Yes, it's official. Not only is Canada a beautiful nation of unrivaled geographical beauty and multicultural magic, but our Federal Courts are hell bent on frustrating my efforts to nurture a sustainable domestic music industry. Unless you were asleep last week, you probably heard that a certain Federal Court Judge, Konrad von Finkenstein, declared the swapping of music files on the internet is the equivalent of all the photocopying going on down at the local library.

I don't remember the last time you visited a friend who's book shelf was full of complete photocopied volumes of Stephen King, Shakespeare and Vanity Fair, but it's clear now that in the last five years alone, Peer to Peer programs have had a significantly negative effect the music industry in a way that the Xerox machine down at the lending library has yet to produce on the publishing market.

And while it has been demonstrated that the music industry's case needs to be refined, and certain laws re-defined, I and all my musical brethren take exception to all notions that music should be free to everyone. I believe music should be universally accessible, yes, but hardly free. Like most parents, I go to work to get paid at the end of my work day. (Can I get a hallelujah?)

People need to stop pretending that music is the burnt, crusty end of pizza that you simple throw away. In truth, it's the pepperoni and the cheese of life. We don't cook, clean, drive, work or play without tunes. But while you wouldn't think of ordering food without the cash to pay the bill, we're nurturing a whole generation of kids that couldn't care less about supporting an industry that created all of their favourite artists and music.

The same industry that brought us Eminem and 50 Cent brought us Marvin Gaye and Al Green; and Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and all the rest. And now, with millions of kids growing up thinking they can in effect bypass the industry, it's not a stretch for me and the rest of jacksoul to feel they're bypassing us in the process by undermining our ability to find companies that will invest in our music and help us to make a living.

I'll speak on this more with time, but I just want you cats to know that the struggle is not about soaking twelve year old defendants to harmless downloads. It's about getting folks from the Government all the way down to your laptop, to admit that we should be supporting our own here, and not pretending that anything in this life worth having comes for free.

Peace.

Haydain on behalf of jacksoul.
www.vikrecordings.com/jacksoul/index.html