TORONTO – SOCAN appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada this week to represent the interests of Canadian music creators and publishers in three copyright cases related to the use of music on the Internet by corporations that include Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Telus, and Apple.
The organization said in a statement that its appearance comes in support of the decision made by the Copyright Board of Canada and confirmed by the Federal Court of Appeal to licence the use of music on-line in the form of downloads and musical previews, as well as the use of music in on-line games.
Composers, lyricists, songwriters, and publishers earn much of their living through royalties collected by music copyright collectives, such as SOCAN, in the form of licence fees paid by businesses in Canada that use music as part of their operations.
"We have a situation right now in which businesses that are making large profits from the use of copyright-protected music on the Internet don't want to compensate the creators of that music," said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste, in the statement. "In an earlier appeal, the Copyright Board and the Federal Court of Appeal confirmed the right to fair remuneration to music creators and publishers for such Internet uses, and it is our hope that the Supreme Court will do the same."
The Supreme Court's decision is expected to be delivered in 2012.
