Canadian Music Stars Fight Against DRM

An anonymous reader writes "Some of Canada's best known musicians, including Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlin, Sum 41, and Barenaked Ladies, have formed a new copyright coalition. The artists say in a press release that they oppose file sharing lawsuits, the use of DRM, and DMCA-style legislation and that they want record labels to stop claiming that they represent their views."

well duh

[MrP- (45616)]

of course avril would be against DRM.. she's a l33t h4x0r with songs like "Sk8er Boi"

For once

[SirLestat (452396)]

I am from Quebec and finally proud to be Canadian ! Way to go guys !

Re:For once

[jonnythan (79727)]

What does Quebec have to do with Canada? :)

repeat in america please....

[jollyroger1210 (933226)]

Why don't American artist replicate this type of coalition? We let Canada beat us!! Canada!

Re:repeat in america please....

[TubeSteak (669689)]

Don't worry, we've got contigency plans for this type of thing.

Canada's low gun ownership rate will make the occupation much easier.

It's a shame its too late for Sarah's last album

[QX-Mat (460729)]

I took it back to Woolworths the week I brought it. It skipped badly on my Sony Vaio - my computer is my audio rig, and with the speaks I had hooked up at the time, I certainly wanted it to stay that way.

Just last week I saw the Sarah McLachlan DVD and thought, "stupid drm" and not about the artist. I will force myself to see her in a better light now, but if she's not touring near me, I can't exactly give her the money I want to (by buying her material) because although she's going the right away about things _now_, her cds on the shelf are still DRMed.

In the end I was forced to I download Afterglow. I became a pirate because I couldnt experience the music on my, and on my creative zen.

For an artist I discovered via napster a long time ago, this sure does suck. Are they trying to lock me out of the market, or really fence us into a no-rip-no-choice era? Either way I see it, when I can't use WhateverAMP and my mp3 player, they've lost me as a customer.

Matt

Legal Download

[by Anonymous Coward]

Or you could have gone to https://www.werkshop.com/sarahmp3/index.jsp [werkshop.com] where you can purchase a few of her cds in mp3 or flac format and avoided DRM altogether.

"Piracy" is good for the RIAA

[javacowboy (222023)]

I was going to blog about this, but I'm feeling lazy tonight.

First of all, like RMS, I hate applying the term "piracy" to non-commercial copyright violations, so I won't use that term. Instead, I'll call it what it is, unauthorized copying.

Unauthorized copying is to the RIAA what "terrorism" is to the Bush Adminstration, namely, a scapegoat and a straw man argument with which to justify draconian legislation and to garner (barely) sufficient public support for any new legislation favoured by both institutions.

As the Bush Adminstration maintains the conditions (ex: War on Iraq) to indirectly promote terrorism, it justifies renewing the Patriot Act on the basis that it will "help stop terrorism". To make a blatantly obvious statement, the goal of the Patriot Act does not in any way, shape, or form have anything whatsoever to do with stop terrorists, but is instead intended to grant the government the ability to further spy on and control its citizens.

In the same vein, I believe that the RIAA wishes to maintain a certain level of unauthorized copying because it will allow them to justify legislation such as the DMCA and the broadcast flag. The goal of such legislation is not to eliminate or even substantially reduce unauthorized copying, but to maintain control over the industry and keep out fledging competitors, such as independent artists who would have otherwise been promoted through P2P, and to maintain their antiquated business models, which for all intents and purposes should have become obsolete.

So, it's all an elaborate shell game on their part.

If I had a million dollars...

[Stick_Fig (740331)]

"...we wouldn't have to download torrents!"

"But we would download torrents! In fact, we'd just download more!"

Record companies smarter than they seem

[AeroIllini (726211)]

I think the record companies are blaming piracy because it's a solid business case.

addDRM(music);
switch (whatHappensAfter) {
  case "piracy goes down":
    println("See?! We TOLD you the evil pirates were stealing! DRM works!");
    addMoreDRM(music,movies,television,software);
    money++;
    break;
  case "piracy goes up":
    println("Ahh! They're stealing more to spite us! This is war!");
    addMoreDRM(music,movies,television,software);
    money++;
    break;
  case "piracy stays the same":
    println("Those filthy pirates will steal no matter what we do! We must make the DRM stronger!");
    addMoreDRM(music,movies,television,software);
    money++;
    break;
}

These artists just created a buffer overflow. Woo!

