Okidoki, I'm here to try and blog about copyrights on music. Now I haven't had a lot of free time to do research, but here are a few of my thoughts.

First I will try to address the levy that Canadians pay on their recording media. Now I meation Canadians because our copyright laws are different then the US. Here is the official site having to do with Canadian Levies . Now you will notice on the first page that it says "in Respect of the
Reproduction for Private Use of Musical Works
Embodied in Sound Recordings" . So we'll head back to the copyright site to find more about private copying. Here are two sites that give the definition of "private copying":

Site A-2001 says "II. THE PRIVATE COPYING REGIME Part I.A of the 1999 decision describes the
private copying regime. In a nutshell, the regime
legalizes private copying, which is the
reproduction, for private use, of sound
recordings of musical works. In return, those
who make or import recording media ordinarily
used to make private copies are required to pay
a levy on each such medium." "First, the private copying regime legalizes
copying for the private use of the person making
the copy. It does not legalize copying for use
(private or otherwise) by a third party: a CD that
a person burns for the use of another is not a
private copy. On the other hand, it is not
required that the source or target medium be
lawfully owned; using a stolen prerecorded CD
to make a private copy on a stolen CD-R
involves two instances of theft but no copyright
infringement." (Hard to know what to think of that one)

Site B-1999 says "A. Legislative Framework A. Le cadre législatif
On March 19, 1998, Part VIII of the Copyright
Act 1 [the “Act”] came into force.2 Until then,
copying any sound recording for almost any
purpose infringed copyright.3 In practice, that
prohibition was largely unenforceable. Part VIII
legalizes one such activity: copying of sound
recordings of musical works onto recording media
for the private use of the person who makes the
copy [hereafter “private copying”]. At the same
time, a levy is imposed on blank audio recording
media to compensate authors, performers and
makers who own copyright in those sound
recordings."

There are two newer sites but they basically state that the rules are the same, cept for a change in levy, not a change in private copying. I'm sorry if I did missed some imporant part on one of those site since I only skimmed them. So please don't pick on me. :D

Site C Copying for Private Use

80. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the act of reproducing all or any substantial part of

(a) a musical work embodied in a sound recording,

(b) a performer's performance of a musical work embodied in a sound recording, or

(c) a sound recording in which a musical work, or a performer's performance of a musical work, is embodied

onto an audio recording medium for the private use of the person who makes the copy does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the musical work, the performer's performance or the sound recording.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply if the act described in that subsection is done for the purpose of doing any of the following in relation to any of the things referred to in paragraphs (1)(a) to (c):

(a) selling or renting out, or by way of trade exposing or offering for sale or rental;

(b) distributing, whether or not for the purpose of trade;

(c) communicating to the public by telecommunication; or

(d) performing, or causing to be performed, in public.

Now I pasted that to illustrate. Ok, I buy a CD..lets say a Blue Rodeo CD :D Now if I make a copy of my BR CD for my own use, it is called a "private copy" I can not give this copy to anyone, nor can I sell, trade or perform it in public. Now it is also legal for me to loan my BR CD to a friend hmm, I'll loan it to friend A, now friend A can use my CD to make their own copy and can give my original BR CD back to me. I can then loan my BR CD to friend B and repeat the process. Now, friend A is not allowed to loan their copy to friend C for private copying since Friend A doesn't own the original BR CD (I own it). However friend C is allowed to borrow and listen to friend A's copy, but they cannot copy it. Now this isn't considered "distributing" since I'm not making copies and giving them to ppl. So thus, programs like KaZaA can't stand since every song being shared on it is a copy of the original, so after you download it becomes a copy of a copy...not a copy of an original.

Ok, some people have suggested that private copying is stealing from the artists no matter what the copyright laws say. I would disagree, since if the artist agrees with the Record Company and if the Record Companies agree (so it's not stealing from the R Companies either) with the copyright board, I would think that the artist sold their say in that matter, just like the artist can no longer choose how many copies the Record Companies makes or at what prices their CDs sell. Their rights now consist of their future songs which they haven't sold, and they still keep the rights of all their songs as far as preventing others from performing them. I also think that these laws agree with scripture, since there is nothing unlawful in them and they were covenanted to by the parties involved, nor were those parties forced.

Okay, I think I'm done, at least for now. :)

For anyone wanting to know about other copyright laws in Canada (including computer program copyrights) "Site C" has all of them.

Well, it's far too late for this, but I've been wanting to post about it for awhile, so what's done, is done. ;)

Jode