Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Jon Tupper. I'm the president of the board of the Canadian Museums Association. My day job is as director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in British Columbia. I'm here with our executive director, John McAvity.
Established in 1947, the Canadian Museums Association is the national organization to advance and serve the museums of Canada. There are over 2,700 non-profit museums, ranging from large art galleries in metropolitan centres to volunteer-run heritage museums in small communities in every riding of the country.
Museums are interesting cases for you to consider, as they are both users of copyright materials and also owners of copyrighted materials. This forces us to see the balance that is at the heart of copyright legislation between fair public policy and private rights.
We are here today to speak largely in favour of Bill C-32, with several recommendations for improvement and future consideration. We are pleased with most provisions, including the bill's recognition of education as a legitimate fair public benefit.
Today Canadians are attending museums in record numbers. They are interested in heritage and arts and they want to see more of it, not just on our walls but also on their home screens.
However, these are our services in the public interest, and there is little to no significant revenue generated from these due to the failure of the Canadian art marketplace. And yet we face infringements for making works available for non-commercial purposes, even if we own the works themselves. Museums must pay fees to artists to put a work on exhibition even if the museum owns the painting, and this is not right. We cannot copy or place works of art on our websites without payments; we cannot copy documents or photocopy for others to use, without infringing copyright; we cannot offer public lectures with slides of art without paying a fee; nor can we publish a money-losing catalogue without also paying other fees.
There are other issues that we'd like to address here today. One is the artist's resale right. It has been requested by some organizations that you add this new right, which is, we feel, out of the scope of this present bill. We do not support this, as it is premature and requires considerable study. It will have an impact on museums and a much greater one on the art marketplace. Our principal concern is that this proposal will only benefit a very small number of successful artists, and not those who really need greater support.
Expansion of the exhibition right, which was introduced in 1988 amid much controversy and even rejection by the Senate of Canada, today remains an unsuccessful right in Canada's copyright bill. In fact, no other nation has such a right. Last week it was proposed by a witness that the public exhibition right be expanded by making it retroactive. This would not be a wise move, in our opinion.
Despite our having had this provision for more than 20 years, no other nation has followed our lead. It is costly, cumbersome, and has failed to deliver any significant revenue to artists. We recommend that the exhibition right be reconsidered and reviewed in the next round of amendments, with a view to abolishing it and having it replaced with a compensation program similar to the public lending right.
With respect to digital locks, we join our colleagues, the Canadian Council of Archives among others, in concern over digital locks as a grave issue over the ability of our collecting institutions to acquire, access, and preserve materials with such devices. We believe that the circumvention of TPMs for the purpose of preservation in public collections should take precedence over private ownership rights.
With respect to educational exceptions and fair dealing, in a word, keep them as drafted. Bill C-32's proposal to expand the allowable use for fair dealing to include education, parody, and satire is a reasonable step that will slightly increase access to works. This will not lead to wholesale exploitation of works; it will only apply within the concept of what is fair dealing when balanced against the needs of the owners.
Finally, the issue of what we call orphan works is not dealt with by these amendments, and frankly, it should be. Orphan works are those whose copyright owners cannot be located, which produces a difficulty in obtaining rights and licences for their use and is a frequent problem. A mechanism is urgently required.
With respect to clause 46, we are pleased with the provisions of proposed section 38.1 over statutory penalties for non-commercial infringement. This represents a reasonable approach, which we support.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We'd be pleased to answer any questions from you and your colleagues.