The Canadian Music Creators Coalition is a newly formed group that really represents Canadian music and artists. While the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) disagrees by saying they are working in the best interest of Canadian music. I choose to believe the people who actually create the music.The CRIA, by law, must represent the share holders of the record labels that are members of it, and most of these record labels are non-Canadian.

Here is an excerpt from Canadian Music Creators Coalition’s Website:

1. Suing Our Fans is Destructive and Hypocritical
Artists do not want to sue music fans. The labels have been suing our fans against our will, and laws enabling these suits cannot be justified in our names. We oppose any copyright reforms that would make it easier for record companies to do this. The government should repeal provisions of the Copyright Act that allow labels to unfairly punish fans who share music for non-commercial purposes with statutory damages of $500 to $20,000 per song.

2. Digital Locks are Risky and Counterproductive
Artists do not support using digital locks to increase the labels’ control over the distribution, use and enjoyment of music or laws that prohibit circumvention of such technological measures. The government should not blindly implement decade-old treaties designed to give control to major labels and take choices away from artists and consumers. Laws should protect artists and consumers, not restrictive technologies. Consumers should be able to transfer the music they buy to other formats under a right of fair use, without having to pay twice.

3. Cultural Policy Should Support Actual Canadian Artists
The vast majority of new Canadian music is not promoted by major labels, which focus mostly on foreign artists. The government should use other policy tools to support actual Canadian artists and a thriving musical and cultural scene. The government should make a long-term commitment to grow support mechanisms like the Canada Music Fund and FACTOR, invest in music training and education, create limited tax shelters for copyright royalties, protect artists from inequalities in bargaining power and make collecting societies more transparent.

The CRIA is currently lobbying the government to change the copyright laws in Canada. The Canadian Music Creators Coalition agrees the copyright laws need to change. But who should be creating them, multinational record labels or Canadian artists themselves? The answer is quite clear, the Canadian artists.

Canadian culture is important. And it must be encouraged. But how can multinational record labels truly represent Canadian talent when most of their clientele is American? They can’t. With five Canadian record labels dropping out of the CRIA last month, the CRIA is becoming less and less Canadian. Canadians should be making the laws of Canada not corporate interests.

I say keep up the good work to all the artists involved in the Canadian Music Coalition and I hope to hear more from them in the not too distant future.

“Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.” ~ John Lennon

For your enjoyment:

This piece of mail accidentally got delivered to me, it was a neighbors.