Lack of consultation adds “insult to injury”

(Toronto) – The regulation published yesterday in the Canada Gazette which denies compensation to creators for music copied onto microSD memory cards will hurt Canada’s songwriters, recording artists and other rights holders, the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) says.

“Not only is this an unprecedented end-run around the fair and independent Copyright Board process which was established to deal with these kinds of issues in the first place, but to hand down a regulation like this with no consultation period adds insult to injury,” said the CPCC Chair Lyette Bouchard. “By not following the well-established practice of providing stakeholders an opportunity to provide their input on proposed regulations, the government has denied creators an opportunity to participate in a decision that will have an impact on their livelihoods.”

The regulation excludes microSD memory cards as a type of blank audio recording media to which the private copying levy could be applied, despite their growing popularity among Canadians for making private copies of music.

The CPCC is the non-profit organization which administers and collects the private copying levy on sales of blank media used to copy music, such as CD-Rs, and distributes the money to songwriters, recording artists and other rights holders as compensation for private copies made of their music. The CPCC filed a proposal with the Copyright Board of Canada to have the levy applied to microSD memory cards, as research has shown that the cards are widely used by Canadians to copy music onto smartphones and other devices.

Established in 1999, the CPCC is an umbrella organization whose member collectives represent songwriters, composers, music publishers, recording artists, musicians and record companies.

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For more information, contact:

CPCC

(416) 486-6832

1 (800) 892-7235

communications@cpcc.ca

www.cpcc.ca