Not suprising from Avril Lavigne...

[brian0918 (638904)]

It's no surprise that Avril Lavigne would do something like this... given her huge punk heritage and following, her fans would definitely get pissed off and leave her negative® text messages if she didn't rebel.

Re:Not suprising from Avril Lavigne...

[brian0918 (638904)]

Whoosh (the sound of a joke going over your head)

Excellent news

[Infonaut (96956)]

It looks like at least a few artists have come to realize that the music industry cartel's stand on DRM is not helpful to artists. If they can get more artists on the bandwagon, they may be able to influence the debate. It's a helluva lot more difficult for the labels to convince people that DRM "helps artists" when the artists themselves are against it.

Broken Social Scene - their action

[Lieutenant_Dan (583843)]

Their last ("You forgot it in people") album had a limited initial run with the copy protection. When the band found out they put a stop to it. See this link for an interview excerpt. Mind you, they're the biggest act on Arts&Crafts' label so that probably had a huge influence too.

I actually bought the copy-protected one (which wasn't labeled as such) and the label offered to replace it. HMV wouldn't.

Great!

[imadork (226897)]

It's almost enough to forgive them for inflicting Celine Dion on us....

Re:Great!

[Darwin_Frog (232520)]

Now, now. The Canadian government has apologized for Celine Dion on several occasions.

Hypocrisy with Barenaked Ladies?

[Lieutenant_Dan (583843)]

From this article [p2pnet.net]. I remember reading this in the Toronto Star as well, which I haven't forgotten since:


The Barenaked Ladies' Ed Robertson also wades in with, "I'm totally fine with people downloading music, as long as they steal everything that they want. If you want pants, go steal them. If you need gas in your car, you should steal it, because you can. As long as people are consistent I don't have a problem. As long as they see themselves as thieves in general then I don't mind if they steal everything that they like. But it irks me that it's only okay to steal music."


So at least one of them is against sharing/downloading.

write to them and say thank you

[Frag-A-Muffin (5490)]

I just sent them a short email thanking them for understanding that their fans are mostly NOT thieves. Is it any wonder that I in fact already own most of the CDs from most of the artists in that coalition?

Proud to be a Canadian today.

P.S. I especially like what's on their front page as the #1 bullet:

1. Suing Our Fans is Destructive and Hypocritical

Well duh?! When was that last time you saw a successful business model where you sue the pants out of your customers? :)

Re:write to them and say thank you

[by Anonymous Coward]

When was that last time you saw a successful business model where you sue the pants out of your customers? :)

Well if you were in the business of selling more pants ..

Avril Lavigne? Sum 41?

[volfro (915297)]

I suppose the title uses the term "music" loosely.

Re:Serious question

[sinclair44 (728189)]

It may not have been her choice, or she may have not even known about it until it was too late. I imagine that the people in charge of such things don't really care what the artists think, as long as they get their piles money.

My first guess.

[by Anonymous Coward]

That would be a question to ask Sarah McLachlan, and as far as I am aware, Sarah McLahlan does not read slashdot. If you ask the question here, she will not see it.

However my guess would be that it is something along the lines of

1. Her label did it, not her
2. She is opposed to her label having done it, and
3. This is why she is starting a public pressure group specifically designed to get her label to stop doing such things.

Perhaps you will suggest that Sarah McLachlan should have used her leverage as an artist with the label to prevent them from engaging in such practices with her music at the time the CD was released. If you do this, I will laugh until I pass out from lack of oxygen.

Re:Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlin

[dr_dank (472072)]

Wow, that represents about 80% of my beat-off fantasy time right there.

No need to post as AC to admit that. Now, if you'd said Gordon Lightfoot and Bryan Adams on the other hand...

Re:That just shows

[Anne_Nonymous (313852)]

>> Avril Lavigne

I don't know anything about the person or her music, but that name always sounds like a feminine hygiene product to me.

Re:Missing Artist

[masdog (794316)]

I didn't see Shatner's name on the list either.