My name is Victor Davies. I'm a music composer and I serve on the SOCAN board of directors.
As Gilles mentioned, SOCAN represents music composers, authors, and publishers. Please note that we do not represent record companies, and they do not represent us.
I would like to discuss two issues: digital locks and exceptions.
First of all, we respect the right of other copyright owners to use digital locks to protect their works if they so desire. However, SOCAN's business model is not based on blocking access with digital locks. Instead, SOCAN's mandate is to provide access to the world's music repertoire and to collect royalties determined by the Copyright Board of Canada for these uses. Therefore, although digital locks may help some copyright owners, they do not directly help SOCAN.
Second, we oppose Bill C-32's many exceptions, because they allow users to use our valuable intellectual property but we do not get paid.