Narrow the ‘value gap,’ Music Canada tells gov’t

Music Canada is asking the government to address the disparity between the value of creative content and the revenues that are generated from it. “The Value Gap challenges the livelihood and sustainability of an entire global social class, and threatens the future of Canadian culture,” Graham Henderson, president and CEO of Music Canada, said in a Tuesday press release. The “value gap” was outlined in what the organization is calling a first of its kind report, released this week. The gap affects publishing, journalism, film and television production and music, it added. Music Canada is blaming that phenomenon largely on problems within Canadian copyright law. Specifically, it points to “misapplied” and “outdated” safe harbour provisions in the law, which partly shield from liability telecom companies and internet service providers when it comes to transmitting infringing material over their systems, it said. Those provisions, including fair dealing laws that allow the use of work without permission, have resulted in creators foregoing copyright royalty payments, the report argued. For example, user-uploaded content, such as music on Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, pays out royalties that are “profoundly out of step with the massive level of music consumption they facilitate,” it said. It also highlighted the “radio royalty exemption,” which “frees commercial radio stations from paying royalties (other than a nominal $100 fee) to artists and record labels for the public performance and communication of their sound recordings on their first $1.25 million in advertising revenue.” That exemption, it says, has cost artists and record labels nearly $140 million in lost revenue from 1997 to 2016, and it’s asking the government to remove it. Re:Sound Music Licensing Co., which represents artists’ and labels’ royalty rights in Canada, brought up the issue of royalty rates on commercial radio to the Copyright Board in 2014. Music Canada is also asking the government to reconsider the definition of a “sound recording” in the Act, which it said does not include recorded music when it is used in a TV or film soundtrack, robbing it of royalties. The report also recommends that the government — during its five-year review of the Copyright Modernization Act starting next month — review instances where the Act “allows others to commercialize creative works without properly remunerating artists” and relook at its safe harbour laws. “Our creative industries and the Government of Canada need to come together to acknowledge that the problem facing our creators is real, that the landscape has dramatically changed, and that we need to adapt our rules and regulations before full-time creativity becomes a thing of the past,” Henderson added. The report comes on the heels of other developments in the realm of royalties. In an August decision — part of which is now being appealed — the Copyright Board ruled that groups had the right to collect royalties on downloads made available online. Also in August, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) said it is backing an initiative that will implement blockchain technology to credit content and pay rightsholders.

Narrow the ‘value gap,’ Music Canada tells gov’t

Brief | October 18, 2017

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Narrow the ‘value gap,’ Music Canada tells gov’t

Brief | October 18, 2017

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