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Supreme Court ruling scraps royalty for music downloads

• cleverjake 14y ago
  In Canada.
• guard-of-terra 14y ago
  "lower court decision that allowed SOCAN to collect a tariff when video games are downloaded over the internet" Wait, what!?
• rprasad 14y ago
  Canadian Supreme Court scraps royalties for Canadian music downloads. We have a completely separate system in the U.S. that imposes mandatory royalties (along with a corresponding royalty collection body to obviate the need to track down music rights holders). Europe has something similar.
  • lincolnwebs 14y ago
    Yes, I was thoroughly confused until it clicked it was Canadian media. Can we get a bot on the news submitter that asks for a nation to be added when the headline says "Congress" or "Parliament" or "Supreme Court"? :P
• caidan 14y ago
  Anyone else notice that the acronym for Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers (SOCAN), should actually be SOCAMP? Guess they felt that was inappropriate.
• teach 14y ago
  The important bit doesn't show up until the sixth paragraph: "Today's decision does not affect the 'reproduction right' that they can collect a fee for, only the one for downloading. Until now, downloading fell under the 'communication to the public' right." Apparently, downloaded/streamed songs in Canada had been earning royalties as a public performance. That part has been struck down. Royalties are still earned under the "making a copy" rule. Seems totally reasonable to me.