We share the objective that you have set for yourselves, that of modernizing the Copyright Act. Though our humble submission certainly comes from the heart, it also comes from sober consideration.
Royalty payments are a source of independent income for creative artists. Like the values that the government espouses, we see them as a right, based on respect for private property and the simple principle of user pay, whether the user is an individual consumer, a business or an institution.
In addition, if the government wishes to stimulate the creation of wealth, why would it want to whittle away the sources of independent income for a sector that is going through a difficult time? For a flame to stay alight, you need a little air. Royalties are the oxygen our medium needs. Let us not make the mistake of taking our creative people for granted. Times being as they are, their concerns are critical. I myself have been a songwriter for almost 30 years. Since I started, our reality has changed considerably. With creative works becoming more and more virtual and online transactions becoming more and more frequent, the music and audiovisual industry is being shaken to its core. Amid all that shaking, songwriters are having to accumulate many many micro-royalties in order to make a living.
In that situation…
every penny counts.
So the law is silent about the revenues associated with private copying, with ephemeral recordings, with education, the revenues associated with the use of our music on the Internet, and that must be properly valued—as was done with peer-to-peer exchanges. All those revenues are our daily bread.
Clearly, people have never consumed so much music. It is consumed in cloud form, on iPods, on phones, on the radio, on television. It is everywhere. Consumers are ready to pay to receive it in the way they want.
Why not uphold and strengthen collective administration in this new ecosystem? Why abandon the private copy regime that allows people to copy their music while providing those who created it with compensation?
Since 1997, the regime has resulted in $30 million in revenue for rights holders. In a context where the business model is eroding, that amount makes a considerable difference. Though the ways in which our music is accessed and consumed may change, the principles remain and the challenge of applying them in the digital world rests on our shoulders.