So , what we now have is an opportunity for , without laying blame and without pointing fingers , we have an opportunity to say that we ’ re out of the enabling phase ; we ’ ve enabled this new digital marketplace and very clearly we enabled market distortions that we didn ’ t intend , and now the government will play the role of a leveler . We ’ re going to restore balance .
CM : You explain there were two major international treaties by the World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO ) in 1996 that stated the importance of protecting copyrights in the new digital age ; however , a lot of problems began with the United States ’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA ) in 1998 . That became a template for other countries ’ legislations whereby creators subsidized tech companies through exemptions , allowing those companies to not pay creators for their work . In Canada , because a series of Liberal and Conservative minority governments kept falling before their respective bills could be passed to ratify those WIPO treaties , it wasn ’ t until 2012 that the majority Conservative government passed Canadian legislation that clarified Canada ’ s copyright rules . By 2012 , you had Google and iTunes and Facebook and a mature digital marketplace . So did the Canadian legislation include the same kinds of copyright exemptions that subsidized tech companies at the expense of creators and copyright holders ?
GH : Yup , and they even added to a few of them . I mean , there are some very powerful special interest groups that can get in front of government , and obviously the argument is persuasive that you can ’ t mess with success . Like , “ Look at what has made us successful ; you don ’ t want to stop that because look at what we drive .” So yeah , I don ’ t think the government really got our message and I also don ’ t think that there was enough clear evidence that the middle class was wiped out . I think [ the evidence ] has really finally gotten to be insurmountable now …
Look , this world where our creative middle class has been wiped out , that is not a world I want to live in and I don ’ t believe the majority of Canadians want to live in , or frankly French or German or Italian people want to live in . I think we want to live in a world where our creators can enter the middle class , can have a legitimate opportunity , and can make money . If that ’ s true , then we get to decide . We shouldn ’ t just get out of the way and let the marketplace decide who the winners and losers are . We in social democracies get to make choices about the sort of world that we want to live in and [ the ] Focus on Creators [ campaign ], I think , will help with this message when people realize what has happened … There is something we can do about it and thank god our minister of heritage , and hopefully Minister of Innovation , Science and Economic Development Navdeep Singh Bains , I think they care and I think our prime minister does , too , so I think they ’ re going to do something about it .
CM : Do you think that there is both willpower from government and acceptance from the tech industry to reintroduce the copyright payments that had been made exceptions to subsidize those tech companies ?
GH : Yes , and what I think is we have to go back and look at every single exception to the old rules . All of those exceptions involved what [ are essentially ] cross-subsidies , so creators are subsidizing technology companies . We have to look at every single one of them and say , “ Should we still have that one ?” I ’ m not saying we throw everything out ; I ’ m saying it needs a good , hard look . The rules of the road were designed to enable little baby startups , like little baby Google . Remember , I don ’ t think their IPO was until 2004 , so little startups have now become mammoth multinational behemoths . Should they still have the benefits or are they now the entrenched monolithic , oligarchic powers and maybe they need to be constrained ?
CM : In 2017 , the federal government will conduct a thorough review of all its cultural programs and policies . In her consultations this year , Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly asked you and others to provide blunt feedback and bold ideas about what to change to help the creative class . So one , what do you want to see happen , and two , what do you think is a realistic expectation ?
GH : I think that the minister in her consultations , at every single one of them , she stood and said the government has four levers :
legislations , institutions , policy and treaties , and funding . “ We ’ ve got four levers ,” she said , “ and I want you to think out of the box and I want you to be bold because I want to be bold and I want to think out of the box . Tell me how we should pull those levers to make sure that the creators are better off .”
So , in my speech , I provided several ideas under each heading . One of them under legislation , obviously , is get rid of the cross-subsidies . Have a look at every single copyright exception that was introduced in the past 20 years and make a decision about whether we still need them or whether we shouldn ’ t maybe cause wealth to flow to creators . So , you start there right now . That is what I would hope this review process in 2017 is going to do .
Secondly , in institutions , we have this Copyright Board of Canada , which for noninteractive and semi-interactive [ streaming ] issued a decision that pays creators the worst rates in the entire world . And not just a little bit bad ; it ’ s one-tenth of what the creator or label would get in the United States . One-tenth ! Very clearly they don ’ t get it . Very clearly these people continue to think that intermediaries need to continue to be subsidized by creators . Well , I disagree with that and just last week as we were up in Ottawa when the Standing Senate Committee on Banking , Trade and Commerce issued their report ... they had a press conference , which was broadcast live using Periscope , to absolutely hammer the Copyright Board , which they said was out of date , dysfunctional , and in dire need of reform . Then they went on to say that nothing that the Copyright Board said to them gave them any sense that the board is capable of reforming itself ; therefore , the Senate says this needs to be fixed .
So there is an institution , right off the bat , which if the government modernized it , it would make a big difference . I ’ m not saying we ’ d necessarily get [ everything ] they get in the United States if that board was reformed , but I ’ m saying we ’ d get more than one-tenth . So that will make a big difference to creators . There is a lever that they could pull …
Michael Raine is the Assistant Editor of Canadian Musician .
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