Jari Ketola
4 Apr 2004 12:40
Minister of Canadian Heritae, Hélène Scherrer promised on Friday that changes will be made to the Canadian copyright law. The changes would make it illegal to download music for free from the Internet.
Both the federal court and the Copyright Board of Canada have ruled that sharing and downloading files on peer-to-peer networks is not illegal by Canadian law.
The rulings caused an instant turmoil in the Canadian music industry. They felt that the rulings would in effect destroy the industry, and the livelihood of Canadian artists. However the Canadian Idol winner Ryan Malcolm, for example, feels quite differently about the whole P2P issue.
"Whether people download or not, as long as they're listening to music," Malcolm said. "I think it's a challenge for the industry, to try and find a new way to survive."
It remains to be seen what kind of changes, if any, will be made to the law.
Source: Canoe / Edmonton Sun