[A2k] Proposal for monetization of music file sharing (songwriters and recording artists of Canada)
arif
arif" <arif@uottawaglobe.ca
Mon Dec 10 12:03:09 2007
Hi,
in general, I really like this proposal.
I have some suggestion that may create a more equitable license fee and
ensure that the license fee does not increase the digital divide.
When I was an undergrad student with little money, I used to use dial-up
through National Capital Freenet. The service was not that good, and it wa=
s
dial-up after all, but the free service at least enabled me to use e-mail
and access the web. With this service, downloading anything was near
impossible. In rural areas many people do not have high-speed, dial-up
only, and in other areas people may choose dial-up because they can't affor=
d
broadband. People on dial-up may be able to download something, but it is
incredibly arduous, and so by the nature of it they are not likely to
benefit from file-sharing. Similarily, those with the premium high-speed
connections, such as Rogers Extreme high-speed, likely reap more benefits
than those coming in at the most affordable broadband, in fact download
speed is a consideration when choosing a service. Extreme high-speed
service would come in at about $53 per month, whereas the slower speed woul=
d
come in at $20 per month. The slow speed users likely have less to afford
and can't practically download as much, and perhaps they are not part of th=
e
digital culture who are that interested in downloading.
So perhaps the licensing fee should apply to broadband only, and then as a
percentage of the cost of the service. As a percentage it could be
monitored transparently and adjusted to reflect fairness as industries and
technology changes. At 12% for instance, the Extreme's would pay $6.36 and
the slow's would pay a $2.40, with various rates in between.
Do we have some data on the downloading patterns of people with the various
types of services?
How would this apply to public institutions, hospitals, libraries and
private sector network licenses? How would this apply to developing country
contexts, since it is an international project? What about VSAT subscribers=
?
Will this reply reach the songwriters? I am a non-professional songwriter
myself, who thinks his songs are pretty good though no time to
professionalize right now. How would I receive renumeration if my basement
recording is downloaded?
Will the movie industry ask for a license fee as well though?
thanks for listening!
Arif
Arif Jinha
MA student
Globalization and International Development
University of Ottawa
613-257-1740
613-889-7506
----- Original Message -----
From: "Manon Ress" <manon.ress@keionline.org>
To: "a2k discuss list" <a2k@lists.essential.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 4:02 PM
Subject: [A2k] Proposal for monetization of music file sharing (songwriters
and recording artists of Canada)
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
A PROPOSAL FOR THE MONETIZATION OF THE FILE SHARING OF MUSIC FROM THE
SONGWRITERS AND RECORDING ARTISTS OF CANADA
http://www.songwriters.ca/studio/proposal.php?
PHPSESSID=3D4be753f4a4aeacc65abb4099be5267e1
in French:
http://www.songwriters.ca/studio/proposalfrench.php?
PHPSESSID=3D4be753f4a4aeacc65abb4099be5267e1
Summary of proposal:
Most Canadians are aware that the Internet and mobile phone networks
have become major sources of music. What they may not know is that
songwriters and performers typically receive no compensation of any
kind when their music is shared or illegally downloaded.
We believe the time has come to put in place a reasonable and
unobtrusive system of compensation for creators of music in regard to
this popular and growing use of their work.
The plan we propose would not change or interfere with the way
Canadians receive their music. No one would be sued for the online
sharing of songs. On the contrary, the sharing of music on Peer-to-
Peer networks and similar technologies would become perfectly legal.
In addition, Music Publishers and Record Labels would be fairly
compensated for the crucial role they play in supporting Canadian
music creators.
Canada has given the world some of the greatest music ever produced.
We believe that implementing a fair way of compensating Canada=92s
music creators for the online sharing of their music will usher in a
new Golden Age of creativity.
If you agree with this summary of our proposal please sign in below
and click 'I Agree'.
SNIP
DETAILS OF PROPOSAL
1. Whereas:
* An estimated 1.6 billion music files are shared online in
Canada each year. 1
* The total number of purchased downloads in Canada was 38
million in 2005. 2
* The proportion between these two is 98 to 2 =96 98% shared file
and 2% purchased downloads.
