Summary of Bill C-32 (PDF)

SOCAN's submission to the House of Commons committee on Bill C-32 (PDF)
Canadian creators stand united for changes to copyright bill
Send a letter via e-mail to the Harper government
Submit a brief to the House of Commons committee

The Harper government’s proposed Copyright Act, bill C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act, was introduced to update the rights of copyright owners to better address the challenges and opportunities of the Internet, to make the law technologically neutral and to allow greater use of copyright material. Unfortunately, the bill focuses disproportionately on the latter goal, and this, to the detriment of creators. The bill focuses on the technologies used and the users of those technologies but fails to consider the content used by them.

The proposed new law seeks the lofty goal of ensuring that creative content is easier to use legally, but in introducing new laws that seek to attain this goal, it ends up expropriating creators’ rights. Whereas we all agree that we want to be able to easily use creative content online, no one believes that creators should no longer be able to make a living from their works. Yet, the bill has introduced dozens of new exceptions and limitations to copyright (almost 40 new exceptions were introduced) without correspondingly ensuring that creators will be fairly and fully compensated when their works are used.

This unprecedented introduction of exceptions flies in the face of several international treaties (including the Berne Convention) to which Canada is a signatory, which requires any country introducing an exception to copyright protection, to pass the following three-step test:

Exceptions shall be confined to:
1. certain special cases,
2. which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work, and
3. do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder.

If the exceptions introduced are not used solely in special cases or if they don’t allow the creator the right to exploit their works and prevent them from being remunerated for the use of their work, for example, than that exception should not be allowed. Yet, the government has introduced 18 pages of exceptions, most of which appear to fly in the face of the three step test. For example:
• Under the new law, it will be legal for your music to be used by others as a remix into a new work, for non-commercial purposes, without permission or remuneration. It may also be legal for this new mash-up of your music to be posted on YouTube for thousands of others to access and for YouTube to profit from and make millions of dollars from.
• Broadcasters will now be able to make ephemeral recordings of music without having to compensate the creators for the reproductions of their works.
• Unlimited private reproduction of your songs on iPods, computers, MP3 players, cell phones, etc. will now be allowed, without any payment by the manufacturers of those mediums.
• Someone may use your songs for a parody and for commercial purpose without authorization or compensation to you.

We ask you to support amendments that will ensure that creators’ rights are protected and that creators are properly remunerated for their works. Please contact your MPs and other government representatives by letting them know how you feel about bill C-32. If you wish, you may sign (including your name and full address) and send the attached letter to the Harper government.

For more reaction to Bill C-32, click on the following links:

The latest news about Bill C-32 (click, then scroll down the page)
Canadian writers go in front of the camera to protest Bill C-32 - Quill and Quire
Performers challenge MPs to deliver on Bill C-32 - ACTRA