The Weakerthans, Billy Talent, Sum 41 added to group fighting consumer lawsuits

The Weakerthans, Billy Talent and Sum 41 are some of the newest artists signing up for the Canadian Music Creators Coalition. The 180–member group seeks to keep Canada from adopting laws that will allow companies and government to embark on lawsuits against music fans.

Their claims are apparently falling on deaf ears as politician Jim Prentice is currently in the process of pushing through an aggressive new copyright bill that will increase penalties and do away with simple concepts like "format shifting." The latter right allows people to move their CDs onto MP3 players like iPods.

The whole situation is curious as one of the most common arguments presented by the pro–copyright agencies is that they seek to help and nurture artists. With so many major Canadian artists – like the Barenaked Ladies and Avril Lavigne – already signed on to the CMCC, one begins to wonder who the bill and the government are actually interested in supporting.