Canada’s Liberal government has launched a public consultation aimed at reforming the Copyright Board of Canada.
Canadians will be able to email their contributions to the public consultation between August 9th, 2017 and September 29th, 2017.
The reformation of the Copyright Board is a result of “rapid technological advances,” reads an excerpt from a Government of Canada media release.
The Copyright Board is the entity responsible for ensuring the copyright holders receive their due royalties. It’s also the independent body responsible for ensuring that stakeholders respect the agreements between copyright holders.
“The Copyright Board of Canada plays a critical role in our copyright regime,” said Navdeep Bains, Canada’s minister of innovation, science and economic development, in the same release. “In order to thrive in the digital economy, we need to create a more efficient and effective tariff-setting process to facilitate innovation and business growth.”
Digital streaming services like Spotify, YouTube and Vimeo — platforms that tend to produce confusion and difficulty for those tasked with legislating copyright policy — have no doubt contributed to the federal government’s desire to reform the Copyright Board.
Additionally, a review of Canada’s Copyright Act is expected to begin sometime after November 7th, 2017.
The federal government has also released an extensive background paper that provides 13 possible legislative and regulatory reforms, including limiting the contributions of parties to delays; preventing or limiting tariff retroactivity; and harmonizing the tariff-setting aspects of the Copyright Act.
Source: Government of Canada
