The Status of the Artist Act is a key instrument for ensuring that artists and creators are equitably remunerated for their work by producers and other intermediaries who engage the services of key creatives and assemble their contributions into a finished TV or film project.
SCGC members are the only points-generating key creators in the Canadian content system without a collective agreement with the Canadian Media Producers Association. This leaves the screen composers that SCGC represents in a marginalized and vulnerable position, which some CMPA members exploit by demanding as a condition of engagement that SCGC members surrender their intellectual property rights and revenues that rightfully belong to the composer as author and maker of the score under Canada's copyright framework.
The demands from CMPA members are often accompanied by “work for hire” and “work made in the course of employment” language, even though the Status of the Artist Act recognizes that artists and creators who are hired by producers are independent contractors, not employees. In fact, where such language is included in agreements, the agreements between independent media producers and screen composers often go on to stipulate that no employer-employee relationship exists.
Where producers demand a grant of screen composers' rights and revenues, demands are typically couched in this type of language as a “take it or leave it” condition. If the screen composer refuses, they won't get the job.
I should note that this situation is unique to anglophone screen composers in Canada. AQPM, representing Quebec-based francophone media producers, has entered into an agreement with SPACQ, representing francophone screen composers.
I'll hand it back to John Welsman.