(Toronto) – The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the organization that proposed a private copying levy on digital audio recorders such as iPods, confirmed today that it will not seek leave to appeal the recent Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. The January 10th 2008 decision held that the Copyright Board has no authority under the Copyright Act to certify a levy on digital audio recorders.

While the CPCC strongly believes that rights holders in recorded music should receive remuneration for private copying, given the FCA’s ruling stating that it had settled the legal question in 2005, combined with the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal of the 2005 decision, the CPCC has decided not to file an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

“This is a great loss for rights holders,” stated Annie Morin, Chair of the CPCC. “No one disputes that a large percentage of Canadians make copies of recorded music onto their digital audio recorders. The private copying levy is the only compensation available to rights holders for the hundreds of millions of tracks that are copied without authorization onto digital audio recorders each year by Canadians.”

The CPCC is the non-profit organisation charged with collecting and distributing private copying royalties. Established in 1999, the CPCC is a collective of collectives that represent songwriters, composers, music publishers, recording artists, musicians and record companies.

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Contact:
Shannon Reynolds
CPCC
tel.: (416) 486-6832, ext. 222
email: [email protected]