It seems that you can't use Pandora in Canada. Why is that? Does Canada have much more onerous internet radio royalty payments or something?
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Things I Wouldn't Have Guessed
23 May 2007 04:10 pm
Comments (21)
It must be that they hate our freedom.
You can't use Pandora in any country other than the U.S., because they don't know what the law is in these other countries.
apparently, though, you can now use pandora via Sprint:
http://www2.sprint.com/mr/news_dtl.do?page=show&id=16780
Perhaps the Canadians fear the unanticipated consequences of Pandora. Maybe they're anxious about the unforeseen complications which could arise from opening the url on their browser.
Yes. Some things are better left untampered with. Let us heed the sage wisdom of Canada and leave Pandora alone.
One of the first cases I litigated was a music royalties case, so I got a crash course in copyright/royalties in Canada. At the time, I was amazed at the royalty tariff - it seemed there was a royalty for *everything*. Music on the phone while on hold? Check. Elevator music? Check. Music during aerobics? Check.
But, apparently not.
Although there is a tariff for radio stations, there isn't one for the internet. When the Copyright Board tried to institute an internet tariff on ISP providers to compensate "artists" for downloaded music, the Supreme Court held that online downloads didn't attract copyright liability.
See: Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. Canadian Assn. of Internet Providers, [2004] 2 S.C.R. 427, 2004 SCC 45
http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2004/2004scc45/2004scc45.html
As a result, Canadians are free from the copyright infringement suits for our online downloading, but, as I have discovered to my dismay, there are costs to our free lunch - ie. no Pandora.
I would guess that until Parliament authorizes an internet royalties scheme, outside agencies won't broadcast online into Canada.
Er, my brother lives in Canada and it was he who turned me on to Pandora. He does indeed use it. So what gives?
"Er, my brother lives in Canada and it was he who turned me on to Pandora. He does indeed use it. So what gives?"
Maybe inconsistent enforcement.
-----OR------
Maybe your brother is actually a double secret agent for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police covertly uncovering a plot to kidnap the remaining members of SCTV from Los Angeles and bring them home to the land of hockey.
Since your brother is currently operating of a safe house in Santa Monica, he has perfect access to Pandora.
No affordable health care, though.
I'd guess they blocked it there the same time they did in Israel. Here's the message I get:
Dear Pandora Visitor,
We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.
We believe that you are in Israel. If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com
If you are a paid subscriber, please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com and we will issue a pro-rated refund to the credit card you used to sign up. If you have been using Pandora, we will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you.
We will be notifying listeners as licensing agreements are established in individual countries. If you would like to be notified by email when Pandora is available in your country, please enter your email address below. The pace of global licensing is hard to predict, but we have the ultimate goal of being able to offer our service everywhere.
We share your disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.
Sincerely,
Tim Westergen
Tim Westergren
Founder
Er, my brother lives in Canada and it was he who turned me on to Pandora. He does indeed use it. So what gives?
Ask your brother if he's used it in the last week (it's only in the last week or so that enforcement began).
If he has, ask him how he's hiding his IP address, and get back to me. (Seriously - I really want to know).
I don't think my above explanation is quite right.
This is from an article regarding the Pandora shut-down outside the US:
Pandora operates under Section 114 of the DMCA, which gives them a clear process for paying rights holders in the U.S. There is no international equivalent of the DMCA, and so to operate legally in other countries, Pandora must sign deals with rights holders directly. That means separate deals with labels and publishers for each song, an extremely difficult and time consuming task.
And, apparently, it will take more than simply negotiating with SOCAN (the Canadian society of music composers and publishers) (from Pandora):
Sadly where Internet radio is concerned you have to have a license from both the publisher (the folks that wrote the song) and the recoding company (the labels). SOCAN only gives you the former. Most of the challenges for international licensing are around the latter. We’ll keep at it.
Ask your brother if he's used it in the last week (it's only in the last week or so that enforcement began).
I will ask him and report back.
So long as it doesn't endanger his "double secret agent" mission.
Perhaps the Canadians fear the unanticipated consequences of Pandora. Maybe they're anxious about the unforeseen complications which could arise from opening the url on their browser.
I think you may be being sacarstic, but as a Canadian I obviously lack the cognitive skills to be able able to tell.
Hell, we Canucks are so stoopid I wouldn't put it past us to, some day, elect an idiot as a leader who precedes to destroy our country & wage preventative wars...
Perhaps the Canadians fear the unanticipated consequences of Pandora. Maybe they're anxious about the unforeseen complications which could arise from opening the url on their browser.
I think you may be being sacarstic, but as a Canadian I obviously lack the cognitive skills to be able able to tell.
Hell, we Canucks are so stoopid I wouldn't put it past us to, some day, elect an idiot as a leader who precedes to destroy our country & wage preventative wars...
To 3pointshooter: Boing Boing has a good guide to surfing anonymously and defeating censorware
http://www.boingboing.net/censorroute.html
I think you may be being sacarstic, but as a Canadian I obviously lack the cognitive skills to be able able to tell.
Wasn't it just a Pandora's box reference?
Yeah, I just ran up against that warning this week. Before then, Pandora hadn't enforced any restrictions in Canada (and, I presume, other nations.) I don't think this has to do with tougher copyright legislation in Canada (we've recently been accused of, among other things, being a large source of camera copies of Warner Brothers preview screenings or some such nonsense, and we're often told our copyright legislation is 'antiquated'), but rather, as 3pointshooter and Adam suggest above, simply because they've only negotiated rights in the US.
To the proxy servers I go, then.
According to the hipper, more in-the-know university kids I work with, proxies are blocked as well.
We use(d) Pandora is the default radio station at work, with each employee setting up their own 'station'. Pandora was working up until a couple days ago.
I can't say I didn't see it coming. The same thing happened years ago to a sort of a cross betweeen Pandora & Napster called musicmusicmusic.com (actually, it might have pre-dated Napster).
It's still working in the UK, thankfully.
Yep, Canadian brother just confirmed it -- he got cut off from Pandora this week. Bummer.
3pointshooter,
I can see the argument against a performance right for downloads, but it seems to me that if you are providing MP3 copies of songs from your computer to others, that would be an infringement of the copyright of the sound recording itself. SOCAN only covers the udnerlying song for songwriters and music publishers. The Canadian equivalent of the RIAA may go after you for that.
Comments closed June 06, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
Candian content minimums??
Posted by ?? | May 23, 2007 4:35 PM