Bill C-11 committee  We are happy with a lot. Basically, we're going to open a bottle of champagne in a few months. I mean, we just want to clarify a place where we know there will be some difficulty. It may seem like there are a lot of words, but we're trying to do it the simplest way possible in order to give leeway to both parties to do their thing.

Bill C-11 committee  Thank you. We certainly hope so.

Bill C-11 committee  As I said, it's going to have to be on a case-by-case basis. I think there's no broad way to define in the law exactly where the problem is. I gave one example of one photograph from a lawyer that goes to his company, and that's a problem. I gave another example where somebody prints 100 copies of a landscape and suddenly the whole village has it and I cannot sell a similar picture of that landscape to anybody.

Bill C-11 committee  Monsieur Thibeault...?

Bill C-11 committee  Basically, I can give you another example of that. I think it's easier when we have examples. For a blog, let's say there's a woman sitting in her kitchen blogging about a recipe. She takes one photograph and puts it on her blog. It won't affect my business. It won't kill me. There would be no problem there.

Bill C-11 committee  From a customer's point of view, at this point there are two ways. Either they own the work when they commission it, or there's a contract that negotiates how it's going to work. With the new law, we're approving the fact that the customer can use it for private use. Private use is never a problem.

Bill C-11 committee  Thank you.

Bill C-11 committee  We have the sense that there's not just one response to that. It's not one, or 10, or 20, or 30; it's a case-by-case scenario. We cannot put in the law that you are allowed 10 copies and after that you stop. Sometimes a photograph copied one time would be a problem. Sometimes a person could make a reproduction of 50, and it wouldn't be a problem.

Bill C-11 committee  Well, I wouldn't say that, but....

Bill C-11 committee  You're working for Hydro-Québec or a law firm and they give you a promotion, and they say they would like to tell people about you becoming a vice-president. They want a photograph, so you give him the photograph you gave your mother. The gentleman will say it was a non-commercial thing for him.

Bill C-11 committee  I'm sorry.

Bill C-11 committee  I could not agree more with you. Obviously that amendment is not only for us, it's for both sides. Then both sides know what they can and cannot do. At this point in time the word “non-commercial” has no definition. If you look, there's not one definition anywhere of that term.

Bill C-11 committee  At this point, any person who commissions the work owns the copyright. For me to have my copyright I have to negotiate it back. Before I start a job I sometimes have to go to a big corporation and ask them to give back my copyright so I can sell it to them. You can understand that there's a little difficulty there.

Bill C-11 committee  Basically, the new amendment says that a person can use the commissioned work as he wants, and he can give permission to anybody to do the same. That will go on and on. A person can produce 100 copies and give it to 100 people, and those 100 people can give them to another 100 people.

Bill C-11 committee  Exactly, and it does that on top of making us the same as other photographers in the world. In Canada, we were the only exception. Writers, musicians, and painters all got copyright, and the only exception was photographers.