CCA Bul­letin 25/08

July 22, 2008

Just the Facts

The least one can say is that the long-awaited tabling of Bill C-61 in June by the Min­is­ter of Indus­try, the Hon. Jim Pren­tice and the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage, the Hon. Josée Verner has been greeted with mixed reviews.  There are those who sup­port the pro­posed revi­sions and oth­ers who sug­gest that many of the mea­sures in the bill are unen­force­able. Recent crit­i­cisms even denounce Bill C-61 as detri­men­tal to the envi­ron­ment in that it cre­ates fur­ther bar­ri­ers to the reuse of elec­tronic equipment!

While the CCA con­tin­ues to con­sult with its mem­bers on this impor­tant leg­is­la­tion, it is clear that the dis­course around copy­right has under­gone a fun­da­men­tal change with the tabling of this draft legislation.

Until now, the per­pet­ual mantra of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has been that the role of the gov­ern­ment is to seek a bal­ance of the inter­ests of cre­ators and copy­right own­ers and users. This mantra has now been replaced with a com­pletely dif­fer­ent par­a­digm. It is most evi­dent in the pro­logue to the leg­is­la­tion where we read:

“Whereas the Copy­right Act is an impor­tant mar­ket­place frame­work law and cul­tural pol­icy instru­ment that, through clear, pre­dictable and fair rules, sup­ports cre­ativ­ity and inno­va­tion and affects many sec­tors of the knowl­edge econ­omy; (added empha­sis)

Whereas advance­ments in and con­ver­gence of the infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nolo­gies that link com­mu­ni­ties around the world present oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges that are global in scope for the cre­ation and use of copy­right works or other subject-matter; (…)

And whereas Canada’s abil­ity to par­tic­i­pate in a knowl­edge econ­omy dri­ven by inno­va­tion and net­work con­nec­tiv­ity is fos­tered by encour­ag­ing the use of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies for research and education…”

The con­cept of mar­ket­place frame­work is one which places the onus on the rela­tion­ship between the creator/copyright owner and the user to come to an agree­ment on the terms of access to intel­lec­tual prop­erty. While the CCA wel­comes the recog­ni­tion that copy­right is an essen­tial tool to reward and encour­age cre­ativ­ity and inno­va­tion, the expanded excep­tions within C-61 broaden access to copy­righted mate­ri­als with lit­tle rec­om­pense to the creator/copyright owner.

The CCA has been pro­mot­ing the con­cept of the cre­ative econ­omy as a gen­eral rubric for pub­lic pol­icy devel­op­ment at the fed­eral level. This would be achieved through a vari­ety of mea­sures such as tax­a­tion pol­icy, access to social ben­e­fits for self-employed Cana­di­ans and other mea­sures to encour­age and reward cre­ativ­ity and inno­va­tion. If the acknowl­edge­ment of the advent of the knowl­edge econ­omy is sin­cere, progress in other areas of pub­lic pol­icy is needed to sup­port the objec­tive out­lined in Bill C-61.

The micro-management of the use of every­day tech­nolo­gies within Bill C-61 raises real ques­tions about the capac­ity of gov­ern­ment to enforce pro­vi­sions for pri­vate use. On the other hand, with broader access being pro­posed for users such as the edu­ca­tional sec­tor, among oth­ers, it is dif­fi­cult to dis­cern whether such pro­vi­sions are intended to address cur­rent pop­u­lar prac­tice or to embark on a new con­cept of copy­right more designed for the “mar­ket­place frame­work” C-61 seeks to establish.

Tell Me More

The sum­mer recess of Par­lia­ment will give orga­ni­za­tions like the CCA an oppor­tu­nity not only to study the pro­vi­sions within C-61 with greater care, but also to sub­stan­ti­ate the con­cep­tual shift from bal­ance of inter­ests to mar­ket­place frame­work. This is par­tic­u­larly impor­tant to assess since the CCA has tra­di­tion­ally sup­ported the droit d’auteur posi­tion.

The CCA will be con­sult­ing with offi­cials within the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage and Indus­try, CCA mem­bers and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the copy­right com­mu­ni­ties in prepar­ing a sub­mis­sion to the Par­lia­men­tary Com­mit­tee that will review this legislation.

The CCA is also prepar­ing a pre-budget sub­mis­sion to the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Finance which will present other pub­lic pol­icy mea­sures nec­es­sary to sup­port the growth of the cre­ative econ­omy. Copy­right pol­icy is clearly a main pil­lar in the pro­mo­tion of cre­ativ­ity and innovation.

The chal­lenge for the CCA and oth­ers within the cul­tural sec­tor will be to deter­mine if the pro­vi­sions in C-61 are pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions to this goal or imped­i­ments to the growth and sta­bil­ity of the cre­ative sector.

What can I do?

The CCA will pub­lish later dur­ing the sum­mer a more detailed analy­sis of this draft leg­is­la­tion. Keep an eye on your mail­box to be sure to catch this impor­tant infor­ma­tion. In the mean­time, if you want to raise any aspect of this file that the CCA should be aware of, please con­tact us.