Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Chair and Committee members, on behalf of music creators, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to take part in your study of remuneration models for artists and creative industries in the context of the Copyright Act review.
Since my colleagues and myself see eye to eye on many things, but not in all cases, there could be some overlap.
My name is Marie-Josée Dupré. I'm the Executive Director of the Société professionnelle des auteurs et des compositeurs du Québec, better known as SPACQ. Our organization was created 37 years ago to promote, to protect and to develop in every way possible the economic, social, and professional interests of our members, that is, songwriters and composers.
We wish to express our concerns and to highlight the situation of creators who, very often, work behind the scenes and are not necessarily well known headline performers, although there are more and more of them performing to broaden their horizons and to increase their possibilities of earning a living with their art.
Culture plays an important role in the Canadian economy, but do all players benefit from it? Here are the elements that we deem essential to a better remuneration for creators.
I will first talk about digital delivery. The royalties collected by creators are meagre, and for most of them, current remuneration is entirely inadequate. In the physical world, whether we listen to a record once or 100 times, creators get paid by song and by album. In the digital world, their work must have been played to a certain extent for them to be able to enjoy a minimal income one day.
Pierre Lapointe and David Bussières, two of our members, testified before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on the 8th of May. In that context, they recounted that their revenues from digital delivery were simply derisory. Pierre Lapointe said that he had gotten $500 after his songs had been played a million times. David Bussières added that after generating 60 000 views on YouTube, his group had received $151.
At the moment, the great actors in the telecommunications sector are in no way responsible for all the digital delivery from their networks. We think it unlikely that they don't know what goes through their networks. They use music and other cultural products as a call to consumers. As a matter of fact, the monthly fees paid for the access service are significant, but there is no direct return for creators. Internet access providers know full well the use of their bandwidth. Besides, they wouldn't spend their time investing millions of dollars to increase their clients' listening capacity online if it were not the case — they certainly don't do it so people can access Wikipedia. As such, legal consumption doesn't translate into adequate remuneration for creators.
The legislator is responsible for taking the necessary measures to ensure that creators are adequately compensated for all uses of their work. If creators benefit from digital delivery, conversely, users benefit from countless amounts of creative content. A fair and equitable remuneration is essential to the survival of creativity.
The private copying regime was established in 1997. It allows Canadian users to reproduce the musical content of their choice while ensuring that they get compensated for this use. While this regime resulted in boom years revenue-wise, the much appreciated and most popular technological support at that time, the blank CD, has almost disappeared over the years, along with an important revenue source for creators. The current regime, which was meant to recognize a technological neutrality principle, was unfortunately limited to a support whose use has now fallen into disuse, disregarding all technological advances with respect to supports, like phones and tablets, which led to its obsolescence.
It is imperative that we address this situation by ensuring we have an open-ended list of supports, which includes all existing and future supports. Moreover, it's interesting to see that the businesses with which creators interact, our partners, include in the wording of their contracts the capacity to broadcast and to reproduce works by any existing or future means, but that the legislator himself curbs the remuneration of creators by establishing a regime that doesn't keep up with technological developments.
As for the Copyright Board reform, it is essential to come to a streamlining of the procedures and to faster decisions to make it possible for creators to receive an adjusted or increased remuneration for each situation under review and, at the same time, to allow users to know what to expect in a reasonable amount of time. In addition to being a major irritant for users, waiting several years for decisions to be made doesn't allow for effective enforcement by collectives. Additionally, these long wait times can make it so that the uses on which fees are based and issues related to them are no longer the same given the speed with which technologies develop.
Government must ensure that mechanisms are implemented in order to accelerate the Board's decision-making processes.
As for the duration of copyright, as we told you earlier, many countries in the world have already opted for a period of 70 years after the death of the writer. Yet, it is still 50 years in Canada. We must admit that this difference puts our creators at a disadvantage compared to creators from our main trading partners. Countries that have increased the duration of copyright thus underline the importance and value of the work of creators. It is what their cultural identity is all about and it constitutes an important part of their economy. Canada must follow in its partners' footsteps to show that it is willing to give better recognition to creation and, at the same time, to demonstrate reciprocity with foreign creators.
My colleague Margaret McGuffin talked about one aspect of transparency. I will talk about a different aspect, that Ms. Nathalie Théberge brought up when she last testified before your committee. She highlighted the importance of educating creators regarding copyright, contracts, and their implications. Of course, I find this issue interesting. I've had to check over 300 contracts since taking up my position. New artists are more and more interested in the contractual aspect of their career. They want to understand financial obligations and implications. For an artist, entrepreneurial spirit is not a given. Our role, which is crucial, is to guide them and to help them understand how the financial aspect will one day impact their career. If certain shares might seem fair and equitable, the possibility to earn a living as a creator is better for a business because it represents several artists. Indeed, the creator has nothing but his or her own repertoire.
If the value of musical works consumed and used doesn't reflect a fair remuneration, it's culture in general that loses out. Creators are at the heart of culture. Without them, no content would be possible. The legislator must show its willingness to encourage it, to recognize it, and to showcase it.
We must ensure that royalties related to digital delivery reflect the magnitude of cultural consumption; that access providers be asked to contribute to remuneration and compensation mechanisms; that the private copying regime be upgraded so that technological supports include those that exist and those that will be discovered; that we have a Copyright Board that is strong, well structured, and capable of making the best decisions faster and in everyone's interest; that the duration of copyright be raised to 70 years to allow us to be more competitive in relation to our partners; and that creators be supported in the business world so that they can gradually learn to deal with it as artist entrepreneurs.
Thank you for listening to me.