By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled as premature a leave application challenging the CRTC’s determination that 20 per cent control over copyright is sufficient for Canadians to exploit their works.
The court said that determination, which emerged from a CRTC decision in November, has not yet been finalized, accepting the argument of the attorney general representing the regulator. The court made a similar ruling last week regarding compliants from Apple and the Canadian affiliate of the Motion Picture Association (MPA-C) about another aspect of the November decision for the same reason.
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) filed the application in December arguing that the low copyright threshold fails to square with part of the law that requires Canadians to “control and benefit in a significant and equitable manner from the exploitation of the program.”
The complaint targets a section of the Online Streaming Act, which modernizes the Broadcasting Act.
“By failing to undertake the full assessment, the Commission adopted a definition that allows copyright in name only to satisfy subsection 10(1.1)(a), even where the copyright owner lacks any practical ability to exploit a program through revenues, markets, profits, or associated rights,” the CMPA argues.
“Nowhere else in the federal policy framework does mere copyright ownership suffice or satisfy Canadian programming requirements,” it continued. “Exploitation is not incidental; it is the means by which Canadians build sustainable businesses, generate cultural and economic value, and which helps to advance the cultural, industrial, economic and competition policy objectives of the Act.”
The CMPA said in a statement to Cartt that the organization respects the court’s decision, “which recognizes the CMPA’s right to seek leave to appeal once regulations outlining the updated definition of Canadian content have been finalized,” the CMPA said in a statement to Cartt. “In the meantime, we look forward to ‘Part 2’ of the CRTC’s Canadian Content decision, which will outline contributions to Canadian programming and provide clarity on what kinds of commitments broadcasters and streamers will make to the independent production sector.”
The MPA-C told us they will be refiling their application in due time as well.
