SpiralFrog ready to jump into Canada next year

The joint venture representing the reproduction rights of Canadian songwriters, composers and music publishers has given its blessing to New York’s SpiralFrog, which aims to fight unauthorized music sharing through ad-supported downloads.David Basskin, president of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd., which along with the Société du droit de reproduction des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs au Canada Inc. (SODRAC) makes up CSI Inc., says the agreement stipulates an advance will be paid to CSI until approval of its tariff application covering online music services.A hearing into that application was held this fall at the Copyright Board of Canada (CNM, Sept. 20/06). At the time, Paul Audley of Toronto-based media consulting and research firm Paul Audley & Associates, testified on behalf of CSI that tariffs from ad-supported services could be extracted either through a share of advertising revenue, or by a set per-user minimum charge.Basskin says he’s unsure when the board might rule on CSI’s tariff application, but adds he’s heard that it might seek to get CSI’s application out of the way before hearing another similar application from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers – this one covering the transmission right – in April 2007. Basskin also notes that the Copyright Board proceeding is somewhat unique, noting that a US tariff decision on online music services is likely a few years away yet, while a settlement was reached between rightsholders and online music services in the UK, and a German process is using private arbitration rather than a public tribunal. "So, there will be a lot of attention paid to this decision I’m sure," he adds.Final Funding Recipients of 2006 AnnouncedEarlier this month, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and Telefilm Canada’s Canada New Media Fund awarded their last rounds of funding for 2006 to a total of 26 new media properties.The seven projects receiving Bell Fund grants are: Fred’s Head Online from Spectra Animation 1 inc.; Diamond Road Online from Kensington Communications; Fric Show – le site Internet from Les Productions Virage and Turbulent Media inc.; Gofrette Website from Subséquences/Zoë Mae and Tribal Nova; Xenophile Media Inc.’s Total Drama Island – Totally Interactive; Urbania.ca from Toxa Inc.; and Decode Entertainment Inc.’s The Urban Vermin Adventure.Some of the Canada New Media Fund recipients include: Doodlez.tv from Doodlez New Media Inc. in the Atlantic Region; French language productions Close to Paradise from BlueSponge Inc. and Media Opak Inc., and Québec habité from Communications TerDor Inc. in the Quebec Region; Quebec English-language project Wumpa’s World: A New Mission from NDi Media; Breathrough New Media Inc.’s Atomic Betty Mobile Game and Artech Digital Entertainment Inc.’s Space Opera in the Ontario/Nunavut Region; and Anash Interactive from Reel Girls Media Inc. and Dragonfly Universal Access Edutainment from Dragonfly Games Division Inc. in the Western Region.For a complete list of all 19 Canadian New Media Fund winners visit http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/data/communiques/rel_759.asp?langen.

SpiralFrog ready to jump into Canada next year

News | 12/21/2006 5:00 am EST

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