It will directly inhibit the type of artist who draws on the public domain for the content they need to create their art. Which is to remix or mash up popular culture into something new.

The best example being the Bush/Blair Mash Up and the others on the Lessig video.

If you or I decide to release our own songs under a Creative Commons type license – allowing our mp3s to circulate around freely in an environment that encourages sharing – than we are free to do so.

The CC license can also declare that this sharing must involve only non-commercial uses, and that the authors are attributed for the work.

Bill C-61 may only inhibit an indie pop artist like yourself in indirect ways, like those you alluded to in your comment. But I don’t see this bill as helping Indie content creators in any way either.

Everything in its design is aimed to grant more control and advantage to powers that hold copyright over a massive amount of our creative culture. The scope of copyright law is reaching far beyond the original purpose of protecting authors rights and encouraging creative culture and a vast public domain of “free” culture.

DRM and other such schemes threaten to disrupt the natural order of creativity and sharing that has been our history. We risk losing a public domain.

Web Music start ups are doing amazing things with filtering & recommendation engines, social media,
and mixing user generated content with mainstream content on their platforms.

But certain lobby groups are holding up and disrupting the process, and in some cases stifling innovation.

It is the users (The people formerly known as consumers), who are most inhibited by the bill. People want to sample, share, and recommend music to their friends. New and existing copyright laws result in the criminalization of this behavior, and do nothing to promote the use and distribution of creative culture.

The issue of out of print “orphaned” works locked down in the vaults of the big media conglomerates is an important one as well. Those works should be set free to the public domain, instead of collecting dust.

It’s estimated that as much as 98% of all the music ever recorded and released, falls under the category of an orphaned work.

What a shame. Think of all great music we could be listening to and remixing.

James

Here’s the thing James. Would this bill really inhibit small artists. I’m thinking that the application of this law would be at the discretion of the artist, no one is going to care if i start distributing my own music free.

Although i suppose, indirectly, anything that benefits corporate music is going to help grease the machine that keeps the rest of us down.

@ keith,
Great point! Gerd Leonhard agrees, it’s all about the package and the up sell.

There is no better way to get your music heard than to remove all barriers to hearing it. Giving open free access to your music is a great way to invite people to come check you out. If they like you enough they’ll buy a ticket to your show. If they like your show enough, and if you offer them an exceptional package (physical product, Souvenir) they will buy that too. Including people who already have a free mp3 of your song on their ipod.

Sell things that can not be copied.

More ideas at kk.org. Check out Better than Free

James