“Clement and Moore Say No to Fair Compensation”

Ottawa – In a pre-Christmas press conference at the Rideau Shopping Centre, Minister of Industry Tony Clement and the Minister of Heritage James Moore continued to play Grinch to Canadian music artists, by denying them fair compensation for copies of their work that are made.
“Rather than discuss balancing the needs of creators and consumers, the Ministers havecontinue to spread misinformation to consumers in a thinly veiled attack on creators,” stated Annie Morin, Chair of the CPCC Board of Directors. “Artists have been very clear with the Ministers about what they wanted out of C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act. Rather than participate in meaningful discussions, the Ministers instead choose to hold a press conference to continue their attack on those who create music. This misrepresentation of facts that has gone on for the last few months is down right insulting.”

At issue is the future of the private copying levy, which is currently collected on the sale of blank CDs (CD-Rs) to compensate artists, songwriters, publishers and record labels for copies of recorded music made by Canadians for personal use. MP3 players have now become the medium of choice for copying music, yet Bill C-32 fails to extend the levy to these devices, denying artists the compensation they deserve for this use of their music.

In addition to letters sent to both Ministers signed by over 500 Canadian artists supporting an extension of the existing private copying levy to MP3 players, Juno Award winning jazz artist Sophie Milman appeared before the legislative committee reviewing Bill C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act on December 6th, urging MPs to heed the pleas of artists to save the private copying levy by amending the legislation.

“Copies made of our works have intrinsic value. The private copying levy is a market-oriented solution that over the past 10 years has worked beautifully, distributing $200 million among Canada’s creators of music,” Milman told the committee.

“Canada’s music community must be supported if we want our country to maintain a worldwide reputation of quality and excellence in the arts,” Milman said. “We are not asking for charity. We are not asking for access to our music to be limited. We only want to be compensated for copies of our music made onto devices specifically designed for this
purpose.”

Milman is one of hundreds of supporters of the Canadian Private Copying Collective’s (CPCC) “Play Fair Now” campaign, in support of modernizing Canada’s copyright law so that artists will continue to receive compensation for private copies made of their music.

Further information can be found at www.playfairnow.ca

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For more information contact:

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