Insurgent CRIA
The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) isn't Canadian - at all. It doesn't represent the Canadian recording industry (all the major Canadian labels bailed last year). No respectable big-name Canadian music artist or group has anything to do with the CRIA.
The CRIA does represent the largest foreign-owned corporations that make up the RIAA (who totally control the CRIA and suck massive profits out of Canada), so they aren't interested what's good for Canadian recording artists.
In Canada, consumers pay a tax on every blank tape, CD and DVD and that tax is supposed to go to Canadian artists whose work is being copied. The CRIA is trying to get that law revoked so they can go after people who share files. In Canada, downloading is NOT illegal, and those who claim it is are legal morons. The CRIA attempted to charge some downloaders, but lost - bigtime - in court.
The CRIA operates in Canada as a group of "uninvited (and unwanted) insurgent mercenary thugs". The CRIA uses faked statistics to justify their actions and have been exposed for doing so a number of times. They don't pay taxes in Canada (they claim that they're a "non-profit group) but use offshore tax-free havens to hide their accounting practises from Canadian authorities.
The CRIA have the power of deep pockets, funded by the taxes on blank media that Canadian consumers have paid (and the profits from overpriced CD's and DVD's). And they use that power to threaten legitimate ISP's in Canada with legal action if they don't stop providing organizations like Demonoid with service. The ISP could probably win a court fight, but may be driven into bankruptcy by the cost of doing so.
In the schoolyard, kids that behave like the CRIA are called bullies - their authority is totally self-serving. Imagine going to the store and wanting to buy a loaf of white bread. If it was a CRIA store, you'd have to buy a loaf of bread with some white slices, some whole wheat, some sourdough and some really stale slices of leftover stuff.
If the CRIA wants legitimacy, they should support online downloads for a fee (which they don't) and provide those who are online with the access to the digital data they want to buy.
It's time for the RIAA/CRIA co-joined twins to enter the 21st century.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
