Statement made on 12 May 2010 by Senator Francis Fox (retired)
Hon. Francis Fox:
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. At a meeting organized last week by the Canadian Private Copying Collective, parliamentarians of all political stripes learned that more than 1.3 billion songs are copied every year in Canada, more than 70 per cent of copies are made on an MP3 medium but only 9 per cent are made legally and, finally, artists are no longer being compensated, as in the past, for more than two thirds of the songs copied.
Because of this, the royalties collected for distribution to Canadian copyright holders, songwriters and performers have dropped by 60 per cent in the past three years, from $27.6 million in 2008 to $19.8 million in 2009 and $10.6 million in 2010. It is clear that this trend could seriously hurt performing rights societies and songwriters.
Is the minister prepared to recommend to her colleagues that the Copyright Act be amended immediately and specifically to ensure that the Copyright Board can set royalties for private copies made using audio recording devices, to address the needs related to new technologies?
We are aware of the contrary Federal Court of Appeal decisions in 2008 stating that the Copyright Board had no jurisdiction under the current act.
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