New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ IFPI) - IFPI, the organisation that represents the recording industry worldwide, today reacted to the publication of the draft Canadian Copyright Amendment Bill. John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of IFPI, says: "It is welcome news that the Canadian government is at last looking to update its copyright laws and join the WIPO internet treaties, recognising that unless it protects intellectual property rights in the digital era, future investment in Canadian books, films, games, music, software and television programmes will be threatened.
"The publishing of this bill is only the beginning of a process, and some of its provisions must be amended in order to bring Canada in line with its international treaty obligations as well as evolving international norms. As it is, it simply does not go far enough to protect creators and producers in the digital environment."
About the Canadian Copyright Amendment Bill
The Canadian government published a draft Copyright Amendment Bill (Bill C-32) on 2nd June 2010. This follows previous bills that fell in 2005 when Parliament was dissolved for a general election and 2008 when Parliament was prorogued.
At a news conference to announce publication of the Bill, Industry Minister Tony Clement said: "From the computations that we've done, (piracy) destroys billions of dollars of value per year."
There is an urgent need in Canada for clear copyright rules in the online environment, not only for music but for all the creative industries. Retail music sales in Canada have declined by more than half since the advent of widespread online music downloading just over a decade ago. Recorded music sales in Canada recorded one of the sharpest drops among the world's top 10 music markets between 1999 and 2009. Sales continue to decline rapidly in the absence of legal clarity about the legitimacy of peer-to-peer internet downloading. In contrast, some other music markets last year saw a return to growth.
Canada is one of the only developed countries not to have implemented international copyright treaties agreed over a decade ago. IFPI's 2010 Recording Industry in Numbers noted that a "disproportionate number of illegal sites are hosted on Canadian soil."
Legal clarity is needed to send a signal that downloading music from the Internet without payment is not allowed. Stronger rules are also needed to rein in Canadian-based peer-to-peer websites which have become a major source of the world's piracy problem.
