Appeared in the Toronto Star on October 27, 2008 as Proposed Podcasting Royalty Fight Not Over In the annals of Canadian copyright royalty fights, few can match Tariff 22 for pure stamina and longevity. First introduced in 1995 by SOCAN, thirteen years later the proposal is still the source of […]
Post Tagged with: "socan"
Federal Court of Appeal Upholds Ringtone Decision
The Federal Court of Canada has issued its decision (not yet online) in the judicial review of the Copyright Board of Canada's ringtone decision. The court upheld the decision, marking a big win for SOCAN and a loss for the wireless providers (CWTA, Bell Mobility, Telus) who challenged the Board's decision. The court addressed two primary issues – first, whether the transmission of a ringtone to a cellphone is a "communication" under the Copyright Act and second, whether it is a "communication to the public." While the wireless carriers argued that a communication must only include a transmission that is intended to be heard simultaneously or immediately upon transmission, the court disagreed, ruling that "the wireless transmission of a musical ringtone to a cellphone is a communication, whether the owner of the cellphone accesses it immediately in order to hear the music, or at some later time."
The potentially more important line of reasoning involves whether the transmission of the ringtone is a "communication to the public."
SOCAN Releases Tariff 22 Rates
SOCAN has published its requested Tariff 22 rates dating back to 1996. There are several judicial review notices that have already been filed over the recent Copyright Board of Canada decision, so this tariff is still a long way from completion.
Copyright Board Rules Music Previews Constitute Fair Dealing
The Copyright Board of Canada has just issued the first part of its decision in the long-running (since 1996) Tariff 22 case. The Board is prepared to establish a tariff for the communication of musical works over the Internet and while much of the decision is devoted to economic analysis, several key legal questions are addressed. Of greatest interest is its conclusion that offering music previews (ie. a portion of a song) constitutes fair dealing under Canadian copyright law as it can be characterized as copying for the purpose of research. This decision – which is right in my view – highlights the very broad nature of fair dealing following the Supreme Court of Canada's CCH decision.
The Board rightly notes that listening to an excerpt of a work is consumer research into whether they might like to purchase the song, concluding that:
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