Without further ado, let us go to page 5, which deals with the principles of the Copyright Act.
Let me begin by saying that the Copyright Act is a framework law that deals with many sectors, such as the artistic community, authors, artists, writers, cultural industries like film and music, information technology, service providers like Sympatico, Rogers, Telco and Telus, the fields of education and research, museums, libraries and consumers in general, just to name a few. Besides, we can also mention foreign stakeholders, given that works by many foreign authors are being used here in Canada. These people are very interested in the way our country meets its obligations in copyright matters.
Thus, we are dealing with legislation that affects a great number of people and has an obvious impact on Canada's economy. This act, which came into force in 1924, has two fundamental principles, the first one has to do with control and remuneration for rights holders. The term “control” refers to the highest degree of protection pursuant to the Copyright Act. When an exclusive right is granted to a rights holder, it gives him the right to accept or refuse the way in which his work will be used. This is a very important right. As a whole, rights holders want to have as many exclusive rights as can possibly derived from this legislation.
The right to remuneration has been somewhat reduced, to the extent that a rights holder can no longer accept or refuse that his work be used. He is only allowed to receive remuneration in exchange for the use of his work. This is an important distinction to draw. In our Copyright Act there are cases where the rights holder only receives a right to remuneration.
A corollary to this basic principle has to do with the dissemination, or access to works. This involves any means that can facilitate the use of works through the application of emerging business models that allow users to keep better track of works and to be in a better position to pay the appropriate fees. Here I am referring to management companies that have been set up to facilitate access. There are also individual licences and a host of business models that can facilitate the use of works. This concept also extends to exceptions and limitations, whereby certain categories of persons can use a copyright without having to ask for the rights holder's authorization.
Page 6 deals with jurisdiction in copyright matters. First, let us note that the Copyright Act belongs to a set of laws dealing with intellectual property. Some examples are given here. We should also note that in Canada, copyrights falls exclusively under federal jurisdiction.
I really want to emphasize the fact that this is a legislated right. In other words, unless a right's holder has a right that is specifically provided for in the legislation, he cannot exercise any kind of control over his work. Let me explain this. For instance, there are no royalties for renting audiovisual works in Canada. Thus, any retailer can rent out films, without asking for any authorization for anyone who took part in creating the film, be it the producer, the manager or anyone else.
This is why the field of copyright is constantly evolving and adapting to new kinds of use. Since this is a statutory right, if some kind of use has not been provided for in the legislation, creators cannot exercise any kind of control over this kind of use.
Page 8 deals with departmental responsibilities. The responsibility for this file is shared between two departments. The Ministry of Industry is responsible for intellectual property as a whole, including copyright. The Copyright Act identifies the Minister of Industry as the minister responsible for this legislation.
The Minister of Canadian Heritage is responsible for the formulation of cultural policy as it relates to copyright. He is given this responsibility pursuant to the incorporating act of his department, namely the Department of Canadian Heritage Act.