(CelebrityAccess Media Wire) — A national survey has shown that almost nine out of ten Canadians believe that recording artists and songwriters have a right to copyright protection. The survey, conducted between April 12-19 POLLARA Inc., highlights that a significant majority of Canadians disagreed with the recent Federal Court decision which suggested that it is not illegal to upload music files on the Internet. 63 per cent of Canadians said that when an Internet user makes copies of thousands of music files available to others anywhere on the Internet, it is a violation of the copyright of the composers and artists. More than seven in ten of those surveyed had heard of the court decision.
Of the respondents who were aware of the private copying levy, 55 per cent believed that the levy did not grant the right to upload music for others to copy on file sharing services such as Kazaa.
"The recent, widespread publicity on the Federal Court ruling seems to have heightened the awareness of the Canadian public to copyright issues and the results of this national survey are encouraging in terms of the high percentage of support for protecting music rights," said Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association. –Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner
