BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said in a statement: “The High Court
has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive
scale. Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting
music and other creative works without paying a penny to the people
who created them. This is wrong – musicians, sound engineers and video
editors deserve to be paid for their work just like everyone else.”

Justice Arnold stated that “Despite their ability to do so and
despite the judicial findings that have been made against them, the
operators of the Pirate Bay take no steps to prevent infringement.
On the contrary, they actively encourage it and treat any attempts to
prevent it (judicial or otherwise) with contempt.”

May 15, 2012

Sutton Place Hotel, Toronto

nxne

June 11-17, 2012

Toronto, Ontario

Dauphin’s Countryfest

June 28-July1, 2012

Dauphin, Manitoba

33rd Festival International de Jazz de Montreal

June 28-July 7, 2012

Montreal, Quebec

Stan Rogers Folk Festival

June 29-July 1, 2012

Winnipeg Folk Festival

July 4-8, 2012

Birds Hill Provincial Park, Manitoba

The deal makes Sony’s publishing division, which was the fourth-largest before the merger, the largest. EMI’s publishing group manages the rights to songs of the Beatles, Beach Boys and others.

“Sony and Mubadala have offered to divest valuable and attractive catalogues containing bestselling titles as well as works of successful and promising authors,” Joaquín Almunia, the commission’s vice president in charge of competition policy said in a statement. “I am therefore satisfied that the competitive dynamics in the online music publishing business will be maintained so as to ensure consumer choice and cultural diversity.”

The $100,000 is gratefully received from CMPA as a whole and the following member companies which have donated funds: Casablanca Media Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Music Revenue Data Inc., Ole, Peer Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing and Warner/Chappell Music Canada.

Unison’s Treasurer, Lisa Zbitnew comments: “We are so pleased to receive this donation from the music publishers in Canada. It is heartening to see our industry recognize this cause, and pull together to support it. We’re looking forward to a day, very soon, when we can announce that Unison is ready to help our community.”

“This donation recognises the music publishers’ belief in this important new means of support for our community and we are looking forward to the fund’s inauguration once the million dollar target has been met,” comments CMPA’s Treasurer Elisabeth Bihl.

The Unison Benevolent Fund is an assistance and referral program – created and administered for the music community, by the music community. Unison is designed to provide discreet relief to music industry personnel in times of personal hardship and crisis. The first two priorities for Unison are the Emergency Relief Fund and the creation of a counseling service, similar to the Employee Assistance Programs often available to staff of larger organizations. Details on the launch of these services will be announced soon.

We’re so close to our funding goal, but we still need your help! For those who are interested in: learning more about the Unison Benevolent Fund, making a donation, finding out how to help the cause, or accessing Unison’s services are encouraged to visit www.unisonfund.ca and register. Although registration is not required for services, it will expedite the process should an emergency funding request be made, and will also allow Unison to keep registrants up to date on discounts and benefits on offer.

A substantial portion of the settlement will go to artists who had at least 28,500 downloads from Apple’s iTunes, with a small amount set aside for artists with lower download levels.

“We believe that the settlement is in the best interest of the class,” says Brian Caplan at Caplan & Ross, who represented the plaintiffs.  The deal comes after the plaintiffs’ lawyer reports two years of “extensive, intense settlement negotiations,” with assistance from a mediator and the named plaintiffs.

Critics of the deals point to the imbalance in market share that would result among the remaining major companies. Universal would control about 40 percent of the global market for recordings, and Sony about 32 percent for music publishing.

In the release, IMPALA Executive Chair Helen Smith, stated: that “we expect this to lead to an outright rejection of both Uni/EMI and Sony/EMI mergers. Keeping the online market as open as possible is essential for competition and for responding to piracy, as well as other market problems. Turning music into a two-horse race would hamper the natural development of the market and increase prices.”

“Working together we can strengthen our ability to serve all of our members and make it easier for businesses to comply with licensing requirements”, said David Basskin, President of CMRRA, the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency.

“This is a great step forward in terms of ensuring the most effective and efficient management of the rights of music creators and publishers”, said Eric Baptiste, CEO of SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.

“This collaborative effort reflects the ability of our three organizations to remain flexible and adapt to the rapidly evolving music industry”, said Alain Lauzon, General Manager of SODRAC, the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada.

While an agreement has been made to examine opportunities for the three organizations to work together, the next step involves a feasibility study to determine the best way forward.

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The indictment came the day after a 24-hour “blackout” of Wikipedia, a protest doodle on the homepage of Google, and numerous other protests across the Internet against the proposed SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy legislation.

Commenting on the indictment, National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) President and CEO David Israelite said: “On behalf of the songwriting and music publishing community, the NMPA applauds the Justice Department for fighting and indicting those who support the theft of copyrighted materials. Yesterday’s shuttering of Megaupload and the indictment of its executives is one of the largest criminal copyright cases to date. This case rightly demonstrates the value of copyright to our economy and the challenges creators face every day protecting their works.”

The majority opinion, authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, stated “the majority opinion which held that Congress had acted within its powers in granting the protections and that the law does not violate the Constitution’s Copyright Clause, it does not violate the First Amendment rights of anyone, and it does not deviate from any long-standing historical practice or perception.

“Congress had reason to believe that a well-functioning international copyright system would encourage the dissemination of existing and future works.”