Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, everyone.
I'm going to delve right into the matter insofar as the points I'd like to leave you with today go. They are in connection with one of the major questions you're asking, which is about the impact of new technologies on the music industry.
I'm SOCAN's general counsel. You won't be surprised to hear that I have some comments relating to legal matters. If I can summarize in one word the impact of new technologies on SOCAN, it has been litigation. We have been in the courts since 1997 on issues relating to the use of music on the Internet. These matters are extremely complex. They're new, and they're new for everyone worldwide.
We are fortunate in Canada to have a federal tribunal, the Copyright Board, the task of which is to tackle these complex issues. Whether you like their decisions or don't like their decisions, I'd like to suggest they play a very important and fundamental role in sorting these things out, and that will continue. The issues are getting more complex by the day.
I was there back in the days when the Copyright Board was essentially all about setting royalties for television and radio stations primarily. Then we saw the advent of the Internet, and that has created an extremely heavy burden on this agency, which is not a CRTC. It has 15 employees in total. It has four or five professionals who are there to assist the board members in their task. They have a large task at that.
On that front, I am here to encourage Parliament to continue to support the Copyright Board and encourage Parliament to see that the board has the resources that are necessary to conduct its mandate, to do its work. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.
The second point I want to touch on, and I know it's not always popular, is that when we talk about the impact of new technologies, the term “Canadian content” comes up. I'm going to suggest to you that it would be
simplistic and defeatist to just say that Internet services cannot be controlled and that nothing can be done because the servers are located outside Canada.
I must respectfully point out that this is not the case. Do you really want to take it for granted that a sophisticated service, a renowned commercial service like Netflix, would not respect our laws on Canadian content, for instance?
Among SOCAN's licence holders are dozens of online music services with no presence in Canada. They pay royalties to us on a voluntary basis. Of course, I agree that there are many more who do not pay royalties. However, maintaining regulations on Canadian content should not be seen as an exercise in futility because some music services are not physically located in Canada.
I hope you will consider these issues in light of a reality whereby major services will comply with our regulations. They must do so, if only to attract investments.
I would like to use the short time I have left to discuss another issue. As I am a copyright lawyer, I have to talk about the Copyright Act. I know this is an often controversial topic that is not easy to talk about. Nevertheless, I would like to remind you that Canada probably has the most exceptions in copyright compliance. A number of debates should be held on the topic. Some have been held in the past, and more will probably be held in the future, but the fact remains that these exceptions represent a loss of basic rights, and that cannot be taken lightly.
Going forward, we must find a way to limit the scope of those exceptions—for instance, by applying the three-step test, which is being used in many countries around the world. That would be the first step in the right direction.
These were the three points I wanted to comment on.
Thank you.