Talk of the Town

The Lowdown on Downloading

Wed. Feb. 4th, 7:30-9:00 pm

With: Margo Langford, copyright lawyer; Tod Maffin, broadcaster and technology futurist; Ian Giesbrecht BCIT journalism student and musician; Geoff Stowe BCIT journalism student

Computers, digital devices and the Internet have had a profound effect on the way people acquire and listen to music. Ever since Napster popularized music file sharing, the number of people trading songs on the Internet has grown exponentially, until recently. Estimates vary greatly but industry watchers have suggested that there were:

• 12 to 18 million households downloading digital music files in the U.S. as of November 2003.
• Down from a high of 20 to 35 million in May of the same year.

The recording industries in Canada and the U.S. believe that file sharing has had a significant impact on CD sales in both countries. The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) says sales of CDs in Canada have fallen by $450 million, or 23%, since 1999. CRIA maintains that the loss in revenue results in lower investment in Canadian recording artists and music.

The Recording Industry Association of America has responded by launching 382 civil suits against individual downloaders for copyright infringement in September 2003. In January 2004 they launched another 532 lawsuits. A number of those suits have been settled out of court for amounts ranging from $2,500 to $7,500. CRIA announced in December 2003 that they will take legal action in Canada in 2004. There has been speculation in the media that 40 individuals will be named in copyright lawsuits and that those actions may be launched in February 2004.

The swapping of music on-line has lead to the development of several legal music downloading sites where single songs can be purchased for less than a dollar and whole albums for ten dollars.

Self-described “music activists” at Downhill Battle see file sharing as one of the ways to break what they view as an oppressive monopoly by the recording industry. They accuse the industry of homogenizing mainstream music, using their monopoly to prevent independent music from competing, and claim that the major label system is the biggest barrier to musicians making money from CDs.

Amidst this swirl of activity, barrage of conflicting statistics and hard fought scrabble to take the high moral ground, there is one clear unambiguous fact: the relationship between the creators of music and the consumers of music has been fundamentally altered. The Lowdown on Downloading will explore how this has happened, what the current issues are and how the relationship between creator and consumer might look in the future.

The discussion will take place at UBC’s Robson Square campus. Attendance is free of charge, but please pre-register at info.talkofthetown@ubc.ca or phone 604.822.5675.

Panelists

Margo Langford is the founder and president of CineClix Distribution Inc. Margo has an extensive background in the managing illegal content issues in the online world. She managed anti-piracy cases for the multi-national record companies in over 35 countries, was eBusiness Policy advisor to IBM Canada, General Counsel for a national Internet Service Provider, and for a fiber optic/wireless telecom service provider and has advised several online enterprises. She has participated in tribunal and court proceedings regarding online content regulation, studied Internet Law at Harvard with some of the leading copyright law professors, and served on a dozen national and international committees shaping Internet policy, including the illegal and offensive content working groups of the OECD, the G8 and the United Nations.

Tod Maffin is "one of the most influential futurists" according to The Globe and Mail. He is a recognized authority on the future of technology in business, media, and society. Tod is a producer for many CBC radio programs, including Definitely Not the Opera, regional morning and afternoon shows, and That's Capital. He hosts a national technology column on CBC Radio, and Future Now, a national television segment on CBC's Canada Now.

Ian Giesbrecht is a BCIT journalism student and a member of the local recording artists Droom, who have signed a record deal with an independent label. He was also a campus DJ at CFBX in Kamloops.

Geoff Stowe is a BCIT journalism student believes that the Internet has redefined the relationship between musicians and music-lovers.

Links & Readings

Links

Downhill Battle

This site is dedicated to music activism and a campaign to defend the sharing of music files.

The Free Music Myth

This page at the web site of the Canadian Recording Industry Association presents its arguments against downloading music.

Pew Internet and American Life

This project of the Pew research centre has a major survey on music downloading in the U.S. published in July 2003 and an update in January 2004 which describes the decline in music sharing.

Digital Music File Sharing Increasing

This is a press release from the NPD group saying that their research is showing a recent (Oct. 2003) increase in peer-to-peer file sharing.

Canadian Private Copying Collective

Information regarding the collection of the tariff on audio recordables and devices like blank cassettes and cds and the distribution of royalties to copyright holders.

Legal Downloads

Puretracks is a Canadian site where individual songs or entire albums can be purchased and downloaded.