With respect to copyright, the APFTQ intervenes at multiple levels.
CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS
Within our collective agreements with creators, we negotiate minimum terms and conditions for the sale and licensing of copyright. In the case of standard broadcaster and distributor contracts, we intervene when the interests of all members are concerned, either to define framework agreements concerning the producer’s share of revenues or to establish standard clauses designed to ensure compliance with the collective agreements signed by the APFTQ and the various artists’ associations.
COLLECTIVE ADMINISTRATION
We sit on the board of two copyright collective societies: the Canadian Retransmission Collection (CRC), which collects royalties from cable, satellite and other retransmitters and distributes them to copyright owners, and the Educational Rights Collective of Canada (ERCC), which handles royalties paid by educational institutions that record and use copies of productions aired on television.
COPYRIGHT LAW
In the area of copyright law, we regularly intervene in national consultations undertaken by the federal government and in international consultations conducted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
In a recent brief, we commented on a number of copyright issues, including copyright ownership of audiovisual productions, the advisability of a neighbouring rights regime covering the recording of such productions for the benefit of producers, the urgent need to establish a royalty regime for the private copying of such productions, and changes that must be made to Canada’s Copyright Act to reflect the digital era.
