Canadian Heritage committee  There are very few countries that have reversions. There are really very few precedents, but the question is exactly your question: Where is the sweet spot? If you go too low, then you will get push-back saying that it's not enough. It really comes to down to a compromise, so there is no perfect....

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Yurdiga. That's a fantastic question, because what happens to a copyright that's transferred for an extremely long period of time, such as under the current system in Canada, is that the publisher very often will see these as back catalogue works that just keep producing a little bit of revenue each year, which they add to their other revenue.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, there are very few countries that—

Canadian Heritage committee  Authors can get their copyright. Any copyright transferred by the author you can get back after 35 years in the U.S.

Canadian Heritage committee  If I may, I'd like to specify that I spoke in English in the beginning because there are lot of people who are listening to us in the United States and Europe. So, I thought it would be good to start in English. I am nevertheless very happy to show through my accent that I am a Quebecker.

Canadian Heritage committee  To answer your question and that of Mr. Breton—both excellent questions—I would say that the big change consists in the fact that there are almost no mechanical royalties now for authors, that is to say the royalties authors got when they sold CDs. Those royalties were a very important source of income, because they were shared 50-50 between authors and publishers.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Bryan. I have prepared opening remarks, which I sent to the clerk. Should I proceed with those at this time?

Canadian Heritage committee  Great. Thank you very much, Madam Chair and honourable members of the standing committee. I thank you for the invitation to testify today. I'm really sorry I couldn't be there in person. As you very well know, copyright policy is a very difficult balancing act—or perhaps I should say a series of balancing acts between, for example, creators and those to whom they entrust the commercial exploitation of their work.