“Working together we can strengthen our ability to serve all of our members and make it easier for businesses to comply with licensing requirements”, said David Basskin, President of CMRRA, the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency.

“This is a great step forward in terms of ensuring the most effective and efficient management of the rights of music creators and publishers”, said Eric Baptiste, CEO of SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.

“This collaborative effort reflects the ability of our three organizations to remain flexible and adapt to the rapidly evolving music industry”, said Alain Lauzon, General Manager of SODRAC, the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada.

While an agreement has been made to examine opportunities for the three organizations to work together, the next step involves a feasibility study to determine the best way forward.

March 21-25, 2012

Fairmont Royal York Hotel,

Toronto, ON

2012 Juno Awards

March 26-April 1, 2012

                                                                                                   Ottawa, ON

Download (PDF, 1005.22KB)

The indictment came the day after a 24-hour “blackout” of Wikipedia, a protest doodle on the homepage of Google, and numerous other protests across the Internet against the proposed SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy legislation.

Commenting on the indictment, National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) President and CEO David Israelite said: “On behalf of the songwriting and music publishing community, the NMPA applauds the Justice Department for fighting and indicting those who support the theft of copyrighted materials. Yesterday’s shuttering of Megaupload and the indictment of its executives is one of the largest criminal copyright cases to date. This case rightly demonstrates the value of copyright to our economy and the challenges creators face every day protecting their works.”

The majority opinion, authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, stated “the majority opinion which held that Congress had acted within its powers in granting the protections and that the law does not violate the Constitution’s Copyright Clause, it does not violate the First Amendment rights of anyone, and it does not deviate from any long-standing historical practice or perception.

“Congress had reason to believe that a well-functioning international copyright system would encourage the dissemination of existing and future works.”

APRA’s overall revenue for the period rose Australian $10.6 million ($10.30 million) to Australian $183 million ($177 million), but was adversely affected by foreign revenue results, which were down 8% to $20.2 million ($19.6 million).

During the latest reporting period, AMCOS achieved Australian $57.1 million ($55.5 million) in gross revenue for the most recent year, a 15% gain, due to a 67% rise in revenue from sales of digital downloads in Australia and New Zealand.

The two companies outbid Warner Music Group and BMG Chrysalis. Warner had vied for the recorded music unit whose roster includes Norah Jones and Lady Antebellum, while BMG Chrysalis bid for EMI Publishing, whose catalog includes classics such as “Over the Rainbow” and “New York, New York.”

Citigroup has owned EMI since February, when it seized the company from former owner Terra Firma Capital. The private-equity firm, which bought EMI in 2007, was close to a default on the massive debts it took on as part of that purchase.

Certain bidders, including Warner, are interested in the whole of EMI, (published and recorded works) whereas others such as Sony and BMG are interested primarily in EMI’s publishing with catalogue including such hit makers as Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Kanye West.  Universal is interested in EMI’s recorded legacy as it controls the masters of artists such as The Beatles, Radiohead, and Frank Sinatra.

EMI, with its sale expected to wrap up before the end of the year, would be the second major music company to be sold this year, following Access Industries’ acquisition of Warner in May for $3.3 billion in cash and debt.  Executives familiar with the bidding predicted that the sale could fetch over $3 Billion.

Approximately 34 post-secondary schools in Canada have indicated they are opting out of the interim tariff (the existing fee - $45 per full-time student) and 27 of those schools have yet to answer interrogatory requests from Access Copyright regarding how they currently use materials.

In the ruling Gilles McDougall, secretary general of the Copyright Board of Canada stated that the absence of evidence on the copying practices of opt-out institutions “can only make it more difficult for the board to design the final tariff so as to respond to any legitimate concerns of these institutions.”

“We’ve taken a couple runs at it before in minority Parliaments, but we think that we have a very good formula with the old Bill C-32 and when we come forward with our legislative agenda this fall we want to pick up where we left off, which is to continue the study of the legislation,” Moore said.  “This is long overdue in Canada. We did so much consultation, so much preparation, there was such a depth of understanding of the legislation that we tabled that we want to continue the study of that legislation.”

One of the controversially debated issues surrounding the bill, concerning how educators are able to use copyrighted materials, has now popped up before the Supreme Court.  The justices will be hearing a case about whether grade school teachers who make copies of textbooks for their students should be shielded from paying tariffs.  Groups who represent educators and provincial ministers of education would like to see more explicit protection for classroom copying included in the “fair dealing” section of the Act, while those who represent publishers say they deserve to be compensated for the textbooks they create.