Koss 76 manual DRM in Canada

DRM IN CANADA

“DRM” of course stands for “Dig- ital Rights Management,” technology to limit what consumers can do with music, movies and other material they’ve bought. In the United States DRM is backed by tough laws. In Canada and Europe, on the other hand, copying for private use is legal. So far.

CRIA (the Canadian Recording Industry Association), the Canadian counterpart to RIAA, the US lobbyist for Big Media, would like to see a US- style DRM law, and is even offering to (ahem!) help write it. A tough DRM law was in fact introduced last year, but there was an election and a change of govern- ment, and the Conservatives are not as hot on the issue as the Liberals were.

But now the plot thickens.

Some of Canada’s major recording artists are denouncing CRIA, because they say its policies are intended to favor major recording labels, not the creators of music. There are some A-list names on the list, such as Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan and The Barenaked Ladies. Says the CMCC, “We are the people who actually create Canadian music. Without us, there

ERRATA

That’s the plural of erratum, as you probably know even if you flunked Latin, and it means “mistakes.”

You’d think errors in a magazine would hide somewhere in the fine print, where it is hard to see. In fact some of them pass unseen because they are too big. There was a major typo on the cover of UHF No. 59. And you know the worst part? we actually paid our prepress house a bonus to do a last moment correction on a last-moment mistake, and then we didn’t see the even bigger one! Not until it was too late at least.

But back to issue No. 75.

Did you see the review of the CEC 5400 integrated amplifier? Only there is no 5400 amplifier. It was the CEC 5300, as we would have known if we had looked more closely at the front panel.

We hear the distributor got anxious calls from dealers who wanted to know when they would be getting the first shipments of the “5400” amps. But at least we were consistent. We called it

ADVERTISERS

Almarro	. . . .16
Applause Audio		.	. 12
Artech Electronics	.	.	9, 13
ASW. . . . . . . . . . . Cover 2
Atlas	.	. .		21
Audiomat	.	Cover 3
Audiophileboutique.com . .	.	Cover 3
Audiophile Store	. .	55-62
Audio Space	.	. .		75
Audioville	.	. .		69
Audiyo	.	. .		71
Bel Canto	.	. .		13
BIS Audio		.	.	8
Blue Circle	. .	.	. 73
Castle	. .	.	. 17
Charisma Audio	. .	.	. 75
Diamond Groove	.	. .		74
Eichmann		.	.	15
Europroducts International .	.	. 15, 17
Everest Audio	. . . .13
Fine Audio	. .	.	. 69
Furutech	.	. .		71
The Gramophone	. .		. 69
Hi Fi Fo Fum	. . .			. 9
Hifisupply.ca	.	.	.	16
Justice Audio	. Cover 4
Just May Audio. . . . . . . . . . Cover 2
MagZee	.	.	.	67

CLEANING UP YOUR CD						PLAYER
							of fine
		cleaning disc (shown on the		previous page) has a series
									of dam-
The Milty					DVD player, without danger
brushes	to clean the lens of your CD or							Store, which
		. See	the insert for The Audiophile
age. We use ours once a month
begins on page 55.

Marchand Electronics . .	.	.	. .		12
Michell	.	.	.	.	13
Moon	.	.	.	. 11
Mutine	.	.	Cover 3
Planet of Sound	.	.	.	. 69
Roksan	.	. Cover 4
Simaudio	. .		. .		11

GOSSIP&NEWSFEEDBACK

name after the Canadian Value of Music Coalition. That was a CRIA program to convince music downloaders that they were hurting the very musicians they love. The CMCC reply: “Suing our fans is destructive and hypocritical, digital locks are risky and counterproductive, and cultural policy should support actual Canadian artists.”

Did we mention that CRIA supports big record labels? Many Canadian art- ists are signed to smaller labels, such as

given CRIA’s decision to advocate solely on behalf of the four major foreign multi-national labels.”

There is another record company group in Canada, the Canadian Inde- pendent Record Production Associa- tion (CIRPA). And that association has picked up six more labels.

As for the Member of Parliament who had piloted the failed DRM bill through the last parliament, he was personally defeated in the January election.

Signature Audio. . .	. .	. .	.	. 75
SR Acoustique. . .	. . .	.	. .		. 8
Solid Link	. .	. .	.	.	73
Soundstage	. .	. .	.	. 14
Terra Speakers. . .	. . .	.	. .		. 9
Totem Acoustic. . .	. .	. .	.	.	21
UHF Back Issues. .	. . .	.	. .		43
UHF Books. . . .	. . .	.	. .4,51
Unity	. .	. .	.	. 73
WBT	. .	. .Cover 2
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine					79