By Ahmad Hathout
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) has been accepted as intervenor before the Federal Court of Appeal to explain the relationship between royalty payments and the making of Canadian content.
The court said this week it found the largest rights management organization in Canada is “well-positioned” to address specific issues raised by Spotify, which argued in part of its appeal challenging the CRTC’s five per cent base contribution requirement that it was paying royalties to Canadian music artists.
SOCAN argues the payment of royalties is simply a cost of doing business under copyright law and should have no bearing on the regulator’s decision to force a base contribution.
SOCAN will have an opportunity to file a memorandum with the full scope of what it intends to argue orally before the court, which will not exceed 30 minutes when the court hears the consolidated appeals of the Motion Picture Association, Apple, Spotify, and Amazon on the week of June 9.
The court simultaneously rejected Music Canada’s application for the same status because it was “not persuaded” that its submissions “are not duplicative” of those presented by the appeal parties, which is an argument made by the attorney general.
The CRTC is currently holding a hearing on what defines Canadian content in the audio-visual space, a step Apple, citing cabinet’s policy direction, believes should have come before it ordered the imposition of the five per cent minimum financial contribution.
Broadly, the applicants argue that the CRTC did not take into consider their existing contributions to the Canadian broadcasting system before making the decision.
