(Toronto) The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) has asked the Copyright Board of Canada to maintain the levies on blank audio recording media at existing levels in the 2006 private copying tariff. In late 2004, the Copyright Board approved an interim tariff for 2005 at the same rates as the 2003-2004 private copying tariff.  The interim tariff was to remain in effect pending the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) ruling on three applications for judicial review of the Copyright Board’s December 2003 decision on the 2003-2004 tariff. However, the December 2004 decision of the FCA has resulted in two applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

CPCC’s Executive Director, Anna Bucci, commented that, “The request to maintain the status quo for 2006 was considered prudent at this time, pending results from the appeals to the Supreme Court, which will affect music rights holders significantly in the long-term.”

The Supreme Court currently has before it a request from CPCC for leave to appeal the ruling of the FCA that the Copyright Board lacked the authority to impose a levy on the embedded memory in digital audio recorders. The Retail Council of Canada has filed a request for leave to appeal the part of the decision which confirmed the constitutionality of both the private copying levy and CPCC’s zero-rating program.

The private copying levy provides significant remuneration to songwriters, music publishers, recording artists and musicians, and record companies for the use of their work.

The levy is derived from the private copying provisions of the Copyright Act implemented in 1998 in recognition of the fact that Canadians copy without authorization hundreds of millions of tracks of recorded music for their own private use.

The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) is a non-profit agency charged with collecting and distributing private copying royalties. Established in 1999, CPCC is a collective of collectives that represent music authors, music publishers, recording artists, musicians and record companies.

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For more information contact: Alison Thompson
CPCC
tel. (416) 486-6832, ex. 221
email: [email protected]