Six of the largest independent music labels in Canada have pulled out of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (which is largely controlled by US-owned RIAA members) in protest of CRIA's dumb position on copyrights, levies and Canadian content. This means that CRIA is no longer particularly different from the RIAA and shouldn't have any more moral authority with the Canadian government than any cartel of American companies gets.
"it has become increasingly clear over the past few months that CRIA's position on several important music industry issues are not aligned with our best interests as independent recording companies" and "we do not feel that we can remain members [of CRIA] given CRIA's decision to advocate solely on behalf of the four major foreign multi-national labels."
The independent labels note that if CRIA's proposals are implemented, they "would have a material negative effect on the future growth of Canadian independent music." The short term consequence of this is that the labels want CRIA to clarify to the CRTC those artists that are produced by independent labels yet identified as CRIA artists and calculated in CRIA market share.
(Thanks, Michael!)
