(Our previous article was the first upset.)

This time, Canadians have made the top ten list of countries that are “out to get” the content industries.

They share this dubious honour with the following countries.

Priority Watch List

(Links retrieve country specific pdf reports.)

        Argentina

        Canada

        Chile

        Costa Rica

        India

        Indonesia

        Mexico

        People’s Republic of China

        Philippines (OCR)

        Russian Federation

US copyright industries have declared war on Canada, and they want the US government's help in fighting the battles.

We, that is I, was/were under the impression that only a sovereign nation could commit to a declaration of an act of war.

Yet, I am forced to agree with Ars Technica. In an article last year we defined war as;

“War throughout the ages has been traditionally declared for the acquisition by one sovereign state (or Warlord) of another’s (sovereign state or Warlords') possessions.
The legitimacy of the process is provided for by the Charters and Constitutions of nearly all of the World Governments.
 
Definition (US site)DECLARATION OF WAR - An act of the national legislature, in which a state of war is declared to exist between a nation and some other nation. This power is vested in Congress by the Constitution, There is no form or ceremony necessary, except the passage of the act. The public proclamation of the government of a state, by which it declares itself to be at war with a foreign power, and which forbids all and every one to aid or assist the common enemy. A manifesto stating the causes of the war is usually published, but war exists as soon as the act takes effect. It was formerly usual to precede hostilities by a public declaration communicated to the enemy, and to send a herald to demand satisfaction, but that is not the practice of modern times.

If the content Industry with its own peculiar accounting systems, offshore bank accounts for the receipt of licensing and royalty fees, international lobbyists (Content Industry Ambassadors) to all Governments isn’t a recognized Independent State, it should be.”

Nate Anderson's article was in reference to the Intellectual Property Rights Alliance (IIPA) report (All Countries TOC) released earlier this year that recommended that Canada remain on the 302” watch-list for failing to bring to update it’s legislation in line with other countries (the USA).

The (Canadian) IIPA report stated that;

“IIPA regrets to report that its statement in the 2007 Special 301 report – submitted three years ago –

remains, disappointingly, true today: “Canada remains far behind virtually all its peers in the industrialized world with respect to its efforts to bring its copyright laws up to date with the realities of the global digital networked environment. Indeed, even most of the major developing countries have progressed further and faster than Canada in meeting this challenge.”

Last year I blogged about Canadians buying more music per capita than the Americans:

In an article “The Music Industry DB the Nice Way or the Facist Way”, we said;

Despite a 47% sales decrease to 172.000 copies, Madonna's best of compilation 'Celebration' holds the top spot of the global album chart for a second week. In 3 weeks on the tally the album moved nearly 700.000 units. Michael Bubl's new set 'Crazy Love' follows close behind at no.2 with 169.000 copies. After only 3 days at retail in North America the album sold 132.000 in the USA and 37.000 in Canada.

Difference  Canada wins by                298.39%

So 298.3% more sales per capita of population than the USA which we would guess isn’t on President Obama’s Black List. [sic: The 301 watch-list]

(This result is not exclusive to those statistics. Overall according to Michael Geist’s blog article,

Canadian Digital Music Sales Growth Beats The U.S. For the 4th Straight Year                     

Michael said;

“Nielsen Soundscan has just released the Canadian music sales figures for 2009.  Notwithstanding the regular claims that the Canadian digital music market cannot develop without copyright reform, the Canadian market grew faster than the U.S. market for the fourth consecutive year.  As the chart below demonstrates, digital music sales have grown faster in Canada than in the U.S. in every year since 2006:”

So if Canadians are buying more  music per capita than US natives, what exactly is the problem?

Is it possibly that the Canadians have decided to let the content companies duke it out amongst themselves?

In The P2P Liberation Tax, we said;

In Canada, the Government has elected to ignore the industry infighting. Their distribution of collected blank media royalties is simple…..

There-in lies the rub. The Canadian Government has set a value of only 15.10% on the non-performing and non-publishing Music Industry’s input.

From the FAQ of Re-sound Canada (the Canadian not-for-profit music licensing company dedicated to obtaining fair compensation for artists and record companies for their performance rights.)

Q3: What is equitable remuneration?
A: For many years Canadian composers and authors have received royalties from the broadcast or public performance of their songs. These royalties are collected by SOCAN. In 1997 the Copyright Act of Canada was amended to acknowledge the essential contribution of artists and record companies in the creation of recorded music and to add a right to equitable remuneration for artists and record companies, which is in line with similar rights in the rest of the world. This right to equitable remuneration is sometimes also called a “neighbouring right”.

The rights to equitable remuneration are the rights of artists (including feature performers, background musicians etc) and record companies to be paid fairly for the broadcast and public performance of their works.

And we already established above that the maximum was:

So now we know why the industry is so hot under the collar.

When you are used to having it all it’s hard to understand a Government that favours Artists and Publishers over distributing record companies.

Howard Knopf  (well known Canadian Copyright lawyer) on his blog, Excess Copyright, said in an article on Feb 16^th 2010 (in reference to Canada being listed on the 301 watch-list);

• Canada already has much stronger copyright laws in many ways than the USA;

• These stronger laws result in significant dollar outflows that greatly favour U.S. interests with little or insufficient benefit for Canadians;

• There is no verified and reliable evidence of piracy or counterfeiting problems in Canada that are any worse than in other comparable countries. In fact, the largest and most accessible market in North American for pirated and counterfeit consumer products remains the streets of mid-town and lower Manhattan;

• The alleged deficiencies in Canada's laws regarding file sharing have not been proven in any Canadian court and the music and film industries have taken no serious initiative to do so, despite having been given a green light to proceed by the Federal Court of Appeal in 2005. Instead, they lobby for US DMCA+ type laws. Indeed, much of the alleged copyright problem that the music industry complains about in Canada is a direct result of its own successful wish for a rich private copying levy, the result of which has included the effective legalization of music downloading in this country, according to comments by both the Copyright Board and the Federal Court. The music industry has proven only that it ought to be careful what it wishes for, not that there is any need to change Canadian law

He then gives 21 examples of how Canadian Copyright law is tougher and different than it’s US equivalent.

(Worth reading….. http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2010/02/annual-301-parade-ustr-calls-for.html halfway down the page).

Is there a problem in Canada that warrants the attention of the IIPA and inclusion of Canada on the Global watch-list?

Yep... the Canadian Government intervened and made sure that Canadian Artists and Producers were taken care of in advance of overseas interest, whilst protecting, in same cases more thoroughly the interests of artists and content creators.

It’s a shame that other Governments are not as patriotic towards their own local talent.