PowerPoint Presentation Slide 1

Canadian Copyright Agencies

• CANCOPY: 130 courseware
• SOCAN

US Digital Millenium Copyright Act ( 1998)

• Computer users who copy or distribute the digital expression of others without their permission are liable to prosecution
• ISP’s may avoid liability if they police and remove offenders
• Arose because of spread of MP3 ( a digital compression technology)

Napster

• Before 1999, just 5 companies, court cases on price fixing underway
• Developer launches Website wi 2 mi per day
• Called P to P networking
• Allowed visitors to search for files on other MP3 users’ hard drive and download to burn their own CDs: control over compilation shifts to consumers
• ‘freeware’: since Napster’s server did not house or archive the music, the owners thought they were exempt from copyright law and reasoned that prosecution should happen at the individual level: since so dispersed and large ( estimated in the millions a month) it was believed it was not possible to enforce the law
• Napster’s early success launched a wave of imitators: Gnutella, I mesh and XXX

The Napster Case (see Fleras: 262)

• Musical Recording Industry argued Napster infringed copyright– even Metallica!
• Damages estimated in the millions
• Refused to admit free sampling in fact increased exposure to music: eventual purchase
• Lined up a number of musicians to argue that the financial damage was to artists ( not the the multinationals)

Napster defense

• An information source
• Not ‘housing’ or copying
• Intention to move to a subscription service
• Struggled to settle out of court
• Agreed to charge a monthly fee
• Purchased by Bertelsmann
• Lost Case

Effects of Napster

• Now usurped in the market ( Morpheus , Kazaa and others) but trying a comeback
• Victor? : to large companies:
• BUT– they introduced 2 tier pricing to allow new artists to break in
• They reduced price of CDs
• More services experimenting with subscription and transaction fees
• Major transformation in Music Happening
• Victor? To consumers
• Forcing a major rethink of copyright
• Hierarchy of value: new versus brand artists merit more protection
• Should IP be free? It takes a community to raise an artist.