[IP] Tackling the Canadian Billion Dollar Culture Deficit
Begin forwarded message:
From: Michael Geist <mgeist@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 4, 2004 6:51:57 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Tackling the Canadian Billion Dollar Culture Deficit
Dave,
Following on last week's innovation deficit piece that you posted, this
week I report on the fact that Statistics Canada, the Canadian
government's statistical agency, recently revealed that Canada has a
nearly billion dollar culture deficit, almost all of which is with the
United States. The sources of the deficit are copyright and trademark
royalties along with broadcasting fees. Copyright royalties were by
far the fastest growing, with the Canadian copyright royalty deficit
nearly doubling in six years from 125 million dollars to 223 million
dollars.
My Toronto Star Law Bytes column examines the deficit and calls for
policies that foster the creation of Canadian cultural products,
facilitate broad public access by following the example of the BBC in
the UK and rejecting copyright term extensions, and put an end to legal
reforms, including WIPO Internet treaty ratification, that invariably
lead to an ever-increasing flow of copyright fees out of the country.
Column at
<http://geistculturedeficit.notlong.com>
MG
Why Canada should follow U.K., not U.S., on copyright
Toronto Star
Michael Geist
Canadian artists have enjoyed unprecedented international critical and
commercial success in recent years. From Avril Lavigne to Yann Martel
to Denys Arcand, Canadians have won Grammys, Bookers, and Oscars and
have demonstrated that our best belong on the world stage.
Notwithstanding these headline-grabbing success stories, wider success
for the Canadian cultural community has proven to be more challenging.
In fact, Canada has long faced a cultural deficit with imports
exceeding exports. The full magnitude of the Canadian culture deficit
became evident last month, when Statistics Canada released a major
report on the status of Canadian cultural services.
Canada's culture deficit stood at $919 million in 2002, a figure that
accounted for one-third of the total Canadian commercial services
deficit. The trade figures involving the United States were
particularly troubling with the Canada-U.S. culture deficit ballooning
by 42 per cent between 1996 and 2002.
Three sources contributed to virtually the entire deficit - copyright
royalties, trademark royalties, and broadcasting fees. Of these three
sources, copyright royalties was by far the fastest growing, with the
Canadian copyright royalty deficit nearly doubling in six years from
$125 million to $223 million.
With Prime Minister Paul Martin set to ask the Governor General to
deliver the Throne Speech tomorrow, the time has come to reverse the
alarming increase in Canadian cultural deficit by establishing
supportive policies that promote the interests of all Canadians. Those
policies must foster the creation of Canadian cultural products,
facilitate broad public access, and put an end to legal reforms that
invariably lead to an ever-increasing flow of copyright fees out of the
country.
Supporting the creation of new cultural products sits at the heart of
the cultural policies of many countries. As Peter Grant and Chris Wood
illustrate in Blockbusters And Trade Wars, an excellent examination of
global cultural policy, many countries utilize a "culture toolkit" to
help support their local culture. Canada already employs a range of
such tools including Canadian content requirements, various arts
funding programs, and tax policies that encourage film and television
production in Canada. While these policies have been the subject of
some criticism, there is little doubt that many artists depend on them
to help pay the bills.
Building on Canada's current successes requires a continued commitment
to cultural funding along with a careful examination of additional
alternatives found in other countries. For example, the French film
industry is supported by a small levy added to the cost of movie
tickets, an approach that has helped facilitate a thriving national
industry.
Of course, industry must do its part as well. Major record labels
such as Universal Music Canada trumpet their support for Canadian
artists, yet those same Canadian artists only represent roughly 21 per
cent of the performers promoted in their Umusic.ca flagship Web site
artists section. That figure does not even come close to the Canadian
content requirements imposed on Canadian radio stations and suggests
that a greater commitment to Canadian culture rather than the corporate
bottom line is needed.
The continued creation and increased promotion of Canadian cultural
products alone will not address the cultural deficit. We must also
ensure that access to our culture and heritage is publicly available to
all Canadians.
The United Kingdom provides an excellent model for such policies. In
recent months, the British Library has unveiled an ambitious plan to
digitize and freely post on the Internet thousands of historical
newspapers that are now in the public domain. Similarly, the BBC has
established the BBC Creative Archive, which will allow users to
download clips of BBC factual programming for non-commercial use, where
they can be stored, manipulated and shared.
