A small indie record store owner in Ottawa, Canada, has plead guilty to a
charge of copyright infringement for importing rare CDs from abroad.
Apparently, these discs (which are themselves licensed, as far as I can
tell) aren’t licensed for sale in Canada, and Canadian law (apparently)
bans this kind of parallel importation.
But none of these CDs are actually available in Canada. And no one
orders rare, expensive imports unless he’s already got the artist’s
entire catalog. And, of course, the record labels that went after this
record store owner (whose whole purpose in life is to sell their CDs) are presently being sued for $60 billion in copyright damages for ripping off artists, and have admitted to $50 million in liability already.
