Music, Podcasts
Canadian musicians: "we don't want to sue our fans!"
The Canadian Music Creators Coalition, a new group representing dozens of nationally and internationally prominent Canadian music artists, held a press conference today at the Horseshoe Tavern. They outlined three major policy points they want to highlight to the Harper government:
1. Making it easier for record label to sue music fans is ultimately counterproductive to growing a strong Canadian music community.
2. Digital Rights Management systems (DRMs) that interfere with consumers' ability to enjoy their music the way they want erodes the trust of real music fans.
3. Canadian cultural policy should support Canadian artists and music fans ahead of internationally owned corporate record labels.
More information on the group and their goals can be found at http://www.anewvoice.ca/
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PRESS CONFERENCE (9 MB MP3 file)
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Thats cool, but if they think Harper gives a damn, they are straight up cuckoo for cocoa puffs.
Well it's really the ministers of industry and heritage they are targeting. I'm sure Harper himself doesn't care but the people in those positions should.
By "Steven Harper", I meant "The Steven Harper government", and I highly doubt they care either. They're too busy with important things like censoring footage of dead Canadian troops coming home under a fully raised flag. Y'know, important stuff.
Hey, I'm as un-Tory as anybody, but thinking any government isn't doing things that aren't making the front page is just cynical and naive. Copyright changes ARE on the agenda of Bev Oda (Heritage minister) as Steve Page pointed out in the press conference (at about 15 minutes into the podcast), so for artists to just sit back and say "well, this stupid government can't possibly care about us" is defeatist. The laws are going to change at some point, these guys are saying what they think is in their best interest as some of the real creators of Canadian music.
Saying "this government sucks so I'm not sticking up for what I believe" just seems dumb to me. These guys are doing the right thing.
Which is why I said it was cool, and I'm glad they're out there and having their say and I applaud them for it. So, I'm not being defeatist. But I'm also being realistic. Copyright changes may be on the agenda, but I highly doubt the opinions of these artists will be taken into consideration. Am I being too cynical here?
I'm just trying to be optimistic. I'd like to hope that Canadian law makers, whatever their poticial stripe, would listen to their own artists above multinational corporation owners.
Okay, so when I say it like that perhaps I am the one who is being naive...