We Therefore Believe:
Consumers have clearly demonstrated their wish to access music by
file sharing.
2. Whereas:
* Virtually every song ever recorded is available through P2P
file sharing 3 (more than 79 million recordings) 4
* Only 3 million songs are available on legal sites. 5
We Therefore Believe:File sharing is both a revolution in music
distribution and a very positive phenomenon. The volunteer efforts of
millions of music fans creates a much greater choice of repertoire
for consumers while allowing songs - both new and old, well known and
obscure - to be heard.
All that=92s needed to fulfill this revolution in distribution is a way
for Creators and rights holders to be paid.
OUR PROPOSAL
3. We propose an amendment to the Copyright Act which would establish
a new right: The Right to Equitable Remuneration for Music File Sharing.
4. We define Music File Sharing as the sharing of a copy of a
copyrighted musical work without motive of financial gain.
Since the new right is limited to activities that take place without
motive of financial gain, parties who receive compensation for file
sharing would not be covered by this right. Therefore, this new right
is distinct from rights licensed by legal music sites like iTunes and
PureTracks.
5. The new right would make it legal to share music between two or
more parties, whether over Peer to Peer networks, wireless networks,
email, CD, DVD, hard drives etc. Distinct from private copying, this
new right would authorize the sharing of music with other individuals.
6. In exchange for this sharing of their work, Creators and rights
holders would be entitled to receive a monthly license fee from each
internet and wireless account in Canada.
7. We propose a licence fee of $5.00 per internet subscription, per
month. Payment of this fee would remove the stigma of illegality from
file sharing. In addition, it would represent excellent value to the
consumer, since this fee would grant access to the majority of the
world=92s repertoire of music. Existing download subscription services
generally charge considerably more than $5.00 per month, while
offering a mere fraction of the file-sharing repertoire. 6
8. In addition, this would present a major financial improvement for
the music industry. Since the license fee would be paid by all
internet and wireless accounts, the amount of income generated
annually could adequately compensate the industry for years of
declining sales and lost revenues, and would dramatically enhance
current legal digital music income. Sales of physical product would
continue to earn substantial amounts, albeit gradually decreasing.
Masters would continue to be licensed to movies and television. Radio
would continue to sell advertising and pay royalties on music. 7
We believe strongly that by giving Canadian music Creators a solid
business model for the 21st century, this endeavor would initiate a
golden era for music in Canada. Ultimately, we see this model being
adopted internationally, and we are working with Creators groups
around the world to effect a global system of remuneration for the
sharing of music files.
9. Existing music sites like iTunes and PureTracks would continue to
be licenced directly by Creators and rights holders and would
continue to develop the attractive =93value added=94 services and
security features that keep them distinct from file sharing activities.
10. The collective would track internet and wireless file sharing
activity on a census basis. Virtually all sharing on the internet and
wireless devices would be tracked. Companies who currently do this
type of tracking have prepared themselves and are =93waiting in the
wings=94. Creators and rights holders will be paid with a level of
speed and accuracy never before possible.
11. CANADIAN COPYRIGHT AND LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
Regarding WIPO implementation, we are not opposed to the legal
protection of Technical Protection Measures (TPM) or =93digital locks=94,
however we believe the obvious economic benefits of the $5.00 per
month model make such protection measures obsolete. Given the
consumer aversion to TPM=92s, we believe their use will inhibit the
success of recordings in which they are embedded, and they will
simply fall out of use.
We support Rights Management Information (RMI) protection since RMIs
will assist in the identification of files and the attribution of
rights without posing any problems for consumers.
The Songwriters and Recording Artists of Canada are in the process of
consultation with the broader music industry, as well as consumer
groups and Internet Service Providers, in order to gather support
both in Canada and internationally for this proposal. We look forward
to discussions with all concerned to make this proposal a reality
that will be of great benefit to all.
