Mr. Déziel, Mr. Bussières, Ms. Mulholland, thank you for being here.
Mr. Déziel, you are right to say that, in terms of Internet service providers, we are facing a huge roadblock. The Liberal government has the same kind of problem. Recommendation 12 of the report tabled by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage more than a year ago was swept out of the way by the Prime Minister, although it was just an update of the Cable Production Fund along the right lines, which was to distribute foreign signals. We told ourselves that it would be good to have local content and we asked ourselves how we could finance it. So we decided to set aside 5% of the revenue from cable distribution for local content.
It is very clear today that international content produced elsewhere is coming to us via the Internet.
Madam Mulholland, your flamboyant testimony this morning was crucial.
It's a very good thing that our chair has invited many artists to testify, and I think it's very important that we're reminded of your reality. You bring so much to the identity of the country. This is the heritage committee—we are not at industry committee—so it's our job to listen to you and to make sure you're protected. At the House, it may be different. At the House, we may want to protect consumers, because we're part of a party or whatever and we don't want to lose in the next election. However, here in this committee, our job is to protect and value the work of our artists and our culture.
Thank you very much for that.
Mr. Bussières, you are an artist who has taken the trouble—and that is rare indeed—to clearly document the revenue from your music sales by the various points of sale that consumers can use. That is why I am very pleased to get your table and your comparisons just now. It really speaks volumes. I am certainly going to ask you to give us more details about it, because I am not sure that the reality of it all is clear for everyone.
I am very pleased that we have been given the 29 recommendations in the action plan prepared by the Regroupement des artisans de la musique, or RAM. Ms. Mulholland is quite right. She mentioned raising the term of copyrighted works from 50 to 70 years, for artists as well as for producers and composers. She also raised three points that are also found in your ten. As it also available in English, I feel that it should be used as a kind of road map, indicating what must be done. The 10 or 11 points, plus Ms. Mulholland’s point about the term going from 50 to 70 years, are very clear.
At the outset, you rightly specified that something has to be done about online music services, and about giving some responsibility to Internet service providers—which is self-evident—in terms of the private copying system and of fair compensation. Of course, CBC/Radio-Canada are always the champions, and we also expect them to be so in our system.
Let me invite you to provide us with explanations, in as concrete terms as you can, given that the concepts are always very complex. One of the subjects you brought up was the ownership of the master tracks. Two days ago, Bryan Adams came here to talk to us about them. Of course, it is pretty impressive to see people such as Ms. Mulholland, yourself, or, especially Mr. Adams. But the fact remains that money that would let you continue creating is being taken away from you. That is the reality.
So I invite you to take us through one of your two documents, the one with your 29 recommendations, or, even more importantly, where you deal with the income you are losing.