CHPC Committee Report

BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT

The Bloc Québécois would like to thank all the witnesses who appeared before the Committee.

The Bloc wishes to share its comments regarding the recommendations in Chapter 5 of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage’s report on emerging and digital media.

Generally speaking, although the recommendations are sound, they are piecemeal and presented haphazardly. For example, the key recommendation should have been to encourage the government to proceed as quickly as possible with the development of a national digital strategy, yet this is recommendation 19. Most of the other recommendations should have been presented as elements of this strategy, and a structured approach should have been taken (for example, a section on creators, a section on users and a section on broadcasters). There is no logic to the way the recommendations are presented.

Moreover, copyright is at the heart of the challenges relating to new digital media, as demonstrated by the quantity and variety of testimony on this issue: 15 pages of the report’s 73 pages, or 20%, deal with copyright. And three other pages deal with compensation for creators (and therefore their copyrights). Yet just two of the report’s recommendations are on copyright, and the other recommendations are excessively vague.

The fact that a legislative committee was established to study the proposed new copyright law, Bill C-32, does not exempt members from making recommendations about the general direction of the bill. On the contrary, it makes much more sense that the Heritage Committee, having considered a matter before the legislative committee, would share the fruit of its labours and discussions with this other committee, which did not begin its work until late November.

For example, artists testified about lost compensation as a result of digital media. Among their demands, they want the private copying system to be modernized and applied to new digital media. Artists must continue to be properly compensated: the exact finding of our study on digital media.

In light of our study, additional recommendations should be made to the Legislative Committee on Bill C-32:

• A balance must be struck between the rights of creators and the rights of broadcasters (in the broadest sense);
• Artists’ works must be protected, as well as their compensation;
• Internet service providers must be held liable;
• The digital lock must be acknowledged as outdated technology that does not meet the needs of creators (especially those in the fields of music and literature) or users.

New technologies present great challenges, and this is precisely why the current copyright regime must be modernized. Digital media has thrown artists’ compensation off balance.

The bare minimum is to pass this information on to the members of the Legislative Committee, stress that Bill C-32 must restore this balance and urge the members to make the necessary amendments.

Carole Lavallée
Member for Saint-Bruno–Saint-Hubert
Bloc Québécois Critic for Heritage

Roger Pomerleau
Member for Drummond
Bloc Québécois Assistant Critic for Heritage

February 2011