Oh, oh!
Evidence of meeting #120 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was artists.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #120 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was artists.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
12:50 p.m.
Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, CPC
No, but it seems like your industry is doing very well. It's always changing. It's harder for people to pirate. You don't want to lose your spot because you gain all this stuff. I don't think you guys have a big issue, from my perspective.
Are there any problems with piracy? I can't see it. It's changing too rapidly.
12:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
Most of the piracy that we encounter is digital piracy. A lot of it is on mobile games, clones and things like that. As I said in my opening remarks, a lot of the things that we have done to combat piracy have been the technological protection measures that we put in the games and in the boxes, but also the fact that we've moved now toward an online experience that requires you to create an account and log in to a server. You're not going to be able to get the functionality to play online with a pirate copy. It's just not going to read it.
A lot of the games, though, that still have single-player campaigns and are not network like that still represent an opportunity for pirates. One of the things happening is the software encryption programs that we will buy from other industries that do this are getting better and better, and it's taking longer and longer for the pirates to crack the code.
There used to be lots of media articles out there of a specific blockbuster game hitting the market, and on day one, the code was already on a peer-to-peer file-sharing website, and you could download that game and play it. That is now taking upwards of 30, 60, 90 days, in some cases, before that really ends up getting cracked. By then, you've sold the vast majority of the initial demand copies that you're going to sell. I'm not saying it's not a problem—it is—but it's not the problem that it used to be under a physical retailer.
12:50 p.m.
Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, CPC
What's in your favour is the voice and video interaction during the game. I'll be watching my grandson, and all of a sudden his friend appears there and they're networking back and forth.
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
There are networking features.
12:55 p.m.
Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, CPC
I think those mechanisms alleviated a lot of the issues with piracy, because everybody is connected somehow, so I don't think a pirated copy would work.
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment Software Association of Canada
No, it won't work on the online functionality.
12:55 p.m.
Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, CPC
As technology is changing....
But the music industry hasn't really changed. It's from whatever apparatus you have. There's no interaction. It's just enjoying the music.
Is there technology out there to protect...? You can download anything you want in the greynet, I call it. You can get pirated music anywhere and it's no different from what you get from a paid service. I mentioned this earlier.
How can we police that in the music industry? Obviously, you do what you can, but is technology changing to protect the music industry, or is it the same as before?
12:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Legal and Business Affairs, Stingray Digital Group Inc.
It has never been an issue for Stingray. Obviously, we've read articles; we've read about people complaining about piracy, and it hasn't really been an issue for Stingray. In most cases, we have to keep in mind that Stingray, rarely, or until very recently, wasn't a B2C business, it was a B2B business. Most of our services are offered through cable operators or through services like Amazon, etc. It's a bit more complicated, because we don't have the direct relationship with the end-user.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Julie Dabrusin
We're pretty much out of time.
To both of our witnesses, thank you for your evidence today. We really appreciate it. That will bring an end to this meeting.
The meeting is adjourned.