CBC/Radio-Canada and the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) recently argued before the Supreme Court of Canada over whether a tariff on “broadcast incidental copies” of musical works for television or Internet productions is legal. CBC says these are copies of content made simply to “facilitate modern digital broadcasting” and do not incrementally generate additional revenue. SODRAC, on the other hand, says a legal precedent for such payments has been in place for more than two decades, and CBC has been a...
The Copyright Board of Canada issued a decision Friday that gives musicians and record companies a fraction of the money from webcasting that their collective had asked for. The board said in a news release that the tariff for non-interactive and semi-interactive webcasting would be 10.2 cents per 1,000 plays for commercial operators for files licensed by Re:Sound Music Licensing Co., and it would be 13.1 cents per 1,000 plays for CBC/Radio Canada. Non-commercial operators must pay a flat fee of $25 per year under this tariff. These rates, under what’s called Tariff 8, apply to the years 2009 through 2012. Information provided by the Copyright Board showed Re:Sound started the...