Evidence of meeting #131 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Dance Assembly
—and there are knowledge keepers who keep those dances. It's quite a different system.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
That's great. Thank you.
I'm sharing my time with Mr. Lametti.
Ms. Sokoloski, on your website you talk about the three lenses you use; promotion, protection and pluralism. The protection piece is what we're talking about today, and developing mechanisms.
Is there an example of a mechanism that you've developed that is being used, or an area that legislation could help to cover, other than what you've mentioned in your presentation today?
4:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Playwrights Guild of Canada
Playwrights Guild of Canada's core activity is a triennial contract with the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres. The foundation, and the reason that this contract and those standard agreements continue to hold any weight, is because of the copyright legislation that is currently enacted. We've been able to negotiate a royalty of 10% of the box office for any time that a play is produced on stage, which is envied by other countries.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
That protects the smaller people, again, who might not otherwise have access to getting the protection.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
We heard in a previous testimony that this is one of the big issues out there.
Ms. Schlittler, on the European side, we've talked a bit in a previous meeting about the EU standard that's coming through, chapter 13. It sounds like you have more experience with the EU. Do we have more to learn from them? Are they doing something we should be looking into in more depth?
4:20 p.m.
General Delegate for Canada, Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques
I have to disappoint you and tell you that I deal mainly with Canada and Quebec. I have a family relationship, if you will, with SACD in France, but I am not really able to tell you what is happening in Europe. I know the broad strokes, but my bailiwick and my concern is what is happening in Canada.
4:20 p.m.
General Delegate for Canada, Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques
I can tell you about the decisions that were made about digital, and you know about them anyway. But I have no idea how those decisions will be implemented. In any event, the agreement has to be ratified in January.
4:20 p.m.
General Delegate for Canada, Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques
I can talk to you about the situation in Quebec, but not really about the situation in Europe.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
My question is for Ms. Sokoloski. In your initial example, of your playwright going in, do you know the school board in question?
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
I have seen a number of the fair dealing policies in a variety of school boards, universities and colleges across Canada. I don't think there's a single one that says you can copy a whole work.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
The example you've given is probably at least a copyright violation—
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
—and most school boards and universities will put into a place a group that works with teachers. It's also quite possible that they actually will pay the fee, and your author won't know until the end of the year when he or she gets a cheque from the collective society, because it won't be itemized.
I want to say, for the record, that there actually is a fair bit of certainty with respect to the various standards for educational fair dealing. In fact, it was Copibec and Access Copyright that put forward these guidelines in the 1990s and 2000s in the posters that they had about photocopying machines. In fact, they're quite similar to what you now see in the university, college and school board fair dealing policies.
4:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Playwrights Guild of Canada
I brought that example forward for a couple of reasons, firstly to share what we feel is the current atmosphere within the education sector. It's a slippery slope.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
Is that not misleading to use that example? The example led us to believe that you could copy a whole work under fair dealing policies, and that's actually not the case in any institutional organization across Canada.
4:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Playwrights Guild of Canada
That's very true. Under the education copying guidelines, it's 10%, or a whole chapter. But if this play was in an anthology, they could potentially photocopy the entire thing. Under the guidelines created by the education sector, they could indeed copy the entire play.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
David Lametti Liberal LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC
And Access Copyright did have a role in formulating and developing those guidelines—
4:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Playwrights Guild of Canada
Absolutely. That is why I—
4:25 p.m.
Liberal