St. John\u2019s \u2013 As Canada\u2019s music industry celebrated another year of achievement at the Juno Awards, recording artists and songwriters from across the country today called on the federal government to introduce amendments to copyright legislation that will ensure artists are compensated for private copies made of their works, just as the law originally intended.<\/p>\n
At a press conference held in the Junos host city, St. John\u2019s, artists including Newfoundland\u2019s own Rex Goudie, spoke about the importance of the private copying levy to all music rights holders.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadian artists are no longer being compensated for the hundreds of millions of copies made of their works,\u201d stated Annie Morin, Chair of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the non-profit organization which collects and distributes the private copying levy. \u201cIt\u2019s time to bring the Copyright Act<\/em> into the 21st century and to reflect how copies of music are actually made today, not how they were made a decade ago.\u201d<\/p>\n 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, CDRs and MiniDiscs. It has been an important revenue stream for the artists and has allowed many of them to continue to create. However, digital audio recorders like the iPod have now become the music-copying technology of choice, and they are not covered by the private copying levy. In Canada, 70 percent \u2013 and climbing \u2013 of the 1.3 billion songs copied annually are copied onto these devices. As a result of this technological change, by the end of this year, revenue due to the artists from the existing levy will have fallen by over 60 percent since 2008. This trend is expected to continue as blank media for copying become obsolete.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about what is right and what is fair,\u201d stated Goudie. \u201cMy music has value just like any other product or service that Canadians buy. We\u2019re simply asking for that value to continue to be recognized so that we can continue to make music.\u201d<\/p>\n Artists, songwriters and other rights holders are joining the CPCC in urging the federal government to extend the private copying levy to digital audio recorders when it brings forward amendments to the Copyright Act<\/em>. The importance of this issue has recently been championed by NDP MP Charlie Angus, who introduced a private members bill to amend Part VIII of the Copyright Act. <\/em>Rights holders also applaud the motion presented by Bloc MP Carole Lavall\u00e9e 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 Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about providing fair compensation to our artists, our creators, and balancing that need with consumers\u2019 concerns about cost,\u201d continued Ms Morin. \u201cWe\u2019re confident that balance can be achieved if and when the federal government introduces amendments to the Act<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n – 30 –<\/p>\n Further information: St. John\u2019s \u2013 As Canada\u2019s music industry celebrated another year of achievement at the Juno Awards, recording artists and songwriters from across the country today called on the federal government to introduce amendments to copyright legislation that will ensure artists are compensated for private copies made of their works, just as the law originally intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-the-canadian-private-copying-collective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cpcc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAlison Thompson, CPCC
\n416-486-6832 ext. 221
\n416-452-4139 (cell April 17-18)
\nathompson@cpcc.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"