An interesting article on RIAA vs Canadians...

Copying music in Canada

You know, until I read this, I never thought about that month I spent five years ago fighting the levy on blank CDRs.  But now that I do, I wonder if I truly am protected for copying music... after all, that is what the levy was for!

This is kinda off topic, but can the RIAA sue non US sharers? I read the article and it says theres some clause for Canadians, but what about the rest of us?

Do you think the RIAA would bother, for instance, to sue someone from, lets say Japan?

Cliff notes?

1) I doubt they\'re going to sue anyone outside the states... it says as much in the article, from an RIAA spokesman.

2) Cliff notes:

Canadians in 1998 started paying a levy of 77c per blank CDR, and 22c per tape they bought.  This levy came with a addendum to the copywright law in Canada, which said Canadians can now copy music, and the cost to the companies would be paid by the levy (at the time, the music companies were very happy with 77c per cd).

So, I can have lots of MP3s on my HDD, and as long as I don\'t give them away, but other people choose to copy them, they\'re ok.  I can also copy music for myself, so basically filesharing has a big loophole in Canada making music swapping in it\'s current form legal.

this coming from a country that basically legalized marijuana

:rolleyes:

Yep.  Canada sure is a swell country.  I recently tried a "mail order weed" system off the internet.  It actually worked.  You know your jealous.

:thepimp:

As for the levy... I\'ll bet the music/hollywood companies are making plenty of money from the levy, cause I use a lot of CDs for legit purposes, which means that they\'re prolly getting 3-4 bucks for every CD I don\'t.  Every business buying CDs for transferring files, or backing up data is subsidizing them too.

jealous?

watch the canadien average student intelligence level drop over the next decade

[GmanJoe]

I smoked pot.

Uh...what was this topic about?

Originally posted by mm
jealous?

watch the canadien average student intelligence level drop over the next decade

Well.... I won\'t say that\'s not a possibility.  Watch Canada continue to be one of (if not) the best place to live in the world.

However, it seems to me that with the decrim, and increased usage, we didn\'t see increased usage on a person-to-person basis.  More people smoke now, but the majority are pastime smokers, rather than potheads.

best place?

hows the crime rate going?  next time i think about visiting vancouver, please kick me in the nuts

national health care will be the crash of your country anyways

Crimes fine.  There are areas in the major cities with big problems, but as someone who has travelled to central/south america a dozen times, the US a half dozen, and through Europe three times, I can say that Canada is the only country I would live in (possibly excepting parts of Scandinavia, or a small town in Spain).

The health care system is absolutely one of the best things about Canada.  It\'s nice when your life isn\'t full of stresses about things beyond your control.

indeed, yer govt is stressing about it and it\'s beyond thier control

please dont think i never left pittsburgh either  :P

eventually, the US will get tired of you guys allowing canada to be a terrorist throughway

If the RIAA shuts us down, every downloader in the US will switch to leech mode and go looking for mp3s on Canadian servers.  That could work nicely, the only problem is we\'ll have to start liking Alannis Morrisette and Celine Dion.  

BTW I find it hilarious when ordinary US citizens criticize Canada\'s universal healthcare system, as if there were something inherently wrong with it.  I can understand if you\'re Daddy Warbucks, and you don\'t like having to sit in a waiting room with all the "commoners," but for anyone with an annual income under $75,000 per year, their system is vastly superior to ours.

Plus, once oil isn\'t the big thing, and water becomes as valuable as gas is, the US will invade us, to remove our "socialist dictators" from power.  :rolleyes:

Either way, Canada is a great place to live.  Land of the free indeed.

invade?

we\'ve been right next to you for hundreds of years, if you had anything of value, alaska would be part of the mainland right now

i never said america\'s health care system was better.  thats a sign of insecurity when you automatically attack the opposite of what someone says

govt controlled public health care is a downward spiral.  it\'s why sales tax is over 15% in some places.  it\'s why canadiens go to hospital everytmie they have a headache