Well, I stand corrected. Both Joel and Tobias set me straight that it is international licensing agreements that are causing the problems, and I shall patiently await the Canadian release (everything’s available a little later in Canada, anyway, at least as far as consumer products go).
Tobias writes that the industry is about to collapse. He may be right, but I think Canadian copyright law is going to get worse before it gets better. As for the recording industry, it’s still bringing in billions of dollars a year; it’s just that it isn’t doing the kind of margins that the octopus wants (same deal with newspapers). It’s insane to think that a billion-dollar industry is in danger, and yet there you have it. Especially if you consider the fact that the vast majority of recordings in circulation circulate for free.