CRIA stands for the Canadian Recording Industry Association. The CRIA is a (non-profit) trade group that represents the recording industry in Canada. It was originally founded in 1964 and is governed by a Board of Directors elected manually by the membership (or more specifically, the CEO's of the member companies.) The CRIA office is based in Toronto where the director of anti-piracy operations is also located.
CRIA maintains ongoing relationships with other industry organizations representing music publishers, musicians, artists, wholesalers, retailers and broadcasters. It acts also as an important lobbyist and source for the Canadian government and pushes for legislation that benefits the industry. The CRIA is a member of the global recording industry body, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Like its counterparts elsewhere; the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in the UK, one of the CRIA's biggest focuses is anti-piracy, including commercial physical piracy and Internet-based piracy. A substantial portion of CRIA's budget is ear-marked for anti-piracy and the group pushes for broad copyright protection for sound recordings.
It maintains a division which enforces the rights of its members with regard to copyrighted content and investigates and initializes legal action in response to piracy. It participates in anti-piracy programs in Canada and also Internationally. One of its efforts it describes as, "in association with its international affiliates, CRIA's Anti-Piracy Division monitors internet sites in Canada for unauthorized use of sound recordings".
The CRIA has taken special interest in the problem of unauthorized file sharing on P2P networks, which the recording industry blamers for falling CD sales and falling revenue globally.
To read news about the CRIA, click here.
