goes into making an album. It's years of work. For me, I'm self-managed, so it's literally [working] 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for years at a time."
Toronto-based technology analyst Rick Broadhead, on the other hand, falls on the side of those who were outright stunned by the court decision.
"With all due respect to the judge, he doesn't seem to have a good grasp of what the Internet is and how it works," he said, describing it as a huge blow to the music industry, if not all areas in which artistic works are protected by copyright. "The very nature of these file-sharing services is that they allow distribution, worldwide distribution. To compare the Internet to a photocopy machine is ludicrous."
As part of his decision, the judge said he didn't see a real difference between a photocopier in a library and a personal computer with songs on its hard drive and linked to a peer-to-peer network.
The timing of the court decision had at least one plus for major Canadian labels. Nearly everyone who is anyone is en route to Edmonton for the Juno Awards, and they will be able to occupy their minds with parties and promotions over the next few days. On the flip side, guess what the No. 1 topic will be at those events?