Canadian Communications Law - Broadcasting | Telecommunications | Copyright

In a ruling issued July 12, 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the decisions of the Federal Court of Appeal and the Copyright Board in Re: Sound v. Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada, concluding that performers and makers of sound recordings are not entitled to royalties for the broadcast of their recordings in film or on television as part of a movie soundtrack.

Under section 19 of the Copyright Act, performers and makers of sound recordings are entitled to remuneration when their recordings are performed or telecommunicated to the public. However, the section 2 definition of “sound recording” excludes a “soundtrack of a cinematographic work where it accompanies the cinematographic work.” “Soundtrack” is not defined, but the appellants had argued that it means the whole aggregate of sounds accompanying the film, and not the individual pre-existing sound recordings incorporated into the soundtrack. They contended, therefore, that royalties should be collected when those recordings are broadcast as part of a film’s soundtrack.

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David Elder -

In a major, but slim, victory for proponents of electronic commerce, a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that online sellers of music and video game downloads are not required to pay more copyright royalties than their “bricks and mortar” counterparts, solely because the products from the virtual stores are delivered via the internet.

In addition, although not considered by the Court, these rulings would also suggest that another copyright tariff, for the delivery of ringtones to mobile phones, may be invalid.

In two decisions that form part of the unprecedented “copyright pentalogy” of copyright tariff appeals heard by the top court last year, the Supreme Court considered whether a download of a recording of a musical work, either on its own or when incorporated into a video game, constituted a “communication to the public by telecommunication,” such that a download could attract a distinct copyright royalty, in addition to the royalty payable to the copyright holder for the reproduction of the work on the buyer’s computer or device. 

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Alexandra Stockwell and Robert Mysicka -

The Canadian Government is giving copyright reform another try, reintroducing what is essentially the same copyright bill that died last spring with the dissolution of Parliament. 

But while the text may be the same, one thing has clearly changed: this time, the ruling Conservatives have a legislative majority, significantly increasing the likelihood that the new bill will actually become law, either in its current form or with amendments introduced at Committee.

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David Elder -

The newly elected Conservative Government is staying the course on a number of issues of interest to the communications industry.  It remains to be seen how the new majority status of the Government will affect the progress of these initiatives.

The Speech from the Throne, which opened the 41st Parliament, resurrected several  proposals that were put on hold with the fall of the previous Government and election call.  By convention, such a speech provides a general description of the Government's legislative program for the next Parliamentary session

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On July 17, 2010, CSI, the company formed as a royalty-collection vehicle by the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA)  and the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) , proposed three new tariffs which would apply to the reproduction of music (which can include broadcasting, streaming and downloading) by non-commercial radio stations, online music providers, and satellite radio providers.

In the proposed CMRRA-SODRAC Inc. Non-Commercial Radio Tariff, 2011, CSI is requesting that the Copyright Board of Canada  certify a tariff of 0.63% of the annual gross operating costs of radio stations that are either owned or operated by not-for-profit corporations, excluding the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  In the case of such a non-commercial radio station that is a “low use station” (generally, a station that plays music for less than 20% of its broadcast time), the tariff would be lower, at 0.23% of its annual gross operating costs.  In exchange for the payment of the tariff, the non-commercial radio stations would receive a license to broadcast music contained in CSI’s repertoire as often as desired, including the streaming of the broadcast over the Internet.

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