Media Beat: July 05, 2019

By David Farrell

Culture minister Rodriguez comments on Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review

I thank the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel for its report and all Canadians who took the time to make submissions. Our end goal is clear. If you benefit, you contribute. No more free rides.

Concretely, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that all players, including the Internet giants:

• ·offer meaningful levels of Canadian content in their catalogues;

• ·contribute to the creation of Canadian content; and,

• ·promote Canadian content and make it easily accessible on platforms.

In this context, it will be important to provide the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission with the modern tools it needs in order play its role.

It’s 2019 and the key laws regulating our culture and our communications, predate the internet. This situation is hurting our economy, our workforce, and our culture. We want a system where our creators and our businesses in the cultural sector compete on a level playing field with global Internet giants.

The work being done right now by Janet Yale and her team of experts to review those acts is essential, because it will help us implement a long-term solution. That’s what we announced in Budget 2017 and that’s exactly what we are doing.

When we appointed this panel and assigned it the task of reviewing our country’s communications framework, we knew there was a lot of work ahead. A few days ago, I took a moment with Janet Yale to discuss the urgency to take action. She assured me that the panel’s work is on time and that the government can expect a final report in January 2020 at the latest.

We look forward to receiving this final report. We will take appropriate measures swiftly when we receive the final report.

Canadians must continue to access Canadian stories, created by Canadians in both English and French, on all platforms. We believe that the government has a key role to play in that and, rest assured, we intend to fulfil that role.

Our government made a significant reinvestment in Canadian culture. We stabilized the Canada Media Fund by investing $172 million and we announced $650 million to support independent journalism across the country.

Our government will always stand tall for our culture and be its strongest ally.

Canadian Copyright mid-year update issued by Bereskin & Parr law firm

We are now halfway through 2019, and it has already been an exciting year for Canadian copyright law. This Bereskin & Parr update highlights several recent Canadian copyright developments starting. With policy and legislative developments, and followed by a review of recent copyright decisions. If you would like to learn more, contact the authors.

1 - LEGISLATIVE & POLICY DEVELOPMENTS

In this section, we discuss copyright policy developments including the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) and recommendations following the Government’s review of the Copyright Act (the “Act”).

(a) USMCA

On September 30, 2018, the text of the USMCA was released, and on November 30, Canada, the United States, and Mexico signed onto the new trade agreement that replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement. The USMCA includes numerous provisions relating to intellectual property and digital media, which must be implemented into each of the signatory countries’ domestic laws within prescribed transition periods after the USMCA comes into force. 

Copyright term extension to life + 70.  Among the most significant copyright provisions to Canada, the USMCA provides that the general term of copyright protection shall be “not less than the life of the author and 70 years from the author’s death”. – Catherine Lovrics & Max Rothschild, Bereskin & Parr

Beeb and CBC recommit to collaborating

The BBC and CBC/Radio-Canada today announced a commitment to future collaboration across a range of different areas. The agreement was made between Tony Hall, Director-General BBC, and Catherine Tait, President and CEO, CBC/Radio-Canada, on the occasion of the 82^nd General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union in Oslo, Norway last week. – Greg David, TV-eh?