Industry committee  That's reassuring, Mr. Chair. I thought I had just five minutes, so I won't go quite as fast. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for inviting us to appear before you today. I am the executive director of the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres, or ANEL for

Industry committee  On the contrary, it is not out of step with the global trend. The trend around the world right now is to copy what Canada is doing, but Canada is setting a bad example internationally, and publishers object to its approach. I listened to Mr. Sapp's and Mr. Lecorps's presentation

Industry committee  It applies to print books, the ones people purchase from retailers, university co-ops, bookstores, places like Walmart and Costco, and so forth. It corresponds to book sales. I can't wrap my head around the claim that book sales are on the rise and that people are buying more boo

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  Copibec collectively manages the rights of all publishers around the world whose works are photocopied or used by colleges, universities, elementary schools, and high schools in Quebec.

Industry committee  I don't have that number. You'd have to ask Copibec. Frédérique Couette is here, so she could answer that. I wouldn't want to give you any wrong information, but I would say that Copibec deals primarily with Canadian content and French-language Quebec works, in particular, since

Industry committee  Indeed, there are other countries that are favouring the use of fair dealing for the purpose of education, but we may be to blame because we weren't diligent enough in 2012. Stakeholders in those countries are being more mindful than we were by calling on their governments to bet

Industry committee  We aren't completely opposed to fair dealing. It's a principle we've always supported, and, in fact, we've done that for clients who have reading difficulties. Publishers are the ones who do that, in other words, they adapt works to the needs of those clients. We aren't against t

Industry committee  I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you asking about the drop in digital book sales?

Industry committee  I can't really answer that because French-language audiobooks aren't that popular in Quebec. The decline in digital book sales, however, can be explained in a number of ways. There was a big appetite for digital books when e-book readers first came out, in other words, tablets,

Industry committee  I kid you not when I say that a lot of money has stopped going to creators and authors, whether in the book or music industry, because it's going to those making the hardware, in other words, technological devices. Some colleges have opted to give every student an iPad. Schools

Industry committee  You'd like to know what the worst effect on the book industry has been? Mr. Lecorps said some rather surprising things. Benoit Prieur talked about a 10-year period, I believe. I, however, look at the numbers and—

Industry committee  We can hardly be against technological and scientific progress. There is evidence that new teaching and instruction methods can be effective, as well as new teaching techniques. Keep in mind, however, you're talking to someone who represents people who earn their living by sellin

Industry committee  The 10% I was talking about is related to standard practice. Mr. Sapp said earlier that the majority of Quebec universities had an agreement with Copibec, but that Université Laval did not. That university is currently facing a class action suit initiated by authors, publishers a

Industry committee  Yes, the recommendation is that universities should negotiate agreements with collectives like Copibec. That way, it would at least feel like there is an agreement between the two parties. That is the least that can be done. Quebec universities are doing it, with the exception of