Canada has the Highest Online Music Piracy rate per capita in the World

The CRIA cites Canada's failing digital music marketplace is illustrated by online sales of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." The hit release was the first single to achieve online sales of 1 million songs in the United States. In Canada, by comparison, Hollaback Girl has barely surpassed 20,000 legal downloads.

Maybe the Canadian masses have realized that they have no use for "music" such as "Holllaback Girl" and the majority of CRIA/RIAA garbage we've had shoved down our throats for the entirety of their existence. Or maybe they're just no longer willing to pay for said garbage.

Is it piracy in Canada though? I thought it currently falls under the greyish 'fair use' that is currently the law.

It is interesting that the article did not mention that we pay a levy on blank media. I am curious to know how much revenue CIRA acquires from that program. Does it offset our supposedly higher rate of file sharing? I would guess it does not, but it would be nice to know.

Are CIRA's conclusions based on the online sales of a single song (Hollaback Girl)? That does not seem like an accurate way to compare online sales between countries. Musical tastes vary with geography, do they not? Are the Hollaback Girl CD sales in Canada proportionate to the US? They should probably check that before they assume the online sales should be proportionate. Furthermore, are total online sales of all goods lower in Canada then in the US?

Not "Technically" piracy here... yet.

Canadians pay a "Blank Media Tax"..

More info here (Its wikipedia so you be the judge on its accuracy.)

The music industry has tried and failed to sue Canadians on illigal downloads, they have failed cause the local ISP's will not give out IP address info on the users.

This is going to be a long costly fight on both sides of the issue.

People who want to back up their data/photos also have to pay this tax I understand. Sad.

Pertinent Info from the Canadian Copyright Act.

From what I understand, it's legal for a Canadian to copy any musical recording, for their own private use. However, from the legalese, it seems to indicate that this Private Use right is completely non-transferable, and may only be used by the party doing the recording. In such a manner, one may make a copy from an original source (ie, CD), but may not transfer the copy to another.

This act of transferral seems to fall under the (disallowed) domain of subsection (2)(b), "Subsection (1) does not apply if [...] distributing, whether or not for the purpose of trade."

no i have the highest online piracy rate!

Well, let's see. Canada probably has a very high per capita availability of Broadband internet per capita. Propably the highest in the English speaking world. Wouldn't this account for this?

It's not piracy because we have more realistic "fair use" laws. Also, when I go buy blank CDs I have to pay a 20 cent levy per blank CD. That's right, if you buy a $19.99 spool of 50 CDRs, you have to pay an additional $10 in levies. Whether you are using them for music or NOT. When I bought my iPod I had to pay a $40 levy.

All of this money is distributed to the labels (some of it might even make it's way to the artists). However, if the labels are beeing paid through this levy, I fail to see how the music is being pirated.

The original article comments on Canadian online music sales lagging behind other countries over the last two years.

a)Online music sales from Canadian vendors barely got off the ground in the last two years
b)Those vendors offered poor interfaces, limited selection, and price was not the best.
c) Apple iTunes would not allow Canadians to buy anything for more than a year and half AFTER the launch of the Apple Music store for US citizens. Apple was selling to people in the UK, France and Germany BEFORE they finally made the iTunes music store available to Canadians. (This is repeating itself with video. Only US citizens can purchase TV shows from the Apple Music Store at this time.)

The lagging behind was at least in part the result of all of the above!

Blaming the Canadian Government or Canadians is convenient for the CRIA. It works to their advantage.
Ironically, Goverment policies in support of the industry is the main problem!

The real problem is that the Canadian Government allows Canadian companies to monopolize the Canadian market. This is true with broadcasting, music and related industries. Only two or three companies get to divide up the country to market various electronic services such as cable TV, Internet access, satellite televsion,cellular phone service etc. If Canadians had free choice as to what they could buy and from whom (including sources OUTSIDE Canada) sales would increase because they could get what they want, when they want it from the source THEY choose.

Canadians have no legal access to DirectTV and Dishnet.
There was lots of piracy going on with those satellite signals.
Reason. Government allows only two Canadian companies to sell satellite TV in Canada.
Doesn't allow those companies to carry the same programs as DirectTV and Dishnet.

Canadians therefore with regard to satellite TV have only two choices and neither offers the programs they want, most of which are US based.

These policies are actually the perfect recipe for creating a black/grey market and piracy.

Deny people legitmate access to services they want and they will seek them via other methods!

It is no surprise the the CRIA is suggesting that piracy is rampant. They want to use that as leverage to tighten the grip of the few companies who control the Canadian market. The CRIA represents those companies.

The market should be opened to anyone who can deliver what the consumers want.
Protecting the Canadian companies from competition means that they have no incentive to offer more or better services.

The situation is unlikely to change as long as these policies remain in effect.

That is crazy

Careful Bush might see this as an act of terror.

kwest writes:

Careful Bush might see this as an act of terror.

yes kwest... Hide from the cowboy.

To be honest this doesn't surprise me at all. I mean since it's not illegal to download why even buy you know? We'd have the same stuff going on here in America if it wasn't for the RIAA trying to use scare tatics.

Chench writes:

People who want to back up their data/photos also have to pay this tax I understand. Sad.

I don't understand this?... A file is a file ?...

lauone, there's an extra tax on blank cd's that goes to the CRIA in Canada because the CRIA can't stop the music piracy. So, people who buy cd's just to back up their own digital photos also pay this same tax. Not fair.

Isaac, great comment. Said well.