Some of Canada's best-known musicians appeared on a different stage Wednesday -- Parliament Hill -- to band together and lobby politicians to toughen up Canada's outdated copyright laws.

The musicians say the industry has hit a low note because of Internet piracy and bootleg CDs. The musicians, who included Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy and rocker Tom Cochrane, say the Copyright Act, which was drafted in 1908, is ill-equipped to address the issues of the 21st century.

"We're basically like a Third World country right now, with our copyright law," said Cochrane.

Graham Henderson, who heads the Canadian Recording Industry Association, says the Act has massive loopholes. He says it's damaging the industry, the economy and the careers of artists.

"Downloading, file-swapping, peer-to-peer networks -- these are all euphemisms for piracy, pure and simple. It is devastating to the Canadian music industry.''

Henderson says the recording industry has seen music sales drop almost $500 million in just a few years. That's about a quarter of a million records a month.

The industry tracked illegal downloads of the Tragically Hip music for one month. They found 2.8 million attempts to download the music, compared with 1,000 legal purchases through the online music store Puretracks.

Cochrane says their fight is not about money; it's about what's right.

"I don't want the press to spin things like: 'Here's rich Jim Cuddy and rich Tom Cochrane coming along to make more money.'" Cochrane said. "We're here because it's a right, it is stealing."

Marianne Goodwin, a spokeswoman for Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, said the minister met early Wednesday with representatives of the musicians and discussed the issue.

Goodwin said her office is working on copyright reform as recommended by a joint report from the Heritage and Industry departments. The plan is to seek authority from cabinet this fall to begin drafting amendments.

But Prof. Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law and a law professor at the University of Ottawa, disagrees with the musicians that there's a problem with music downloading.

He says millions of music lovers don't download and doubts online music swapping is putting much of a dent in the industry.

"File sharing is certainly here to stay and the lawsuits and attempts at new legislation are attempts to put the toothpaste back in the tube."