Bell To End Throttling In March
Bell Canada has sent a letter to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission stating they will end their Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMP) on March 1st, 2012.
In this letter the company claims P2P traffic has been diminishing in comparison to other traffic, some of which was misclassified as P2P traffic according to The Canadian Gamers Organization.
Parliament May Be On Break….
But your local Member of Parliament‘s office should still be available to receive letters and emails in regards to the digital locks provisions in Bill C-11 and Lawful Access until Parliament resumes in late January.
Over 80 thousand Canadians signed the OpenMedia.ca petition against Lawful Access, including yours truly.
Please consider signing this petition. Thank you.
Megaupload To Sue Universal Music ?
Billboard reports that the above commercial has sparked a lawsuit in-between Megaupload and Universal Music Group.
The file sharing service claims that Universal Music Group had filed a takedown notice with Youtube for copyright infringement to have this video removed.
“Let us be clear: Nothing in our song or the video belongs to Universal Music Group,” said MegaUpload CEO David Robb. “We have signed agreements with all artists endorsing MegaUpload.”
RIAA and the artists featured on the video could not be contacted for comment by Billboard by the printing of their article.
Canadians To Pay For Music Previews ?
Starting tomorrow the Supreme Court of Canada will hear appeals in regards to royalty payments for music previews and music in video games.
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada wants royalties every time someone clicks on one of those short previews when they Shop on iTunes, eMusic
, etc, and had appealed an October 18th, 2007 Copyright Board of Canada decision stating that these qualifies as “fair dealing”.
Unfortunately for the consumer many retailers have decided to drop previews because of this case, including Amazon.ca, and if the Supreme Court rules in their favor previews might be removed on most sites because the royalties would be quite prohibitive.
A ruling establishing royalties on previews could also set a precedent that could hinder film previews and trailers in Canada. But I am hoping the previous Copyright Board of Canada decision will stand.
Previews are not purchases but research to which the end result might be a legitimate purchase. And without previews, people will think twice about making a purchase, so it is counterproductive.
Then there’s the fact that this ruling would not apply to foreign sites, where previews are accessible by Canadians. And any attempt to collect royalties for previews from these foreign sites would be problematic because of their national “fair dealing” exemptions.
Apple and Canada’s largest telecom companies are of course fighting this appeal. The Canadian Recording Industry Association had also opposed royalties on previews so I am guessing that their modern counterpart, Music Canada, also oppose them.
Napster Canada To Close
Napster will cease their Canadian operations on December 16th, 2011 and the company advises their Canadian customers to use their credits/gift cards and backup their purchases prior to this date. Click here for more details.
It Makes You Think, Again !
It appears that the pending lists affair is not over.
In January 2011, the major labels in Canada had settled a class action lawsuit against them for the unauthorized use and distribution of recordings, as well as unpaid mechanical and video royalties.
EMI Music Canada Inc., Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., Universal Music Canada Inc. and Warner Music Canada Co. had later in May 2011 agreed to pay approximately $50.2 Million dollars to songwriters and music publishers that had not been compensated the use of their works in certain compilations and live recordings.
Well, Universal Music Group and Universal Music Canada is now suing the National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, their insurer, for their share of the settlement and other related expenses in the Supreme Court of the State of California in Los Angeles.
According to their November 8th, 2011 complaint found on HollywoodReporter.com, Universal Music Group had paid $14.4 million in damages and approximately $1.06 million in attorney fees and costs.