Members Anderton Posted July 11, 2012 Members Share Posted July 11, 2012 Got this in my email box (sorry, can't link to an online version). Comments? Harper Government Wages War on Music Business TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - July 11, 2012) - According to ole, Canada's largest music publisher, the Harper Government has declared war on the music business, deploying tactics such as job killing copyright legislation, publicity stunts, and pre-empting an independent judicial process currently before the Copyright Board of Canada. With Industry Minister Christian Paradis' recent announcement that he intends to prevent songwriters and recording artists from receiving royalties from memory chips used to store music in smart phones, the Harper Government signaled that its attack on music copyright didn't end with the recent passing of the controversial copyright bill C-11. During a publicity stunt staged at a Future Shop store in Ottawa, Paradis declared, "Our government cannot allow a fee to be imposed on microSD memory cards." The related news release stated the Minister will request that the Governor-in-Council introduce regulations in the fall to achieve his goal. ole's President Michael McCarty remarked: "This whole bizarre incident is further evidence that the Harper Government has declared war on the music industry and will go to extraordinary lengths to, once again, ensure that Canadian artists are not paid for their work. First, they drop the Bill C-11 bomb, which will likely wipe out $30 Million a year in digital music royalties, and now they are destroying markets and interfering with the autonomy of the Copyright Board." McCarty adds, "There is also a clear pattern that shows just how far Stephen Harper's Government is prepared to go to support the large tech corporations that make billions of dollars from the piracy of music. They are killing jobs, investment, and the ability of artists to make a living." McCarty goes on to state: "This Government does not seem to understand that in the digital age, "content is king", and ideas are more valuable than tangible goods. The copyright industries contribute more to annual GDP than agriculture or mining." 1 In conclusion, McCarty states that, "A country that fails to protect intellectual property fails to protect its economic future. We are at a crucial fork in the road, and are being led down the wrong path. Canadians need to stand up and insist that our government acts to secure our future in the information age, or we will be left in the digital dust." For more information go to www.protectcreativity.ca or contact Julie Moe Julie_moe@olemm.com. About ole: ole (pronounced "oh lay") is one of the largest and fastest growing music publishing companies in the world, with over $115 million dollars invested in copyrights. Based in Toronto, with additional offices in Nashville and Los Angeles, the company has a staff of 40 experienced industry professionals focused on acquisitions, artist development, and worldwide copyright administration. ole has recently entered the Production Music space with operations in the U.S. (MusicBox) and Canada (clear). ole has been named Canadian Country Music Association's Music Publishing Company of the Year for the past five years and earned its first Grammy Award in 2009 for Best Country Song, "White Horse." Other recent notable ole awards include: SESAC 2011 Country Performance Activity Award for "Til Summer Comes Around" (Monty Powell/Keith Urban); three BMI 2011 Most Performed Songs Awards for "Fearless" (Liz Rose, Taylor Swift); "Why Wait" (Jimmy Yeary, Tom Shapiro) and "Let Me Down Easy" (Marty Dodson, Jennifer Hanson, Mark Nesler) ; 2011 SOCAN Country Music Award for "Make Hay While The Sun Shines" (Steven Lee Olsen, Bruce Wallace); 2011 SOCAN Domestic Television Series Music Award "Busytown Mysteries" (Peter Coulman, Carl Lenox, David Tedesco); and 2011 SOCAN Award for 100,000 Radio Performances of Lighthouse's "Sunny Days" and "Pretty Lady" (Skip Prokop). The ole catalog includes over 45,000 songs and 40,000 hours of TV music across all genres. ole has completed over $115MM USD in acquisitions, including purchases of music catalogs: Blacktop, Jody Williams Music, Rami Yacoub, Chris Wallin, Rick Giles, Balmur, Keith Follese, Lighthouse, Frank Myers, Dream Warriors, Encore, David Tyson, and Marsfilm Music. ole has also purchased the worldwide music rights for TV catalogs such as WGBH, Cookie Jar, Cineflix, CCI and recently, "The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That." ole is committed to the creative development of its 6o+ staff songwriters, legacy writers and composers and the cultivation of our catalogs and client catalogs. ole has ongoing co-ventures with Last Gang Publishing (Alt Rock), Roots Three Music (Country) and tanjola (Pop/Rock/Urban). ole is an expert in administrating and sub-publishing music copyrights and has concluded worldwide publishing administration agreements with some of the world's leading songwriters, publishers and film and television producers. adminow, ole's online client account transparency portal, was launched recently and demonstrates ole's commitment to modernizing its client services and to leading-edge IT. Notable copyrights for ole include Taylor Swift singles "Fearless," "White Horse," "Tim McGraw," "Picture To Burn," "Teardrops On My Guitar"; Rascal Flatts' "Why Wait"; Kelly Clarkson's "Miss Independent"; and "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" by Britney Spears; Pink's "You and Your Hand"; "It's Gonna Be Me" from 'N Sync; "Shape of My Heart" by Backstreet Boys; iconic Canadian Olympic theme "I Believe"; "Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles; Tim McGraw's "Something Like That." ole owns or represents up to 150,000 production music tracks within its MusicBox and clear libraries. With 9 staff in North America, ole's Production Music division delivers excellent customer service and quality Creative on a leading edge IT platform. Our production music division leverages ole's established Administration, Finance and IT services. ole is committed to being the best and most innovative global destination for world-class songwriters, composers, and management talent, and the first choice music source for creators in all media. 