A while back I joined the Canadian Music Creator’s Coalition, an organization of musicians and composers supporting copyright reform from an artist-centric and fan-centric perspective. Led by some famous Canadian musicians, it arose to counter the lobbying efforts of the CRIA (the Canadian Recording Industry Association), which is dominated by corporate interests that parrot the predatory and exploitative verbiage of its mothership, the RIAA (The Recording Industry Association of America), such as supporting the suing of kids who share mp3s.

More recently, I left the CMCC as a protest against that organization’s baffling endorsement of a terrible copyright reform plan put forward by the Songwriter’s Association of Canada. There are a lot of problems with the Songwriter’s plan, chief among them:

1. According to the proposal “Virtually all sharing on the internet and wireless devices would be tracked. ” The privacy issues here are obvious and profoundly concerning. Is there anybody that wants every file they share to be tracked by law? What kinds of slippery slope does this place us on? Strike # 1.

2. The plan proposes the imposition of a $5 universal user fee to be added to every Internet user’s account that would then be divvied up by ‘the music industry’ based on whose files were shared most often. This would be an administrative, technical and public relations nightmare. It is so backwards-looking that it amazes me that anyone would take it seriously. Strike #2.

3. Clause 8 of the proposal says: “the amount of income generated annually could adequately compensate the industry for years of declining sales and lost revenues”. But is this for artists or for the majors? Moreover the plan never mentions how or on what basis the cash that would be generated would be divvied up. Who gets what share? ‘The ‘devil is in the details’, as every one who has ever negotiated a deal knows, which makes it all the more surprising that the CMCC supported this plan. Strike #3 and this proposal is out.

I made my feelings known to the CMCC but they stuck to their guns, so I left. And while it’s no great loss to the CMCC, I admit, I do want to let people know that despite their positive intentions, this organization is heading in a dangerous and largely unhelpful direction.

I mention this because I just joined another copyright reform group, one founded on Facebook by Michael Geist. The group is dedicated to defeating the apalling and alarming copyright legislation that the Conservative government of Canada is about to introduce. I am all for defeating this bill, which is based (remarkably, after all that we have learned since it was passed) on the USA’s disastrous Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998.

But while I know what the group is against, given my recent experience with the CMCC, I can’t help wondering what we are all for.

One thing at a time I guess. Our immediate need is to stop this legislation in its tracks. But if we succeed, it will be interesting to see whether the same sort of common ground can be found in favour of truly progressive copyright reform.