Please take some time to read the following before you start downloading music.

Please take your time to read this important entry regarding my stance and Canadian government's position on file sharing before you proceed with your downloading. This will hopefully clarify at least a little about my opinion that sharing files is as valid as any other ways to promote music. You as a blog reader are to read this and follow certain rules I make (such as deleting files within a day) to make file sharing fair for the musicians as well.



Yesterday, on August 28, 2006, I was contacted by a personnel from "World's Fair" which seems to be an organization of indie label record companies that allows the companies to cooperate with one another to promote themselves and bands. Please correct me if I am wrong on this, because I am not exactly sure what "World's Fair" is about. Suhrid Manchanda, the personnel from "World's Fair" commented this on the posting regarding the Midlake album.

"Hi, could you please remove the files for download a.s.a.p.? We offer free mp3s for download from our site: www.worlds-fair.net or www.worlds-fair.net/midlake

Please do not share the entire album. And if you would really like to encourage purchase of the album, why not link to Amazon or Insound or somewhere were people can buy the album.

Thank you for your support. But please do not take advantage of fair sharing.
Suhrid Manchanda
Online Marketing @ World's Fair
..."



First a few words to Suhrid Manchanda.

I do like the band and I own a copy of the band's "Trials of Van Occupanther". I discovered it off Soulseek (a great P2P program by the way), and I wanted to share their music with others. I located a band's album via Google Search on a website directory and all I did was simply provide a link to this website that has no connection of any sort with me whatsoever. I do not have any control over these files. If you are really enthusiastic enough to get the files removed please go directly to the server owners (i.e. directory owners, rapidshare, megaupload etc.) Too bad that you don't see sharing album as a really great way for people to make informed decision when they buy music. I believe that if people give it a listen and think that it is worth buying, they do buy it. However, I would like to applogize for not linking to other websites for people to buy music. I must have missed a few at the beginning. I will review all the posts I wrote and fix the links to allow people to buy albums. Midlake is really great!

Although in many jurisdictions, file sharing is considered illegal, what I do on this blog is perfectly legal in Canada. I only provide links to readers to get access to existing mp3 files that was uploaded by someone else using third party server. I don't have any personal connection with these people nor do I have any power to remove the files on these servers.

Even more provocative act of file sharing such as P2P networks, examples being KaZaa and Soulseek are all legal in Canada. Canadian Recording Industry Association, CRIA has commited numerous times to lock up guys like me, but CRIA has not succeeded even once. A year or two ago, Canadian judge made a very clarifying decision that Internet filing sharing is not any different from other legal content sharing over other media. Hence, let me make this very clear. File sharing is perfectly legal in Canada, and the government body concerning copyrights of Canada, Canadian Copyright Board approves it.

So far, I have presented to you blog readers that file sharing in Canada is totally legit legally. However, another key question remains unanswered. Is it morally legit to share files?

In my opinion, it is a very clear "yes".

I already have introduced the Canadian judge's argument that since there is no real difference between file sharing and other legal content sharing, file sharing is legal. To make this argument more comprehendible, I would like to take library system as an example. Libraries hold thousands of physical copies of novels, audio tapes, cd, dvd, magazines, encyclopedias and more. These contents are provided to the public for free. These contents can be loaned to people for weeks, and can be renewed if it is required. Full movies and full length albums are lent out this way. So does file sharing still seem illegal? If so, what is the clear difference between file sharing and the library service? Even the judge couldn't discover it. If you blog readers do discover a crystal clear argument that differentiates between file sharing and other legal content sharing, you should go contact CRIA or RIAA right at this moment. They will hand over big bucks for you to represent them in the court.

A few months ago, I closed down a blog, one that is similar to this one. At that time, I wasn't familiar with the fact that file sharing is legal in Canada. When a person complementary to the representative from "World's Fair" above contacted me, accusing me that this blog was illegal, I immediately closed my blog down. Even after I closed it down, I have recieved hate mails. At that point of time, two other blogs I knew closed down as well. They were Indie Connection and Oh! No!. They were excellent blogs sharing music of unknown but talented indie bands that wouldn't have been so well informed to the public if it wasn't for them.

Why do people go after the small guys anyways? Is it because they are easy to pick on? I don't know. If file sharing is so illegal, why aren't people going after big corporate P2P networks like KaZaa? It makes more sense. It will surely have much more significant impact on music industry compared to closing down minuscule and powerless music blogs.

Some blog readers who were against Indie Connection and Oh! No! at that time seemed to have beliefs that by closing down these two blogs, the indie bands can be helped out, when the unrealized truth is that they have killed two very valuable indie music media. Where else can indie music lovers resort to? Pitchfork media? Their subjective and inconsistant rating method based reviews just don't cut it. Sure, they are good for reference and advise readers that certain bands are out there and they are worth checking out, but not many people are financially free to gamble their money on listening good music. Partial album downloading blogs? These are not that imformative either. I have experienced many cases where bands have one good single and rest of the songs on the album are garbage. Hence, I have been resorting to the two blogs that provide full albums. After a listen, if I thought that the album is worth buying, I did buy the album. If it wasn't, I deleted the files. It is very similar to libraries providing music and movies.

In my opinion, modern recording industry is dull on changes and its arrogance is way above the acceptable level. All other commodity sellers allow their customers to return their purchases if the customers are not completely satisfied with their choices. One of the largest grocery chain in Canada, Loblaws even allow their customers to return fruits, vegetable, openned can, half beaten cheese and everything else. Company such as Loblaws and many other retailers think very seriously of customer satisfaction. This is obviously because the company's revenue depends heavily or entirely on the customers. Recording industry's revenue is heavily driven by the music buyers, the normal folks like you and I. However, why is there such sentiment that trying out music before buying is so bad? Why should the recording industry any different from Loblaws and thousands of other giant retailers? What makes recording industry's commodity so different that the customers have such a limitted right and not be granted with full satisfaction of the money they pay for? Why should the music listeners spend their money for something they don't enjoy? Something bad obviously isn't what they expected, and something like this service should be what we should settle for. We as a music buyers should be able to make informed decisions.

For these reasons and with similar goals Indie Connection and Oh! No! once had, I would like to continue sharing albums. I am not sure if my blog will be decent enough to reach out to as many people as the two blogs did, but it give me a great joy when someone comments something like, "Thank you for introducing me to this band". I will continue to promote bands and albums I think that deserve people's recognition. I encourage people to buy the bands' music if they enjoy it, so please feel free to download albums that I have linked from other websites. Please delete these albums within 24 hours. Although local libraries I use allow people to have loaned materials for up to 6 weeks if renewed, I think 24 hours as a trial period is reasonable enough. There might be some people who may abuse this ideal system, but I don't believe that everyone else whose innocent should suffer because of a small number of people. This shouldn't be like Bush administration that monitors innocent public because of some terrorists who may not even be there in the first place. I will continue to find different ways to promote bands. I probably should link bands' websites as well. I should probably add bands' upcoming show schedules (Sometimes, bands make their fair share from touring more than selling their records, did you know?). Suggestions are always encouraged to make to aid me to improve this blog. However, I will not be withered to stop file sharing because I truly believe that music buyers should have right to be satisfied with their choice. I hope my effort to promote good music someday will be recognized as a valid way to popularize good music.



Last edited. August 29, 2006