I don’t know if I am the only person to have seen an analogy between Amanda Knox’s trial in Italy and the Sacco and Vanzetti trial in New York in the 1920s. It seems like Italy paid us back for what we did to their nationals so many years ago. Not that I think Amanda Knox is innocent, but I think there were problems with her trial. Apparently though, this is not the only recent event to set the world’s Karmic realignment straight.
We have all noticed, and hopefully not been subject to, the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) unscrupulous pursuit of filesharers and other infringers. The Recording Industry has, almost without equivocation, gone after non-commercial downloaders for the maximum awards of damages available under the Copyright Act. This pursuit has been one-way only, at least in America; which brings me to my analogy.
The Canadian Recording Industry has recently been sued for infringement (irony) in a class action. Specifically, the defendants in this case are the four main members of the Canadian Recording Industry: Sony BMG Canada, Warner Music Canada, EMI Canada, and Universal Music Canada.
The infringement stems from the Canadian Recording Industry’s practices on its compilation releases. When the above named record labels decide to release a compilation CD (think of “NOW That’s What I Call Music”, only the Canadian version), there are many songs they include in the release but don’t clear the rights to. Thus, when many songs are put onto these compilations, the labels simply place them on a “pending” list – as in “the right to use these songs has not been granted, but hopefully will be in the future.”
According to the Toronto Star, the plaintiffs are asking for $60 billion. That should teach the Recording Industry of Canada an equal but opposite lesson to the lesson the RIAA has “taught” to people like Joel Tennenbaum, Jammie Thomas, and the like. I will keep an eye on this one for any interested readers…
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