1 WIPO Study on GDP contribution in Canada - prepared for Heritage Canada www.wipo.int/ip-development/en/creative_industry/pdf/ecostudy-canada.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dav1 Posted July 12, 2012 Members Share Posted July 12, 2012 Paradis declared, "Our government cannot allow a fee to be imposed on microSD memory cards." ...a rare example of somebody involved in government making a good decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted July 12, 2012 Moderators Share Posted July 12, 2012 This seems somewhat unclear...they are questioning the royalty fees on sd media cards in smartphones? But shouldn't the provider of the card, who is loading the music on the card be the one paying the royalty fee, not the end users? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ckoehler Posted July 12, 2012 Members Share Posted July 12, 2012 Sounds fishy. Somehow I feel this is a big label move where the money will never makes it to the artist anyway and will only muddle up the market and edge out indie artists. IMHO anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dav1 Posted July 12, 2012 Members Share Posted July 12, 2012 It seems problematic to me to relate digital storage media with royalties, for at least a couple of reasons. 1) There are loads of uses for SD cards (micro or otherwise) that have nothing to do with music. 2) If somebody buys a song from iTunes (for example) surely any necessary royalties were gathered during that transaction. So ultimately the legit paying music consumer gets a double hit. That's before even getting into how the money raised could be distributed in a fair way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted July 13, 2012 Author Members Share Posted July 13, 2012 It seems problematic to me to relate digital storage media with royalties, for at least a couple of reasons. 1) There are loads of uses for SD cards (micro or otherwise) that have nothing to do with music. Very true. I have no idea how this could be implemented fairly. 2) If somebody buys a song from iTunes (for example) surely any necessary royalties were gathered during that transaction. So ultimately the legit paying music consumer gets a double hit.Well, that's one of the things that's unclear. I get what they're saying - ISPs and others are making money from people stealing music, but not giving anything back. If someone uses a search engine to find the hours a restaurant is open, it's a win-win - the ISP gets an eyeball for their ad, and the restaurant gets someone to buy dinner. But if they use the search engine to find a pirate site, the ISP gets the win, but the artist doesn't. I understand the motivation, but don't see how a solution could be implemented that would be legit and fair to all concerned. That's before even getting into how the money raised could be distributed in a fair way. And the track record hasn't been very good on that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted July 13, 2012 Members Share Posted July 13, 2012 I'm sure some hobbyists will give them their music for free, and Terry D. will even pay for getting on a SD card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted July 13, 2012 Moderators Share Posted July 13, 2012 I'm sure some hobbyists will give them their music for free, and Terry D. will even pay for getting on a SD card Well, as you pointed out I'm a mega zillionaire, so what would I do with more money? My mattress has no more room for stuffing. As you also pointed out, the point of music is to get the little girls excited so maybe I should spend some of my billions to have EVERY SD card manufactured with my music already on it, non erasable. wb from quiet time, I think. Terry D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dav1 Posted July 13, 2012 Members Share Posted July 13, 2012 I understand the motivation, but don't see how a solution could be implemented that would be legit and fair to all concerned. Yep. Seems to me... the piracy problem is a social issue rather than a technological one. There's no place for genuine artistic endeavour in a society that views worth as a function of wealth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A. Einstein Posted July 14, 2012 Members Share Posted July 14, 2012 Well, as you pointed out I'm a mega zillionaire, so what would I do with more money? My mattress has no more room for stuffing. As you also pointed out, the point of music is to get the little girls excited so maybe I should spend some of my billions to have EVERY SD card manufactured with my music already on it, non erasable. wb from quiet time, I think. TerryD. That's all true, but only for you as artist. I am no artist. And being a zillionaire doesn't mean it has to be US Dollars, could as well be your mattress or bra collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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