Although Canadian funding of the CBC is not identical to the
television license fee approach used for the BBC, there are clear
similarities between the two public broadcasters. CBC would take a
significant step forward by returning its programming back to the
taxpayers who provide the majority of its funding. In doing so,
Canadians would be free to use CBC programs for non-commercial use much
like residents in the United Kingdom.
Canada must also foster the growth of the public domain by resisting
pressures to extend the term of copyright. Canadian copyright currently
lasts for the life of the author plus 50 years. While some countries
have extended that term to 70 years after the author's death, the
extension would not generate any further cultural products yet it would
result in diminished public access to Canadian works.
For example, in 2003 the Canadian government introduced a bill dubbed
the Lucy Maud Montgomery Copyright Term Extension Act that would have
extended the term of copyright for certain works. While the heirs of
the famous Canadian author would have benefited from the extension, the
Canadian public would have paid the price, losing access for years not
only to Montgomery's unpublished works but also to unpublished works
from dozens of other prominent Canadians such as former Prime Ministers
Robert Borden and R.B. Bennett. That bill was ultimately amended with
the copyright term extension provisions excluded.
The third and most essential strategy is that Canada must stop
adopting copyright policies that, to no one's surprise, result in the
transfer of millions of dollars out of the country. Over the past 50
years, Canada has regularly faced pressure from U.S. organizations and
their Canadian proxies to adopt new reforms that are quite obviously
designed to increase the payment of copyright royalties to U.S.
interests.
For example, relentless U.S. pressure on broadcasting royalties was a
prominent feature in the U.S.-Canada free trade negotiations. The
pressure eventually led to reforms that created new compensation
schemes for broadcasting that have resulted in Canadians paying
millions more to U.S. rights holders each year.
Canada is currently facing copyright policy choices that could lead to
more of the same. As rights holders lobby for Canadian ratification of
the World Intellectual Property Organization's Internet treaties, many
experts, reportedly including some Canadian government officials,
believe that ratification would force Canada to amend its private
copying regime to conform to the treaties' "national treatment"
requirements. National treatment obliges countries to treat foreign and
national artists on an equal footing, a requirement that could lead to
an additional $100 million in Canadian private copying royalties
flowing south of the border.
Moreover, the cost of ratification to Canadians would not be limited
to increasing royalties. Ratification of the treaties would swing the
copyright balance dramatically toward rights holders as it shuts out
individual Canadians from their fair dealing rights for research and
private study - an essential part of the balance affirmed by the
Supreme Court of Canada.
Despite claims that Canadian artists would be harmed should Canada
decide not to ratify the treaties, Canadian artists would in fact
scarcely feel the effect of such a decision. Eighty per cent of the
world's population has not even signed the treaties, while many
European countries have yet to formally ratify them. Furthermore, since
Canada's most significant trading partners, notably the U.S. and Japan,
provide Canada with national treatment status, Canadian artists would
still enjoy benefits in those markets.
Policy makers should also recognize that even ratification of the WIPO
Internet treaties will not satisfy many rights holders, who have
continually sought new rights that might increase their earnings. In
the United States, the U.S. Congress has recently been considering
proposed legislation called the Induce Act, which could conceivably
regulate a wide range of electronic equipment including popular devices
such as Apple's iPod.
Canadians can expect similar proposals to surface here as rights
holders have left little doubt that the WIPO Internet treaties
represent only the tip of the copyright reform iceberg. For example,
Graham Henderson, the recently appointed president of the Canadian
Recording Industry Association wasted little time last week telling a
U.S. trade publication that even with ratification, Canada's Copyright
Act "would still not be able to serve the needs of the business
community."
The Statistics Canada data illustrates that Canada's culture deficit,
led by copyright royalties, is not a matter of fiction. In order to
give this story a happy ending, several government ministers, including
Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, her Parliamentary Secretary
Sarmite Bulte, and Industry Minister David Emerson, must reverse the
Canadian culture deficit by crafting policies that promote creativity
while focusing on Canadian interests.
--
**********************************************************************
Professor Michael A. Geist
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law
University of Ottawa Law School, Common Law Section
57 Louis Pasteur St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5
Tel: 613-562-5800, x3319 Fax: 613-562-5124
mgeist@xxxxxxxxx http://www.michaelgeist.ca
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/