On behalf of the musicians of this country, thank you very much for the invitation to be here. I appreciate it very much.
Much of what I will be saying was already said quite eloquently by Graham Henderson of Music Canada. It will be a repeat simply because most of what the Canadian Federation of Musicians does focuses on contract law on behalf of its members. We are not involved in the collection of copyright, per se. However, because of the direct impact on our members, this is of extreme importance to us.
Many recording artists and professional musicians have captivated international markets and left their mark at the top of the charts. We have much to offer the world, because we are a society that values creativity and innovation. Our government must ensure that its policies and regulations reflect the value we have for our creative community and the arts. This consultation should lay the foundation for the regulatory and policy tools and for the financial support needed to ensure that Canadian professional musicians thrive in the digital environment now and in the years ahead.
Our first recommendation—again, following on Music Canada's recommendation—is to amend the definition of “sound recording”. The current definition of sound recording in the Copyright Act needs to be amended so that performers can collect royalties when their recorded performances of music on soundtracks of audiovisual works, such as TV programs and movies, are broadcast or streamed on the Internet and when they are presented in movie theatres. To this end, we recommend the ratification of the Beijing treaty to ensure that this works properly.
Our second recommendation is to remove the $1.25 million royalty exemption for commercial broadcasters. Amending the Copyright Act to remove this unnecessary exemption for commercial radio would add millions of dollars' worth of royalties for recording artists. One issue that was not brought up earlier was the fact that the $1.25 million exemption was originally only supposed to be to mom-and-pop stations that had $1.25 million or less in revenue. Suddenly it appeared that it was now the first $1.25 million exemption on all broadcasters. It was not set up right from the get-go.
The third recommendation is to expand private copying to include new copying technology. As we heard eloquently from the collective, we should undertake the necessary legislative changes to update the private copying regime to reflect advances in digital copying technology.
We also recommend some reform of the Copyright Board to its operations and practices. I have that covered under a separate submission.
With regard to reducing privacy in the digital world, our cultural policies and laws must offer a practical response to piracy that better aligns how Canadians consume content and helps Canadian professional musicians and their content creators succeed in a digital global market. There are all kinds of technology out there. There are algorithms that can track the use of any song anywhere in the world. The fact that we have not utilized such technology and properly monetized the recordings for our musicians is just wrong.
Our last recommendation is with regard to Canadian content regulations. We urge the government to work with the music community to transition content quotas and the MAPL designation from an analog to a digital world. First we must regulate streaming, which will soon be a $70-billion worldwide industry, and those that produce in Canada, such as Netflix, should be subject to the collective bargaining process, such as Status of the Artist.
Thank you very much. I await your questions.