Music

[#1]

I have heard that downloading music is leagal in Canada but not in the U.S. Is this true? If it is illegal than why are there so many companys selling blank C.Ds ? I don't think the info backup theroy holds ground with flash drives so cheap, internet backup, and many other forms of backup. Just a thought.

[#2]

Believe it or not a lot of people still use CDs to backup information. They also burn mix CDs and things like that. 

I believe that the current Canadian copyright law says that downloading is legal but sharing is not. I'm not sure however. 

[#3]

So far in Canada, you cannot be convicted for dowloading, but you can get in deep trouble for sharing or selling (that is..only if they catch you).  The truth is, with countless millions of people downloading off the internet, they'll never be able to hold everyone accountable.

However, to cover myself from liability:

Disclaimer:  Do not pirate music/movies/software/games/etc that are not yours, because this is stealing, and morally wrong, yada, yada, yada...

[#4]

Downloading music from authorized sites such as iTunes is completely legal in both the US and Canada.  It's illegal in both countries (and worldwide) to download music via filesharing programs unless it is not protected by copyright laws.  The US currently has some fairly stiff penalties to deter illegal filesharing, and Canada is proposing a somewhat similar legislation (different, but similar).  Canada does currently have laws in place, but they aren't commonly used (but trust me, they could!).

Message Edited by Julez on 10-04-2008 09:13 AM

[#5]

Thanks for all the info guys!

Just a reminder that discussions on all things illegal are not permitted in the community.

[#6]

Hi all, I obviously will have a bias and it is a good conversation to have. Here is what I have to offer up though, -all artist's make their living on the proceeds generated by their art -new models of generating income for the artist are appearing all the time (iTunes, My Space Music, Download Cards and more) -support the artists you love so they can continue to generate their art and literally feed their kids The vast majority of artists do not have and do not generate the massive dollars we all hear about ( like U2, Metallica ect) They are grinding it out on very little cash because they are DRIVEN by their art. They cant help it., they need to write/perform and create. Having just come from our National Training Event where I had several breaking Canadian acts featured (The Trews, Divine Brown, Serena Ryder, Kreesha Turner, Daniel Desnoyer, David Jalbert, Alexandre Poulin..all doing feature performances for Future Shop associates) I feel even more strongly than ever that it is up to all of us to help support these and every artist we can in any way we can. These are all very good people with a passion they need to share. Thats my 2 cents on a very complicated topic.

[#7]

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Krypto wrote:
Downloading music from authorized sites such as iTunes is completely legal in both the US and Canada.  It's illegal in both countries (and worldwide) to download music via filesharing programs unless it is not protected by copyright laws.  The US currently has some fairly stiff penalties to deter illegal filesharing, and Canada is proposing a somewhat similar legislation (different, but similar).  Canada does currently have laws in place, but they aren't commonly used (but trust me, they could!).

Message Edited by Julez on 10-04-2008 09:13 AM

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I know we're not supposed to discuss legalities here, but in Canada, current legislation does not explicitly outlaw the downloading of anything. Torrents = legal. Seeding torrents = illegal. newsgroups = legal. Posting to newsgroups = illegal.
It is totally fine right now to download stuff, you've just got to question your own ethics.

[#8]

The issue in unbalanced here, on one hand its legal to download a movie or something, but its illegal to provide that movie to download.  Seems to me that by association its should be illegal to download.

But even though its illegal to seed torrents, people do it anyways because the chances of being caught are negligible.  There are just so many doing it that the government cannot catch them all.

[#9]

Yeah, but as we've seen in the States, when you do get caught, it's ridiculously expensive.  And even if you choose to fight it, chances are that you'll still have to pay and you'll also have to cover the legal bills... are you still sure you want to take the risk?  And anyone who thinks they can download copyrighted files without explicit permission to download those files and get away with it is playing with fire.  Even photocopying books is illegal, again, unless you have explicit permission (for example, portions of books can be photocopied for educational purposes (although it is illegal to photocopy the whole book)).

The key thing is to make sure you are aware of your rights when it comes to using copyrighted material and don't extend beyond those rights (or if you do, don't be surprised when you have to deal with the consequences).

[#10]

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Credible_Chris wrote:

The issue in unbalanced here, on one hand its legal to download a movie or something, but its illegal to provide that movie to download.  Seems to me that by association its should be illegal to download.

But even though its illegal to seed torrents, people do it anyways because the chances of being caught are negligible.  There are just so many doing it that the government cannot catch them all.

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Thus far, not one person has been prosecuted in Canada for copyright infringement regarding the downloading of digital media.
That said, there is a seriously dangerous bill being proposed that will require your ISP to pass along all logs and statistics of your upstream bandwidth - if this happens and you could be broke for quite a while.
I seriously suggest you stop seeding - if you're going to complain about hurting the scene, start using newsgroups!

Also, while not illegal to download a movie - it is illegal to watch it.