by SHANE SINNOTT

Crikey! It seems that we Canadians have landed ourselves on a piracy watch list, along with the likes of Russia, China and Pakistan. The U.S.-based International Intellectual Property Alliance, which includes groups like the RIAA and MPAA, has released a list of countries it believes need to crack down on copyright infringement (which these days is going by the moniker “IP infringement,” for intellectual property). Within it, they single out 13 countries for a priority list, of which we are members. The list—surprise!—is driven by U.S. industry figures in which billions in losses are attributed to piracy in various countries. Our government, for its part, has surprisingly been able to see this all for what it is. Nancy Segal, a senior Foreign Affairs official, told a committee last year, “Canada does not recognize the watch-list process. It basically lacks reliable and objective analysis. It’s driven entirely by U.S. industry.” Read more at tinyurl.com/djblwc.

Meanwhile, Internet radio stations have been unable to come to an agreement with SoundExchange, the group that collects U.S. broadcast royalties, by the deadline set out for them last year. The really condensed version of the story is that there was a big Internet radio royalty hike that threatened to put many broadcasters out of business. A lot of hullabaloo and campaigning resulted in a congressional act that delayed the rate increase, and stated that SoundExchange and the stations had to work out a deal by Feb. 15. SoundExchage has reached deals with mixed-media types (NPR, the public radio network, agreed to a one-time payment of $1.85-million for all its streaming), but the Internet-only businesses—Pandora is the big one—remain without an agreement. With the passing of the deadline, the future of Internet radio is once again unclear. A deadline extension will presumably be lobbied for, but no one really seems to know what’s going to happen.

And quickly, a song in honour of David Berman, who last month both quit music and denounced his father in a statement you can read on the Drag City Web forum, at tinyurl.com/ccaaue. Here’s “Random Rules,” from the Silver Jews’ 1998 record, American Water: tinyurl.com/bxvbf8.