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Putting Copyright in Its Place1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2014

Tina Piper
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Abstract

As copyright is asked to perform a greater role in governing creative activity, its focus on economic values above all others raises concerns. Interviews conducted by the author with Canadian independent music labels suggest that the law and the norms governing labels’ operations are more diverse and include direct subsidies, or grants, from government and the private sector. These grants perform many of the functions expected from copyright. This study concludes that copyright law is often exotic, peripheral, and even irrelevant to those involved in the spheres of remunerative Canadian sound production considered here. This finding suggests a renewed focus on a Canadian narrative of copyright law that puts it in its place alongside other instruments regulating independent music production.

Résumé

Alors que l’on demande au régime de droits d’auteur d’exécuter un rôle accru de gouvernance de l’activité créatrice, l’on s’inquiète notamment de son orientation excessive sur les simples valeurs économiques. Des entrevues menées par l’auteur auprès d’entreprises de production musicale indépendantes permettent de croire que les lois et normes gouvernant leurs activités sont plus diverses que prévu et incluent des subventions directes, ou contributions, des secteurs public et privé, et que ces contributions assurent un grand nombre de fonctions que l’on attendrait du régime de droit d’auteur. L’étude conclut que le régime de droit d’auteur est souvent étranger, secondaire, voire non pertinent aux yeux des intervenants du secteur de la production d’enregistrements rémunérée au Canada. Cette conclusion en appelle à une refonte du régime de droits d’auteur au Canada pour remettre celui-ci à sa juste place parmi d’autres outils de réglementation de production de musique indépendante.

Keywords

intellectual propertycopyrightmusic industryindielegal pluralismregulationpropriété intellectuelledroits d’auteurindustrie de la musiqueindépendantspluralisme juridiqueréglementation
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , December 2014 , pp. 345 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association / Association Canadienne Droit et Société 2014 

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References

1 Many thanks to Lucinda Tang, Amy Macdonald, and Noelle Sorbara for their research assistance. I would also like to thank Alana Klein, Laura Murray, Kirsty Robertson, Michael Geist, Robert Leckey, Pierre-Emmanuel Moyse, Gabriella Coleman, Desmond Manderson, the various labels interviewed, and the members of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy at New York University for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

2 Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Copyright Act, 1st Sess, 41st Parl, 2012, online: Department of Justice Canada, http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/2012_20.pdf [Copyright Modernization Act].

3 Ibid. at preamble.

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22 Ibid. at para 18.

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32 Which has led to numerous creative business models and initiatives undertaken by US artists summarized by Kristin Thomson at the Future of Music Coalition, http://futureofmusic.org/article/article/new-business-models.

33 Cowen, Tyler, Good and Plenty: The Creative Successes of American Arts Funding (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006).Google Scholar American artists often benefit from grants and direct subsidies in other countries (for example, when Canadian grants become available to Canadian labels that sign foreign artists); ibid., 92–93.

34 Ibid., 92.

35 This influence is deeply rooted in policy discussions, see especially Michael Geist’s blog entry of May 25, 2009, “The Conference Board of Canada’s Deceptive, Plagiarized Digital Economy Report,” http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4000/125/.

36 The Federal Court rejected CRIA’s efforts to undertake a similar (to note 150) litigation campaign in Canada in BMG Canada Inc v John Doe, 2004 FC 488 (aff’d/rev’d 2005 FCA 193) by rejecting a motion to disclose the IP addresses of peer-to-peer network users.

37 See, e.g., Copyright Modernization Act ss 11–14; s 17; s 47.

38 Dorland, Michael, ed., The Cultural Industries in Canada: Problems, Policies and Prospects (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1996), x.Google Scholar

39 Joseph Jackson and René Lemieux, The Arts and Canada’s Cultural Policy, Library of Parliament, Parliamentary Information and Research Service, October 15, 1999, http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/lop/researchpublications/933-e.htm. See also Grant and Wood, Blockbusters and Trade Wars.

40 Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences 1949–1951 (Ottawa: Edmond Cloutier, C.M.G., O.A., D.S.P., Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 1951) (“Massey Commission”).

41 Grant and Wood, Blockbusters and Trade Wars, 18.

42 Grant and Wood, Blockbusters and Trade Wars, 19. Grant and Wood note that these effects are largely independent of the quality of the work and the country of origin, so long as the appropriate conditions prevail.

43 Massey Commission.

44 Name changed in 1976 to the Canadian Radio-Televisions and Telecommunications Commission: Edwardson, Ryan, Canadian Content: Culture and the Quest for Nationhood (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), 200.Google Scholar

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46 Evaluation Services Directorate, Corporate Review Branch, Summative Evaluation of the Canada Music Fund, Canadian Heritage, October 2007, http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/em-cr/evaltn/2007/2007-04/index-eng.cfm, 21.

