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Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), says that Bill C-32′s proposed $500 cap on non-commercial infringement would mean that people “could go online and steal every movie that’s ever made, every book, and every song, put them on your hard drive, admit liability, and write a $5,000 check.The Canadian music industry seems to be living an economic reality of its own these days, arguing in a recent article that the proposed Copyright Modernization Act’s (Bill C-32) $5,000 maximum penalty for non-commercial copyright infringement will do little to deter would be infringers.Though happy the govt is finally addressing the problem, Henderson believes that people could choose to download to their hearts content and then simply write a check for $5,000 to pay for their transgression.“Once this bill is passed, you could go online and steal every movie that’s ever made, every book, and every song, put them on your hard drive, admit liability, and write a $5,000 check,” he says. “That would be the full extent of it — and it would be the first rights holder who would get all the money. Nobody else would get a cent. It’s close to saying that for people who want to steal stuff, there’s a compulsory license of $5,000.”Talk about a bunch of nonsense. Who in their right mind would purposely set off on a $5,000 downloading spree? Certainly not I. The amount is more than enough to deter people from illegal downloading, especially in this economic downturn.He thinks the bill ought to be “more protective of musicians,” but what amount would he suggest is enough? $10,000? $100,000? And where does he expect people to come up with this money? Must they mortgage their homes or remove their kids from college to pay for content that likely cost no more than several hundred dollars or less if bought legally?In many cases $5,000 might as well be $5 million, both being equally beyond the grasp of the average working class citizen to reasonably afford.Instead of trying to punish music fans even further for a practice that no amount of financial penalty will prevent, the Canadian music industry ought to devote its time and resources into making them loyal customers. Why not try and figure out how to convince people into paying that $5,000 for services and content rendered?
