Canada Leading World In Illegal Downloading
Tuesday January 03, 2006 @ 06:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

CRIA president Graham Henderson

Canada will continue to have the highest per capita rate of illegally downloading music if it doesn't change its relatively lax copyright laws, according to the head of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA).

An October 2004 report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development noted that, per capita, Canada has the largest file-sharing population on the planet. CRIA — a non-profit trade organization representing the country's record companies and more than 95 per cent of all the records produced and sold in Canada — places much of the blame for the rampant downloading on politicians who've failed to enact legislation to reduce it. "Canada has fallen behind every single country in the European union," said CRIA president Graham Henderson in The Calgary Herald.

"We're behind Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States… The rest of the world has said [illegal downloading] is wrong and it should be curtailed."

A POLLARA study published in the fall estimated that at least 14 illegal files are downloaded for every legal one. It claimed that while those between the ages of 12 and 24 comprise 21 per cent of Canada's population, they're responsible for 78 per cent of illegal music downloading. The study also asserted that just six per cent of downloaders use legal sites.

CRIA says that the increase in online file-sharing has coincided with a 41-per cent drop — valued at $541 million — in the retail sale of music in Canada between 1999 and 2005. "Not only does music file-swapping harm artists, but it also points to an erosion of respect for intellectual property that threatens Canada's economy and values at the core of our society," Henderson said at the time, when he was launching a campaign to promote copyright reform.