Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, committee members.

We come before you today on behalf of SODRAC, an organization engaged in the collective management of copyright and reproduction rights for its member authors, composers, music publishers, and creators of artistic works. In so doing, we facilitate the use of our repertoire of works on all distribution platforms so that the work of our members is fairly remunerated.

We are appearing before you today as part of your study on remuneration models because we want to present an overview of the impact of digital technology and to propose some options for restoring balance in the value chain so that creators are more fairly remunerated.

I would like to present our findings concerning the economic lives of our members.

Considering the new digital business models and the modernization of the Copyright Act in 2012, we, as a collective representing creators, want to address the following points.

In section one, we want to present our findings concerning all market stakeholders.

First, there is the consumer. We have shifted from an ownership mode to a digital access mode in which the local, national, and international music repertoire is both legally and illegally accessible with a single click. Since consumers pay their Internet service providers for access to content or purchase individual subscriptions, they believe they pay enough for cultural, musical, and audiovisual products.

Second, there is the user. The current environment favours digital operators. Given the new digital business models, we are witnessing the emergence of new intermediaries. Some of those intermediaries use music as a loss leader, whereas others enjoy exceptions, which creates a value gap among digital works.

Lastly, there is the creator. In itself, digital technology benefits creators because it expands and democratizes the means of distribution, which used to be limited. Digital technology helps diversify creativity and reach audiences that otherwise would never have been accessible. It also helps completely transform the formats in which music is consumed.

However, the most significant finding concerning creators is their inability to obtain fair remuneration for the use of their works. The most prolific creators always find a way to do so, but that's not the case of the vast majority of creators, the equivalent of the middle class, who used to live from their creations before the advent of digital technology. For them, the imbalance that digital technology causes in the value of works is constantly increasing.

In section two, we want to outline the factors that have an economic impact on creators.

The most crucially important factor is, of course, the Copyright Act. Since 2012, however, that act has contained more exceptions than any other similar act elsewhere in the world. Those exceptions are wide-ranging and concern, for example, the private copying system and user-generated content. There are also exceptions for certain digital intermediaries.

Recent judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada have also conferred a new right on users.

Mandatory national French-language content quotas are also lacking in the digital space.

Lastly, although the Copyright Board of Canada plays an essential role, there is a value gap in its decisions on digital uses of works, and that has a negative economic impact on creators relative to the situation of other countries for the same uses.

That brings us to the final point we want to raise, and I'm going to let M^e Lavallée tell you about it.

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