music_news 91 posts

The office of the US Trade Representative has issued a new report on the current situation with protection of US intellectual property by other countries. According to the document, 43 counties protect it inadequately and ineffectively. Among them 12 countries have qualified for a "priority watch list" of the worst offenders. China and Russia are on top of the shame list. The accusations and demands towards the countries guilty of neglecting US trade interests include:

China
China has “…severe market-access restrictions threaten the growth and vitality of exciting new [US] online and mobile delivery platforms for recorded music.”

Russia
Russia have failed to shut down AllofMP3.com and “if Russia fails to meet its obligations, the United States should respond accordingly and unilaterally impose sanctions on Russian exports to the United States.”

Canada
Canada did not qualify for the priority watch list this year but remains among the top... read more

The Canadian Record Industry Association is reporting a 35% drop in CD and DVD sales in Canada in the first quarter of 2007 compared to 2006. Only 7,1 million units were sold in 2007 – a considerable decrease from 10.2 million in 2006.

In his interview to The Toronto Star association president Graham Henderson said that the blame was on catastrophic amount of file sharing in Canada. "Digital music sales are not replacing lost CD and DVD sales as they are in countries with aggressive copyright protection laws banning file sharing and punitive enforcement policies… There's mass confusion in the (Canadian) marketplace about whether downloading is even illegal."

The CRIA claims that the federal government should update the Copyright Act and implement a “copyright reform that would explicitly outlaw the unauthorized use of music and punish offenders," to protect the artists and other creators.


Read more:
CD music sales plummet, The Toronto Star