Of course, there is an ongoing debate in Europe about new device levies. But not adapting the scope of copyright levies on devices and storage media at all is not a solution either. This is because revenue for the creative industries would fall rapidly, and an entire economic sector would shrink. Creative professionals are working to counteract this, and in Canada, a broad coalition of creative professionals and rights representatives is now working under stricter conditions.
After all, there are technical developments in devices that make it increasingly easy to make private copies. In addition, there are new services in powerful networks and, last but not least, the use of all these blessings is also changing. The consequences of not adapting legal provisions despite all this can also be observed time and again in Europe; for example in Denmark until the complete revision of the levy system in 2021, in Belgium until 2022, or in Spain until 2023. Canada still stands for a copyright levy system that has almost fallen out of time and cannot fulfil its actual purpose. Against the backdrop of an overdue reform of copyright law, this currently inadequate system of remuneration for private copying should therefore also be made technology-neutral.
An initiative by the CDEC (coalition pour la diversité des expressions culturelles) is calling for the Copyright Act to be amended so that the private copying system is no longer explicitly restricted to certain technologies, i.e. becomes technology-neutral. The levies paid to artists, writers and musicians fell from 38 million US dollars in 2004 to 1.1 million US dollars last year. The reason for this is that levies have been limited to copies on CDs since 2010 and the rate has remained unchanged over the entire period. This means that no levies are charged on the billions of private copies of music made on mobile phones and tablets. Copyright law has not kept pace with technology and rights holders are not being compensated. Even a levy of just under 3 USD on tablets and smartphones would raise about 40 million USD annually to help Canadian music creators continue to produce music.
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