Copyright board should set rates, not policy, says CAB. Radio fees increase "massive and historic"

OTTAWA – Saying the Copyright Board has now moved into cultural policy, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has called the board’s Friday decision “astonishing.” Rather than just approving rates based on the value of music, the panel’s decision “seeks to appropriate a cultural policy making role, and establish its own economic order for the distribution of cultural subsidies,” says the CAB today. “It is remarkable that this panel took the liberty of criticizing Parliament itself by gratuitously condemning the legislated tariff rate that Parliament granted small broadcasters,” continues the harshly-worded (and for good reason) release. “Unlike the CRTC, which has...