NEW YORK – There are too many tariffs and too many changes going on in the digital world for the existing copyright and tariff regime to continue in its current form, says Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell.
In a speech last week during a conference on international intellectual property law and policy at Fordham University in New York, O’Farrell looked to 1926 – at the CAB’s first meeting 80 years ago in Toronto – where copyright was the main reason for the group’s initial gathering.
A consensus between broadcasters and creators was arrived at then – and consensus is what’s required now, he said.
Technology is causing fundamental shifts in the business of electronic media, altering the ways in which people consume TV and radio. "And there doesn’t seem to be any indication that consumer appetite for the next generation of technology is in decline," he added.
"What this means for broadcasters in Canada, as in many other jurisdictions, is that we now operate in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and in a marketplace with a significant division. Two systems now live side by side where there was only one a short few years ago.
"Today, there is a regulated broadcasting system of broadcasters holding licenses, subject to the supervision of the CRTC, and there is a parallel, unregulated system of broadband content providers who enjoy unrestricted and unencumbered access to the same marketplace competing directly with our members for audience and advertising revenue," said O’Farrell.
And while this is happening, CAB members are paying three separate tariffs: the SOCAN tariff for communication to composers, authors and publishers; the NRCC tariff for neighbouring rights to performers and music publishers; and the CMRRA/SODRAC tariff for reproduction rights to composers, authors and publishers.
"These three separate yet overlapping tariffs, translate into higher effective rates payable by radio and television broadcasters in Canada than those paid by their counterparts in the U.S.," said O’Farrell,
It’s a costly, inefficient administrative burden and the CAB president presented ways to fix the system, such as: When the Copyright Board establishes the value of a right, it should look at all of the tariffs paid to rights holders and take that into account; the board should also take into account the fees the same rights owners are also getting in the U.S.; and cultural implications should play no role at the Copyright Board as there are other agencies to look at that.
"In today’s rapidly evolving communications environment, digitization of content and new distribution platforms require on-going re-evaluations of existing business models, competitive forces and compensation. There remains a strong likelihood that our business models will remain directly influenced by business models operating in the U.S. Given the Canada – U.S. significant trading relationship and resulting economic inter-dependence along with the growing relevance of the common market for many communications activities, the Board must take into account the copyright payments made in the U.S. in respect of the same or analogous activities," said O’Farrell.
"The CAB is calling for a multi-stakeholder discussion to make the Copyright Board relevant in the context of the digital age in which we all live. Digitization has caused a paradigm shift in business operations, competition among players in the communications environment, and fundamentally, in matters of copyright," he concluded. "The Board must adapt to this new environment, as we all must."
