Thank you, Madam Chair.
I am Arezki Raab, assistant general manager at Copibec. I am here with Maryse Beaulieu, advisor, legal and public affairs.
I would like to begin by thanking the committee for inviting us here to discuss the impact of technological advances in artificial intelligence on the creative industries.
Allow me to briefly introduce our organization. We are a non-profit rights management collective specializing in copyright management. Founded in 1997 by the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois, or UNEQ, and the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres, or ANEL, our organization now represents more than 30,000 authors and over 1,400 publishers. We facilitate legal access to a vast repertoire of works protected under the Copyright Act through a licensing and authorization service. During the last fiscal year, we distributed more than $13 million in royalties to rights holders, bringing our total to over $300 million since our inception.
Copibec had the opportunity to express its views on artificial intelligence during the last consultation on generative artificial intelligence, which ended on January 15, 2024. We also worked with the book industry to submit a brief on the amendments we wanted to see made to part 3 of former Bill C‑27. We did the same with the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. We also submitted a joint brief with Access Copyright at the end of August as part of the pre-budget consultations, in which we addressed generative artificial intelligence.
Needless to say, not a week goes by without new developments in generative artificial intelligence. However, we can already say that rights holders are extremely concerned. We would even say that this is an existential threat. A work protected under the Copyright Act is a work created by a human being. That is how the law was conceived. It is important to establish the fundamental principles and to reiterate them.
I will now hand it over to Maryse Beaulieu who will take it from here.