[d@DCC] Canadian Heritage: "Our job is to try to protect the Canadian music industry"

[Russell McOrmond]

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To:

Marc Roy, Director of Communications
Hon. Hélène Scherrer, Canadian Heritage Minister

Copies to Hon. Reg Alcock and Hon. Mauril Bélanger, two fellow cabinet
ministers who I have had much longer discussions with in the past.


  I found this quotation of Marc Roy in the subject line very disturbing.  
I am wondering if I can be informed of where in Heritage Canada's mandate
it says that the job of the Heritage Minister is to protect the Canadian
music industry?  I was always given the impression that Heritage Canada is
interested in protecting and promoting Canadian creativity and Canadian
culture.  Has the ministry been so convinced that the recording industry
can be used as a proxy for Canadian musicians that it is willing to
actively work against Canadian creativity and Canadian culture when the
interests of musicians and the industry are in conflict?


  It is true that the recording industry worldwide has seen a decline in
sales, but there is little credible evidence to suggest that this has
anything to do with non-commercial private distribution of music using the
Internet or other communications medium.

  I am not apologizing for those who incorrectly use the word "share" when
they distribute works that they do not own and the creator did not
authorize to be shared, but we need to adequately analyze the extremely
questionable claims by the recording industry that this activity is
harmful.  My own analysis suggests that if anything this form of free
community-based advertising is helpful to musicians and music sales, and
the decline in sales are largely the result of the bad business practices
of the industry itself.

  See a letter to the editor yesterday for my top 6 alternatives to P2P
music distribution for the decline in music sales:
  http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/2587


  I have mixed feelings about the recent ruling, largely because I fear
this ruling will be used as an excuse to hasten ratification of the WIPO
treaties.  I believe that these treaties will be extremely harmful to
Canadian creativity, and a very bad example of excessive regulation of new
electronic creation and communications technology that are not yet
adequately understood by governments.

  I believe that the reaction quoted from Marc Roy in the Financial Post
(FP1 by Ian Jack, with files from Robert Thompson April 2, 2004) is very
harmful to Canadian creativity.  There is a need for a balance approach,
not only between creators and their audiences, between current creators
and the creators in the past.  In an increasingly creative world with new
communications technologies, the distinction between creators and their
audiences becomes smaller while the separation between these creative
citizens and the incumbent "cultural industries" widens.


  The recording and other so-called "cultural industries" need to be
understood as a means to an end to facilitate the commercial side of
Canadian creativity, not an end unto themselves.  Where they are harmful
to the interests of creators, as I believe that the business, litigious
and lobbying efforts of CRIA are to the interests of Canadian musicians,
Heritage Canada needs to speak up for Canadian creators and not the "hired
help" intermediaries.


Some relevant links:

Perspective of a digital copyright reformer on Sheila Copps, MP.
http://www.flora.ca/russell/drafts/copps-ndp.html
  This article contrasts what I thought was the anti-creator views of past
Heritage Minister Sheila Copps from digital entrepreneur (and Hamilton
Home-town hero) Bob Young.


Government policy may increase trade deficit
http://weblog.flora.ca/article.php3?story_id=616
  A letter to Paul Martin discussing some of what I see as the likely
negative economic impacts of ratifying the WIPO treaties

 "Make it legal: don't litigate, use creative licensing" campaign.
 A modern answer to P2P: http://www.flora.ca/makelegal200403.shtml



  I live and work in Ottawa, and am available any time to talk to
policy makers about this area of public policy.  I have met with other MPs
and their legislative assistants in the past, including the Legislative
Assistant for Heritage critic Wendy Lill, MP.
  http://weblog.flora.ca/article.php3?story_id=545

  Please contact me about meeting in person.

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 "Make it legal: don't litigate, use creative licensing" campaign.
 A modern answer to P2P: http://www.flora.ca/makelegal200403.shtml
 Canadian File-sharing Legal Information Network http://www.canfli.org/

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