Canadian Music Creators Coalition Supports Five-Dollar Monthly Fee For File-Sharing

[bobfrombob]

http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2007/12/1011.cfm

 

Canadian Music Creators Coalition Supports Five-Dollar Monthly Fee For File-Sharing

Monday December 10, 2007 @ 07:00 PM

By: ChartAttack.com Staff

 

 

A controversial proposal to compensate songwriters and performers put forth by the Songwriters Association Of Canada has been endorsed by the Canadian Music Creators Coalition.

 

SAC would like to introduce a new right to the Canadian Copyright Act that would legalize sharing of music between people via peer-to-peer and wireless networks, email, CD, DVD, hard drives and other methods in exchange for creators and rights holders being entitled to receive a five-dollar monthly license fee from each internet and wireless account in Canada.

 

"Payment of this fee would remove the stigma of illegality from file sharing," says the proposal. "In addition it would represent excellent value to the consumer, since this fee would grant access to the majority of the world's repertoire of music."

 

Internet users who don't share music obviously won't be in favour of such a proposal. And music sites such as iTunes and Puretracks are also likely to have reservations about the system despite SAC's assertion that they can co-exist. But some of the people who make the music are behind it.

 

"We don't know if the Songwriters have all the answers, but we do know that this proposal moves in the right direction," says Barenaked Ladies singer/guitarist Steven Page, who helped form the CMCC last year to push artists' views on copyright legislation and government cultural policies. "The Songwriters' proposal offers tremendous value to both consumers and rights-holders."

 

"It's telling that creators, the people who actually make the music being shared, are the people showing leadership and pushing for a made-in-Canada approach to file-sharing," says CMCC spokesman Andrew Cash. "We can only hope that the Canadian government will follow the Songwriters' lead and begin exploring alternatives to the failed 'locks, lawsuits and lobbying' strategy of the major labels."

[lizish]

Read an estimate that $5.00 for each PC a month equals something like 500 million dollars a year.

 

that will surely fly.