Canada Post Strike?
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers have voted for job action if no agreements are reached by Sept. 26. I will keep an eye on the situation and will update this page asap.
Another Cash Grab?
The Copyright Act is being reviewed by the Canadian Government and some Canadians are of course concerned that this will include an extension of private copying levies to cell phones and the possibility of websites being blocked for minor copyright violations.
Unfortunately the government has been pretty quiet about this since their December 17th, 2017 press release and I didn’t want to speculate. But a line in the sand needs to be drawn, regardless of what is and isn’t being considered in the closed door meetings they might be having with foreign lobbyists.
I don’t think cell phones should be subject to the private copying levy because streaming is the preferred method of obtaining music on this device according to Music Canada, some customers listening to radio on these devices. And the possibility of having my site blocked because I accidentally linked a site that decided to offer pirated music is just absurd but these kind of proposals have been made in other countries.
This isn’t about giving artists more of their dues but giving labels more money. And streaming is where the improvements are needed when it comes to royalties for artists, so I see no point in levying cell phone storage.
The Copyright Board proposed levying hard drives and microSD memory cards in 2014 but that propose was rejected because a “recording audio medium” is defined by Part VIII, Section 79 of the Copyright Act as “a recording medium, regardless of its material form, onto which a sound recording may be reproduced and that is of a kind ordinarily used by individual consumers for that purpose”.
A cell phone’s primary function is communication, not the receipt, storage and playback of music. And this device is also used to take and view photographs and videos.
It makes no sense to levy this device for royalties for music and nothing else. And this slippery slope is not advantageous for consumers, who would object to paying levies for storing photographs, video and games on their new smartphone, or tablet.
I don’t like being gouged on data fees so I don’t listen to music, watch videos or play video games on mine now. And I seriously doubt i’d enjoy paying more for a newer model, for services I wouldn’t use.
Do we really want to burden the cell phone industry with this? And when it comes to blocking, this can be bypassed with Virtual Private Network services, so is the government going to go after those as well in the name of copyright?
VPNs are used by people who travel and use public wi-fi, for security reasons. Do we really want to loose access to this service over piracy? When a sharp decline in music piracy was observed in 2017 by Music Canada?
A form has been made available by Open Media to provide comments to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on these issues.
Please submit this form and share this link and your opinions on social media before September 17th, 2018. Thank you.
What a Month!
As you can see by my lack of posts i’ve had one stinker of a month, most of which I will not talk about here. But I will update the Solartab C & IndieGoGo issue that i’ve discussed previously on this blog.
To recap, in late 2016 I contributed to a crowdfunding project on IndieGoGo, a site that I have linked in the past that offered new, innovative music based products. And unfortunately the original shipping date for the product came and went due to multiple alleged delays with the Chinese manufacturers.
Basically I contributed to a company that was based in San Fransisco, that suddenly moved to Hong Kong and then disappeared shortly after a issuing a statement in May 2018 saying they were about to ship the two solar panel chargers I had chosen as my perks.
When I contacted IndieGoGo for additional contact information for my complaint to the Attorney General of the State of California, I was referred to the official Solartab C site, which was no longer there by mid 2018. And of course IndieGoGo does not issue refunds, instead referring complainants back to the crowdfunding project for pretty much everything.
So, i’ve filled up the form to the Attorney General of the State of California, which was received a few days ago, and am now no longer posting links to crowdfunding campaigns from IndieGoGo on this blog, or anywhere.
I am considering filing a complaint with the FTC over this so that I can give my credit card company references in regards to this issue and will likely contact PayPal for an official response, that I will forward to both my credit card company and possibly Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
I’ve had an experience with PayPal in 2005 and have read their policies so I know they would simply tell me to get a refund from IndieGoGo, whose response i’ve already received.
Well, there you have it. I’m just compiling responses and waiting for a class action suit to get on to get a few bucks back.
Maybe my credit card company might consider what happened but I’m ready to file if they don’t.
Buyer Beware. Don’t accept delays when it comes to crowdfunding. Get your money back immediately.
Ontario Scalping Law on Hold
The current Ontario provincial government has placed the Ticket Sales Act on hold, pending review.
This new law would have been active on Canada Day and would have regulated the resale of tickets in the province of Ontario, as described by this October 6th, 2017 blog entry.
