by SHANE SINNOTT

Any day now, our government is poised to announce an overhaul of the Canadian Copyright Act. The idea is that some major gaps need to be filled to bring us in line with the US of A, where record companies have the legal means to sue file-sharers and impose hefty fines. In response, the Songwriters Coalition of Canada has just released an alternate proposal, viewable here: www.songwriters.ca/studio/proposal.php. It’s getting a lot of attention due to its endorsement by the Canadian Music Creators Association, which is a bunch of bands like the New Pornographers, Stars, Sloan and Broken Social Scene, who are pushing for alternatives to the suing of music downloaders.

The proposal is refreshing. Its key point is to amend the Copyright Act so that sharing copyrighted music without profit will be 100 per cent legal, whether through CD burning or sharing on P2P networks. In return, they want a monthly licence from every Internet subscriber in the country (their suggestion is $5.) It’s a novel idea, but alas, I doubt it would ever work, due to a) bellyaching from every fucking Internet subscriber in the entire country paying an extra $5 a month, and b) every other industry whose material is being shared (i.e. film) wanting a fee too. The best I could imagine is a $5 fee total, and then let the music guys, film guys and whoever else fight over it, but the chances of the government effectively legalizing piracy for a fee are nil.

Now here’re some things to get you through Loaddown withdrawal over the holidays. The first track leaked from the upcoming Magnetic Fields album is here: tinyurl.com/3dfcll. It’s called “Three Way,” and it’s bizarre, an atmospheric, almost entirely instrumental plodder of a song— if the whole album’s like that, it’s going to mark a radical departure for Stephin Merritt and co.

In case you’re having trouble getting depressed over the holidays, try “Christmastime Is Here” by Belle and Sebastian, available at tinyurl.com/2lv67a. And finally, “Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas” by the Staple Singers is at tinyurl.com/3x4fmy.