Thank you.
Good evening.
My name is Brian Boyle, and with me is my colleague, André Cornellier. We are both professional photographers.
The true joy of photography is that it can be enjoyed by millions of Canadians, but to do it professionally—like anything else—takes talent, years of training, experience, and financial investment.
We are here as co-chairs representing the Canadian Photographers Coalition. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act. We would also like to thank the Government of Canada for introducing this bill, and to offer our support.
Our coalition represents the interests of two professional associations: the Professional Photographers of Canada, or PPOC, represented by myself; and the Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators, also know as CAPIC, represented by André Cornellier. Together, our groups represent over 15,000 professional photographers, over 95% of whom are small-business owners, operating and working in their own businesses across Canada.
These small-business men and women rely on the revenue they generate from their creations to support their families, hire people in their communities, and pay their bills. Bill C-11 corrects a longstanding inequity in Canada's copyright law. Specifically, subsections 13(2) and 10(2) of the current Copyright Act, reflect an outdated and discriminatory view of photography, and Bill C-11 rightly eliminates these from the act.
Currently, section 10(2) deems the owner of a negative to be the author of the photograph. Section 13(2) of the act deems the commissioner of a photograph, not the author, the owner of copyright for commissioned photographs. This provision contrasts sharply with all other works, including musical performances and literary pieces, of which ownership of first copyright rests with the author, even if the work is commissioned by someone else.
In virtually every other industrialized country, including the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and most recently Australia, photographers own the copyright in commissioned photographs, not the commissioner. In essence, Bill C-11 is simply updating our law to reflect international trends and economic realities.
It is worth noting that the last three previous copyright bills, specifically Bill C-32, Bill C-61, and Bill C-60, also proposed to repeal sections 13(2) and 10(2).