Update – Response on Netflix/Internet Tax
From my local Member of Parliament, Karen McCrimmon (Dated June 13th, 2018) :
“Hello Rob,
Thank you for taking the time to share your ideas with me.
Our government understands the importance of supporting our artists and creators. We also know that the way Canadians access content is changing. That’s why we have made historic investments of $3.2 billion, to support our artists and creators. It’s also why we will be modernizing our laws and programs to better support our artists in the digital era.
Netflix’s investment is a part of the transition. It secures 5 years of investments for our creators, as we modernize our laws and programs.
We, as a government have decided not to introduce a Netflix tax because we don’t want to raises taxes on the middle class, we want to lower them. We will always look at ways to strike the balance between a fair tax system and the investments we need in our culture, but in doing so, we’re not going to be raising taxes on the middle class through an internet broadband tax.
I will share your ideas with my fellow colleagues, including the Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau.
Thank your again for your engagement as a constituent.
Kind regards,
Karen”
I had suggested that if taxes on streaming services are absolutely necessary that they consider forwarding a portion of the federal taxes collected from these services to Canadian Content initiatives, instead of introducing an independent levy for that purpose.
As i’ve mentioned in a previous entry, these services will be taxed on New Years Day in Quebec and the Canadian Radio & Telecommunication Commission had made a proposal of their on in regards to levy to fund Canadian Content.
The publics views have been made clear by a February 2017 poll conducted by Innovative Research Group earlier in 2017. But I had thought to send my opinion and suggestions to my local MP and Heritage Minister Melanie Joly in response to the CRTC’s recent proposal.
If you wish to contact your local Member of Parliament on this issue, you can do so via the MP database by clicking here.
I will of course update this blog if the situation changes.
Thank you.
Censorship Proposed
As you may or may not know, several companies have formed a lobby group called FairPlay Canada in order to block certain sites deemed to contain pirated material.
This group proposes the creation of a non-profit entity called the Independent Piracy Review Agency to administer this blocking “under the supervision of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to help prevent international piracy sites and organizations from reaching and harming Canada’s creative economy”, as stipulated in a January 29th, 2018 application to the CRTC (PDF). But numerous issues in regards to this were brought up by Openmedia, including issues related to censorship and Net Neutrality. And one has to wonder who will be paying for this initiative.
Personally I have concerns about any entity being tasked with blocking sites because of what happened in July 2005, when Telus decided to block a pro-union website and blocked over 760 sites that just happened to share this pro-union website’s server “by accident”.
A preliminary injunction was required to force Telus to stop blocking these sites and although the proposal attempts to ease these concerns by saying the “system would have extensive checks and balances”, one has to wonder why members of this “trustworthy” group would refuse to air advertisements on this issue from Openmedia and use other tactics like that discovered by blogger Michael Geist.
Do we really want these people to block legal content that happens to be on servers where pirated recordings can be found? Can we be guarantied prompt responses to sites that were unduly blocked? And how exactly would they address the use of Virtual Private Networks, that can used to bypass blocking? Will they claim those services facilitate piracy, blocking them with no real consideration to their legitimate use?
In 2016 legal music streaming profits in Canada went up a whopping 144.9% and legal music downloads remain one of the primary sources of music for Canadians according to Music Canada. And the Nielsen Music 360 survey and BuzzAngle Music confirmed more Canadians are using these legal services in 2017 so people are clearly being lured away from the illegal services this proposal attempts to address.
The use of smartphones to stream music grew in this country according to a September 2017 report issued by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (PDF) ; From 40% in 2016 to 52% in 2017. And Netflix and other streaming services have successfully convinced many would be pirates to use their services instead so why would we need to open this pandora’s box?
Blocking sites will in no way cause recording artists to gain more royalties from the legal streaming services and address what Music Canada calls “The Value Gap“. And the premise of forcing people to attend hearings to keep their sites available to the public is absurd.
Most CRTC hearings are held in Gatineau, Quebec yet the proposal does not discuss where these other hearings might happen or if legal recourses would be made available to those who were forced to incur costs to defend themselves from false accusations. I guess we’re all supposed to subscribe to false dilemmas and presume everything will work out fine.
If you would like to file an intervention with the CRTC, you can do so by clicking here by 8pm Eastern, March 29th, 2018.