Rebutting the piracy report

Dr. Michael Geist rebutts the mischaracterizations and omissions (or, in the vernacular, "crap") of the IFPI's latest piracy report.

Among other points, Geist notes that the IFPI's characterisation of Canada as having the highest per capita rate of peer-to-peer piracy in the world is false:

Not true. While CRIA regularly makes this claim, the 2004 OECD report refers only to P2P usage, without reaching conclusions on whether the activity infringes copyright. In fact, the same report specifically notes that "P2P is not simply downloading of MP3 files. In fact, file sharing has already moved to the next level and will be applied for all types of on-line information, data distribution, grid computing and distributed file systems." The OECD data captured all of these activites and made no claim that Canada has the highest per capital incidence of unauthorized file swapping in the world.

Geiss also points out that the report fails to mention:

• the dozens of major Canadian artists who oppose DRM and the suing of fans


• the revenue from private copying


• the six leading independent music labels who defected from the CRIA


• the study which found that Canada's recording industry grew steadily from 1999 to 2004


• that 90% of new Canadian music comes from independent labels which are thriving under the existing copyright laws