TORONTO and ST. JOHN’S – As Canada’s music industry gathered at the annual Juno Awards, recording artists and songwriters called on the federal government to amend the copyright legislation to ensure that artists are compensated for private copies made of their works.
"Canadian artists are no longer being compensated for the hundreds of millions of copies made of their works," said Annie Morin, chair of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the organization which collects and distributes the private copying levy. "It’s time to bring the Copyright Act into the 21st century and to reflect how copies of music are actually made today, not how they were made a decade ago."
Since 1999, the private copying levy has generated more than $180 million for Canadian artists, songwriters and other music rights holders through a levy on the blank recording media traditionally used to copy music, such as cassette tapes, CDs and MiniDiscs. However, digital audio recorders like the iPod have now become the music-copying technology of choice, and they are currently excluded from the private copying levy.
CPCC says that in Canada, 70% of the 1.3 billion songs copied annually are copied onto these new devices. As a result of this technological change, this “important revenue stream” due to the artists from the existing levy has fallen by over 60% since 2008, and will continue to decline as blank media for copying become obsolete.
Bloc MP Carole Lavallée presented a motion in the Heritage Committee recommending the extension of the private copying levy to digital music recorders. This motion was agreed to by the Committee and was subsequently passed by Parliament last week. NDP MP Charlie Angus also introduced a private member’s bill to amend Part VIII of the Copyright Act.
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) also lauded Parliament’s approval of the motion.
"While we’re thrilled that MPs stood up for artists, it’s extremely disappointing to see that our government – and particularly our Minister of Heritage – did not," said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director, in a statement.
AFM Canada, the Canadian representatives of the American Federation of Musicians, called the vote “a great boost for musicians”.
"The bottom line is that expanding the private copying levy brings much-needed balance to our outdated copyright laws”, said AFM vice president from Canada Bill Skolnik, in a statement. “Canadians will be able to enjoy music when and how they please and artists will get paid for their work."
www.cpcc.ca
www.actra.ca
www.afm.org
