Supreme Court ruling scraps royalty for music downloads

The important bit doesn't show up until the sixth paragraph: "Today's decision does not affect the 'reproduction right' that they can collect a fee for, only the one for downloading. Until now, downloading fell under the 'communication to the public' right."

Apparently, downloaded/streamed songs in Canada had been earning royalties as a public performance. That part has been struck down. Royalties are still earned under the "making a copy" rule.

Seems totally reasonable to me.

Anyone else notice that the acronym for Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers (SOCAN), should actually be SOCAMP? Guess they felt that was inappropriate.

"lower court decision that allowed SOCAN to collect a tariff when video games are downloaded over the internet"

Wait, what!?

In Canada.

Canadian Supreme Court scraps royalties for Canadian music downloads.

We have a completely separate system in the U.S. that imposes mandatory royalties (along with a corresponding royalty collection body to obviate the need to track down music rights holders). Europe has something similar.