Thank you for that question.
Our members are actors. They are performers. They are in film and TV. They are on video games. They are very much subject to the deepfakes and abuses that are taking place. What we want to bring to light here is that when it comes to actors and performers, we are kind of on the outside looking in to the protections of copyright. We take a step back and say that the first problem for actors is that they don't have moral rights under the Copyright Act to protect them to begin with. Musicians got moral rights when Napster came in a couple of decades ago and started stealing their music. Today we have the same situation with deepfakes stealing the image of performers. We don't have moral rights in the Copyright Act. We say that needs to be taken care of right away.
When we look at Bill C-27, we also see that under the definition of harm, you have “physical or psychological harm”. I would suggest that if we have to prove psychological harm, we'll have to get the DSM out, put it down on a table in a court of law, and explain the condition that was produced. That can't be the level for a performer. Then there's “damage to an individual’s property”. As I just told you, we don't have copyright protection. Now we go to the third one, “economic loss to an individual”. What we have to understand is that performers are precarious workers. Every day they audition for the next job. It might be one day on set in a series or a film. Every day they have to look for that job. How do they prove that they didn't get that role in Law & Order? How do they prove that as an economic loss?
We need to have the damage to an individual's reputation. Eleanor Noble makes a living based on what you see here. Her name, her image, her likeness, she caretakes that with everything she does, whether business or personal, because she knows that her next gig relies on it, and yet she is subject to the deepfakes that are happening out there.
Our data is easily captured now. Everything is streamed. Everything is on your phone. It's on your computer. It's readily available to be grabbed and used or misused. We really need this committee to take a look at the impact for performers in this country.