Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Mr. Clement, Mr. Moore, I listened to your presentation and, from the very beginning, I've had the sense that we are talking, not so much about the Copyright Act, but about a bill on technological developments which is intended to help business.
We basically were asking whether you had done an extensive impact study in order to determine what creators would be losing, permanently, if Bill C-32 were to pass. There are income losses for artists here, but nothing is being offered in the way of assistance. There are net losses.
Also, Mr. Lake is comparing renumeration for artists and creators. They talk about a tax. Of course consumers will have to pay, but they are always the ones who pay. The users are always the ones who pay. They pay us and they pay you.
A survey was done in January, 2010, and not by just anyone; it was carried out by the Praxicus Public Strategies firm founded in 1999 by the Conservative pollster Dimitri Pantazopoulos. The results are pretty clear: 67% of Canadians support the idea of paying musical creators for private copies; 71% of Canadians feel that the current 29¢ levy on blank compact discs is fair to consumers; 71% of Canadians support royalties of between $10 and $20 for MP3s and iPods. You say that you're trying to defend consumers, but the fact is that they are willing to compensate artists and creators who create works for them.
Have you really assessed the economic repercussions of this bill for creators and the artistic community?