Private copying collective supports narrow levy limited to players, not phones

OTTAWA—The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) is prepared to support a limited private copying amendment to Bill C-32, the Conservative government’s copyright reform bill, that would remain limited to digital audio players like the iPod Nano or Shuffle, Annie Morin, chair of the board at the CPCC, said Monday. The amendment would limit the private copying levy to electronic devices that are specifically “developed, manufactured and marketed” for the copying of music, she said in an interview following the CPCC’s appearance before the legislative committee on Bill C-32. The federal government established the private copying levy in 1998 to legalize the private copying of music and compensate music rights holders for copying. The law currently applies a levy of 29 cents per blank CD, 24 cents per blank audiocassette, and 29 cents for a MiniDisc. The CPCC, which administers the levy, appeared before the committee Monday with a message that the levy, as it now exists, will become obsolete if it is not extended to digital media players. “Culture is this country’s greatest and most recognizable export. When I immigrated here at the age of 16, all I cared about was that this was the birthplace of Leonard Cohen and Oscar Peterson,” jazz musician Sophie Milman said in an emotional plea to the committee Monday. “You would not ask any other group in this country that they have to forego a legitimate source of income. We ask that you please save the levy.” The C-32 legislative committee is now a prime target for lobby groups as it hears from witnesses and considers amendments to the bill, omnibus copyright reform legislation intended to implement the Internet treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The NDP and Bloc Québécois support extending the levy to digital media. The question now is whether the Liberals will support such an amendment. If so, the three opposition parties could force the amendment against the wishes of the Conservative government. Morin said she’s “fundamentally optimistic” the opposition parties can amend the bill with a private copying provision for digital media. But in an interview following the committee meeting, Liberal MP and industry critic Marc Garneau said the Liberals have not yet made a decision on whether to support such an amendment. “We want to find a way to compensate or pay artists. We have not finalized how we’re going to do it,” he said. Garneau acknowledged that an amendment could come forward to create a narrow levy that doesn’t affect devices like iPhones or iPads. “That’s a possibility. I’m not saying that’s where we’re going to go,” he said. When The Wire Report asked Morin whether iPhones could be excluded from such a provision in the bill, she said: “I don’t know to what extent people use their iPhones to copy music.” During the meeting, Bloc MP and industry critic Serge Cardin questioned whether the levy could apply to removable storage cards for Blackberrys, iPhones or other wireless devices. Morin said the Copyright Board would have to determine whether the levy could apply to memory cards. She added that the levy would range from $2 to $25, as established by the Copyright Board, and that the government could set a ceiling for it. The Conservatives are staunchly opposed to extending the levy to digital media, and at the meeting Monday, Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to Heritage Minister James Moore, said wireless devices are converging to the extent that there will no longer be mere music players. He said opposition party support for the levy—which the Tories call an “iPod tax”—amounts to a “defeatist” attitude that encourages illegal filesharing. “It is very much a tax, and I would very much like to understand how you would only place it on a device that only copies music. There is no such device,” Del Mastro said. “You must support shutting down the BitTorrent sites. Is that not the most important thing for artists?” Milman said she supports measures to curb filesharing, but said the mass copying of music cannot be stopped. “It’s not that we’re being defeatist. We’re being realistic,” she said. Roanie Levy, general counsel and director of policy and external affairs at copyright collective Access Copyright, and Brian Isaac, chair of the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, also appeared before the committee Monday alongside the CPCC. Liberal MP and heritage critic Pablo Rodriguez asked the witnesses if they would support the adoption of the bill without amendment. Only Isaac answered yes. Levy, Morin and Milman said no. Isaac, whose members include companies and organizations seeking to fight “IP crime,” said passing Bill C-32 into law “is a matter of urgency.” He said the bill’s enabler provision—which is intended to provide a legal remedy to catch copyright infringement “facilitators” like BitTorrent trackers—should be amended to include services “designed or operated” to enable acts of infringement. “The bill’s proposed enabling infringement provision only applies if the service is ‘designed primarily’ to enable infringement. With experience I can say it’s often going to be very difficult to prove a service was designed primarily for infringement,” he said. sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Private copying collective supports narrow levy limited to players, not phones

News | 12/07/2010 1:03 am EST

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