CCA Bulletin 6/11 - What exactly is the financial impact of C-32 on artists and other rights holders?

Just the facts

Several seemingly contradictory numbers have been quoted over the course of the debate on the financial impacts of Bill C-32 on artists and other copyright holders.

In order to help facilitate debate on this most important issue, the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA), with the cooperation of its members and other stakeholders, has prepared a list of revenue sources for artists and rights holders which are at risk unless Bill C-32 is amended.

There is no exact science to tracking revenue losses. This is compounded by the fact that many of the new exceptions in the bill such as education and fair dealing are poorly defined. This viewpoint has been supported by Dan Glover, a copyright lawyer from McCarthy Tétrault LLP, who mentions in his response to professor Michael Geist that, “the fairness test is notoriously soft and subjective, an eye-of-the-beholder test that will be left in almost every case to the judgment of the copier.” (more)