Given the effort the music industry puts into chasing file downloaders for lost revenue, you would think that they would be punctilious about setting a good example to their customers. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The Canadian Recording Industry Association is currently being sued for not paying copyright on some 300 000 songs, which is expected to represent to total short-payment of around $6 billion.

It appears that the music industry believes that devoting effort to making these payments would be “an unproductive use of their time”:

David Basskin, the President and CEO of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd., notes in his affidavit that “the record labels have devoted insufficient resources to identifying and paying the owners of musical works on the Pending Lists.” Basskin adds that some labels believe addressing the issue would be “an unproductive use of their time.”

I must admit that I find their logic impeccable – why invest your money keeping track of who you owe it to, if you can avoid paying them?

I imagine internet music file-sharers might feel that paying for downloads or going to the shops is equally an unproductive use of their time.