The Songwriters=92 Association of Canada (SAC)
To see what some music creators have to say. Click here.
1 CRIA news article March 02/2006. This is not an indication of how
many illegal downloads take place every year, but only of how many
files are shared. A particular file of a popular song could have been
shared many times. Therefore the number of P2P downloads per year in
Canada would likely be considerably more than 1.7 billion.
According to Big Champagne (Big Champagne tracks music use on the
internet both P2P and legal) a minimum of 12 billion P2P downloads
per year happen in the US. If Canada is a tenth of that the number,
the P2P downloads per year in Canada would number 1.2 billion. This
agrees roughly with CRIA=92s estimate.
2 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLB, Global Entertainment and Media Outlook
2006-2010. PWC reports that in 2005 there were 33 million singles and
200 thousand albums downloaded. If albums average 14 songs each, then
albums downloaded would represent roughly 2.8 million downloads of
songs. The total song downloads would therefore be 35.8 million. In
addition there were an unspecified amount of paid downloads by 10
thousand subscribers. The following could be a proxy for calculating
the number of subscriber downloads.
According to a Pollara survey published in February 2006
approximately 7.5 million Canadians Download music from the internet.
( 33 million [population Canada] X 63% [percentage of Canadians with
access to a PC] X 36% [the percentage who=92ve downloaded music] =3D 7.5
million people). If as CRIA states, 1.6 billion downloads take place
each year, then each of those 7.5 million downloaders downloaded on
average 213 songs. If one assumes that a subscriber to a download
service would act similarly, then one could estimate that the number
of downloads by subscribers was 10 thousand X 213 which would equal
2.13 million. That would bring the total number of legal downloads to
approximately 38 million. And that is how this figure of 38 million
was derived.
3 "Virtually every title that has ever been popular with any
audience, no matter how small, is available at one time or another on
P2P networks=85the variety of titles is limited only by the
imaginations of every one of the tens of millions of P2P users." Eric
Garland =96 Big Champagne in MacNewsWorld article June 16, 2004.
4 This figure is from a company called Gracenote. =93Gracenote
provides critical embedded software and metadata to businesses that
enable their consumers to better manage, enjoy and discover digital
media=94 Gracenote has created metadata for over 79 million distinct
recordings.
Also, =93The GDDN (the Global Documentation and Distribution Network)
now provides access to more than 28 million works to the FastTrack
Shareholders. It incorporates international standards such as the
ISWC (International Standard musical Works Code) identifier.=94 Quote
from the website of FastTrack the digital copyright network.
www.fasttrackdcn.net/index.php?page=3Dwhat-we-do
The FastTrack network contains little outside of the Anglo-American
and European repertoire of music. So in addition to the 28 million
works the network has on it=92s database, (many of which have several
different recordings by different artists) there are the vast
repertoires of China, India, Japan, the middle east, aboriginal music
of numerous countries etc.
5 There are now more than 360 legal digital music services offering
over three million songs to consumers in over 40 countries. IFPI
(international Federation of Phonograph Industries) Press Release.
July 31/2006.
6 The major subscription download services generally charge in the
$12 to $15 per month area and have limited repertoire, the largest
being about 2 million songs. Music downloads reviews:
www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/music-downloads/index.html
7 The PricewaterhouseCoopers LLB, Global Entertainment and Media
Outlook 2006-2010 report projects a physical music sales market of
$644 million in Canada in 2010. Their hard data for 2005 has the
physical music total at 743. Though this does indicate a decline over
the five years, when the file sharing income is added in, overall
earnings will have increased substantially.
************************************************************************
***
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.: +1.202.332.2670, Ext 16 Fax: +1.202.332.2673
1 Route des Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727
24 Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX, UK
Tel: +44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252 Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607
Il vaut mieux remuer une question, sans la d=E9cider, que la d=E9cider,
sans la remuer.
Pens=E9es, essais, maximes et correspondance de J. Joubert p.249
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=3DGallica&O=3DNUMM-88671
Translation: It is better to debate a question without settling it
than to settle a question without debating it
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