The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) today filed an appeal of the recent court decision denying CRIA's request for Internet Service Providers to reveal the identities of alleged flagrant uploaders of digital music.

"Today we filed an appeal of last month's court decision," commented CRIA General Counsel Richard Pfohl. "We will argue that the decision was in error on a number of legal bases."

"In our view, Canadian copyright law does not allow people to make copies of hundreds or thousands of musical recordings for global copying, transmission and distribution to millions of strangers on the Internet," he concluded.

"This appeal is important for virtually all Canadian intellectual property owners," said CRIA President, Brian Robertson. "Any owner of intellectual property that can be digitally transmitted has a stake in this appeal process."

Last week, the international recording industry association, IFPI, released its annual report on global record sales, which reported the fourth year of falling global sales, reflecting a 7.6 per cent drop in 2003 sales over 2002.

On a per-capita basis, the Canadian music industry has been one of the hardest hit of any country in the world by illegal file sharing. Retail sales are down by more than $425 million since 1999. In the last 12 months alone, staff layoffs at record companies have been at the 20 per cent plus level.

In February, CRIA filed motions to require five Canadian Internet service providers to disclose the identities of subscribers alleged to be large-scale infringers distributing thousands of digital music files to millions of strangers. On 31 March 2004, the court denied CRIA's motion.

Canada's recording industry has launched several initiatives designed to meet the technological challenges posed by unauthorized online music distribution: from an innovative and ongoing educational campaign aimed at the early teen demographic, to direct 'instant messages' to unauthorized file-sharing service users, to the creation of new legal online business models like www.puretracks.com and www.archambaultzik.ca.

The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is a non-profit trade association representing the interests of Canadian companies that create, manufacture and market sound recordings. In all they represent 95 per cent of the sound recordings that are manufactured and sold in Canada.