Good evening.
My name's David Murphy. I'm a music editor in the Magog area. We have about a hundred clients and we represent people ranging from Gilles Vigneault to Marie-Mai and companies from “Équipe Spectra” to “ComediHa!“ in Quebec. We thus represent film and television writers, composers and producers.
The environment in which we work is uncertain and it's caused by the time it takes the Copyright Board to reach its decisions. I think that was mentioned several times, but I wanted to mention it because it's harmful to entrepreneurs like me who wait years before receiving their royalties. It's also harmful to users. They are beginning using content and they don't know exactly how much royalties they'll pay.
The basic principle in the Copyright Act is that use requires payment. In private copying, it's exactly the same thing. A system was created in 1996 that applied — in fact, it no longer exists — to CDs and DVDs. We now want to extend it where there are uses and private copying, namely cell phones, laptops and tablets. Someone in the room spoke about the European study, which I also read, in which the addition of...