Musicians push hard, but no copyright changes until fall

GUY DIXON
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

New copyright legislation isn't likely to come until the fall, say Ottawa insiders, despite the publicity blitz by a coalition of musicians opposing certain restrictions.

In just two weeks, the new Canadian Music Creators Coalition has shifted public attention sharply away from what the major record companies want out of the coming legislation: tighter legal controls and the ratification of the World Intellectual Property Organization treaties.

Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies and other musicians in the coalition have instead grabbed the spotlight with press announcements and meetings in Ottawa about their position: Lawmakers shouldn't make it easier for record labels to sue file sharers or to allow tighter home-copying restrictions. However, the coalition has been less specific on alternative courses of action, though it has mentioned the possibilities of new levies on blank media or licensing file-sharing sites as a way to compensate artists for piracy.

Despite the publicity push, NDP Heritage critic Charlie Angus and Liberal critic Mauril Bélanger, who met with the coalition this week, said that the Conservative government has indicated to them that a copyright bill likely won't come until the fall. It will affect not only musicians, but everyone from filmmakers and artists to writers and educators.

Angus, who is a musician himself and sang lead vocals with the rock band Grievous Angels, has stood alongside members of the coalition as a show of support, and he notes that the new government seems to be approaching the copyright debate differently. Under the past Liberal government, the policy was driven more by civil servants and by former Liberal MP Sarmite Bulte; now he sees the Conservative government formulating more of a party position on the issue.

The current government "is looking to take on the issue and when they make their decision, they are going to be fairly firm about where they're going," he said.

Heritage Minister Bev Oda wasn't available for comment.

Bélanger, the Liberal Heritage critic, said that he appreciates that musicians would rather have their fans enjoy their music than be sued for copying and sharing it. "On the other hand, [musicians] also want to have an income. The question then becomes how do you generate that income? Is it a levy? Who administers it? Then you get into all kinds of complicated questions. So they have some homework to do in terms very specific proposals that they may want to put forward," Bélanger said. "And there's time for that. That is what I encouraged them to do," he said.

He added that the debate will only heat up once the bill is eventually introduced and numerous arts, media and education groups begin trying to hammer their own proposals into the legislation.