CWTA mulling options over ringtone tariff appeal

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) may challenge a January 9 Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) decision upholding the legality of a tariff requiring wireless operators to pay a fee each time a subscriber downloads a ringtone. "We're still looking at to see what, if anything, we should do with the decision," Peter Barnes, president and CEO of the CWTA, tells Report on Wireless. "It's a complicated one and it all turns on the definition of communication to the public. We thought we had made a good argument but obviously the court has not agreed so we have to figure out what we do next."The CWTA, along with Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility, argued that the act of a wireless subscriber downloading a ringtone doesn't constitute a communication to the public by telecommunications because it's a transaction between the carrier and the individual. The court didn't agree, noting that a ringtone transmitted simultaneously to all subscribers who request it would be a communication to the public. "It would be illogical to reach a different result simply because the transmissions are done one by one, and thus at different times," read the decision.If the CWTA decides to challenge the decision, it would have 60 days after the FCA decision was released to seek leave to appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada . If Tariff 24 is ultimately allowed to stand there could be a considerable financial impact on the country's wireless operators, given that carriers already pay a minimum of $0.06 cents per ringtone downloaded to the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). According to the Copyright Board of Canada's 2006 decision, certifying the rates for 2003 to 2005, ringtone royalties were approximately $325,000 in 2003, $950,000 in 2004 and $1.57 million in 2005. The board also highlighted figures from a NBI/Michael Sone Associates report that predicted total ringtone download revenue in Canada would reach $30 million in 2006. Barnes notes that the association and its members are still trying to determine the broader implications of the ruling. "We've got to look at the decision and see what it might mean on its own and whether it might have some other implications," he says. "We've got the various members looking at it to figure that out at this point... of course that will drive part of the decision making process because there's the point of law, point of principle, and there's the business issues."

CWTA mulling options over ringtone tariff appeal

News | January 21, 2008

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