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49 “A lot of [the initiatives] were sort of sops to the CRTC, like contests, contributions to school bands, marching bands, Sunday choirs from churches . . . There was just a real dog’s breakfast of ways that we were essentially diluting whatever funds we had available.” Spalding, Eric, “Twice Born: The Origins of the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR), 1982–86,” Journal of Canadian Studies 42, no. 2 (2008): 141CrossRefGoogle Scholar, quoting interview with Duff Roman.

50 Ibid., 142–43.

51 Report of the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee (Ottawa: Information Services, Department of Communications, Government of Canada, 1982), 352, recommendations 55 and 56.

52 Will Straw, “Sound Recording,” in Dorland, The Cultural Industries in Canada, 107.

53 Spalding, “Twice Born,” 153.

54 Established when the federal government revisited its Sound Recording Development Program in 2001.

55 Sutherland and Straw, “The Canadian Music Industry at a Crossroads,” 154.

56 While there are Québec-based funding agencies, some distinct (e.g., SODEC) and some Québec partners of Anglophone grantors (e.g., Musicaction, Québec’s FACTOR; FondsRadioStar, Québec’s Starmaker), interview respondents overwhelmingly referred to Anglophone funders, as the majority were Anglophones. That is why these granting agencies are surveyed here.

57 “Direct Board Approval for Sound Recordings” and the “Label, Manager and Distributor Business Development” program: FACTOR, accessed July 27, 2013, https://www.factor.ca/ourprograms#.UfQ9hbtaOKE.

58 “Frequently Asked Questions,” Starmaker, accessed July 27, 2013, https://www.starmaker.ca/about/faq/#question32.

59 By professional specialization, language, cultural diversity, Aboriginal background, geography, gender, and age.

60 “Peer Assessment: How the Council Makes its Decisions,” Canada Council for the Arts, accessed July 27, 2013, http://www.canadacouncil.ca/en/council/grants-and-prizes/how-the-council-makes-its-decisions.

61 FACTOR, 2009–2010 Activity Report, 45, available on request via http://old.factor.ca/AnnualReport.aspx.

62 “Funding Rules,” Starmaker, accessed July 27, 2013, https://www.starmaker.ca/about/funding.

63 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), Economic Impact Analysis of the Sound Recording Industry in Canada, Music Canada, April 12, 2012, available at http://www.musiccanada.com/research.aspx.

64 CIMA, Sound Analysis: An Examination of the Canadian Independent Music Industry (February 2013), prepared by Nordicity, available at http://www.cirpa.ca/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3319.

65 The big four are EMI Music, Universal Music, Sony BMG Music, and Warner Music: The Nielsen Company and Billboard’s 2012 Canadian Industry Report.

66 L’Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, Mémoire de l’Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) soumis au ministère des Finances dans le cadre des consultations prébudgétaires effectuées par le ministère des Finances en vue de la préparation du budget 2004–2005 (January 16, 2004), 40, http://www.adisq.com/pdf/memoire-ADISQ-quebec.pdf.

67 Rodrigo Perez, “The Next Big Scene: Montréal,” Spin, February 2005.

68 In Sound Analysis, iv, CIMA provides an overview of the characteristics of independent music labels and finds that 46% of independent music labels are sole proprietorships.

69 Kirsty Robertson and Laura Murray’s study “Copyright and Communication Rights in Canada” aided in developing the interview questions for this study (in Marc Raboy and Jeremy Shtern, Media Divides: Communication Rights and the Right to Communicate in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010) 196–218) as did Kristin Thomson at the Future of Music Coalition, whose Artist Revenue Streams project was a touchstone, available at http://futureofmusic.org/article/research/artist-revenue-streams.

70 Interviews were conducted in English and French, although mostly in English. I was accompanied by one research assistant at each interview. Interviews were recorded and subjects were granted permission for that recording and for the use of their anonymized or non-anonymized (their preference, reflected in the footnotes) information in this study. McGill University’s Research Ethics Board granted ethics approval for the study (REB File #: 72-0809).

71 These themes were: grants; making money; alternative business models and distribution; corporate structure; copyright and rights management; property; contracts; role/purpose of the label and artist management; label philosophy and branding; what is indie; community; interviewee background.

72 Piper, Tina, “An ‘Independent’ View of Bill C-32’s Copyright Reform,” in From “Radical Extremism” to “Balanced Copyright”: Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda, ed. Geist, Michael (Toronto: Irwin, 2010), 423–46.Google Scholar

73 In the case of one established label, it represented 60% of income.

74 CIRPA (now CIMA), “Comments on Copyright Reform Submitted by the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA),” Copyright Consultations, Government of Canada, September 13, 2009, http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/008.nsf/eng/02665.html.

75 Note that many labels tend to associate “government” with grant making, even though FACTOR and Starmaker are both administered largely by private entities.

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77 Towse, “Why Has Cultural Economics Ignored Copyright?,” ibid.