CRA-ADC

And We Quote...

in cra-briefings32 · December 15, 2005

Culture is more than the livelihood of practitioners or the profits of cultural industries. It is a reflection of diverse civilizations and vehicle for the history, language, poetry, music and stories that weave our identities and relationships and provide ways to reflect our uniqueness and share the richness of diversity. All of these elements are to be both celebrated and contested but which is only possible in a milieu that nurtures the value of culture for its own sake.

— Jane Kelsey INCD Steering Committee Member April 20, 2005

Alliance Activities

in cra-briefings32 · December 15, 2005

Le coprésident de la CRA-ADC, Michel Beauchemin, a participé à la 6e Rencontre annuelle du Réseau international pour la diversité culturelle tenue à Dakar, Sénégal, du 17 au 20 novembre dernier. À cette occasion, il a participé à titre de personne-ressource à deux ateliers qui portaient le premier sur le développement de l’édition locale et le second sur la gestion collective du droit d’auteur et la lutte contre la piraterie.

Dans le cadre du premier atelier, il a tracé un bref état de la situation de l’industrie de l’édition au Québec. Puis il a décrit les possibilités en matière d’édition électronique qu’offre aux créateurs les nouvelles technologies de l’information, cela en prenant pour exemple, la bibliothèque-librairie théâtrale virtuelle Auteurs dramatiques en ligne (ADEL inc.) créée par l’Association québécoise des auteurs dramatiques (AQAD).

Le second atelier rassemblait des créateurs et intervenants socioculturels d’une dizaine de pays : Afrique du Sud, Belgique, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Canada, Côte-d’ivoire, France, Inde, Sénégal, Suisse et Tanzanie. Il a permis de tracer un portrait de la gestion collective du droit d’auteur dans les différents pays en voie de développement représentés, portrait qui a mis en évidence deux constats de base dramatiques.

1. Dans l’ensemble des pays africains, ces sociétés connaissent des problèmes de gouvernance, les créateurs et ayants droit n’ayant que peu ou pas voix au chapitre dans la gestion collective de leur droits d’auteur. En effet, que les sociétés de gestion soient des sociétés créées et gérées par l’état – comme c’est le cas dans la majorité des pays francophones – ou qu’elles soient des sociétés privées – comme c’est le cas dans la majorité des pays anglophones -, elles ne leur reversent en général qu’une faible partie des droits perus en leur nom.
2. La piraterie est un problème extrêmement important dans l’ensemble de ces pays. Cela est particulièrement vrai dans l’industrie musicale dont la survie même est remise en question, cela en particulier en Afrique du Sud. La lutte contre la piraterie doit donc être vue comme une priorité, si l’on souhaite que des industries culturelles viables se développent dans ces pays. (Voir texte ci-après)

Updates

in cra-briefings32 · December 15, 2005

THE 6TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY (INCD) BROUGHT TOGETHER 138 DELEGATES FROM 45 COUNTRIES.

From 17 to 20 November 2005, the 6th Annual Meeting of the International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD) brought together 138 delegates from 45 countries. The Conference was held in Dakar in partnership with the Senegalese Network of SocioCultural Actors and the National Coalition for Cultural Diversity (Senegal). Together, these Senegalese organizations represent the full range of Senegal’s rich arts and cultural sector, from grass roots dance and music groups to the cultural industries, and this reflects as well the broad scope of INCD’s membership.

With the adoption of the UNESCO Convention on the protection and the promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions, the INCD and culture ministers in the INCP are moving into a new phase. They must work for the implementation of the Convention and work to find concrete ways to make it effective as a political and development tool. It is especially significant that we are embarking on this next phase of our work in Africa, the birthplace of humanity, and in Senegal, with its rich diversity of arts and culture that, unfortunately, is all too often not widely available.

In three days of dynamic dialogue, delegates to the 6th Annual Meeting focused on four key issues:

• the immediate ratification of the Convention by 70-85 UNESCO member states;
• resisting demands in the WTO and regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements to make commitments that undermine the objectives and principles of the Convention and would render it meaningless;
• identifying policy initiatives and projects that give life to the commitments in the Convention, particularly to create preferential opportunities for artists and cultural productions from the South and to provide the necessary resources to develop cultural capacity and creative industries; and
• enhancing cooperation among states committed to the Convention, especially in fora where its objectives and principles are under threat, and between those states and civil society at national, regional and international levels.

APPEAL OF MUSIC ARTISTS AGAINST PIRACY IN AFRICA

On the occasion of the Regional Seminar on contractual arrangements and musicians’ rights held in Dakar from 15 to 17 November 2005, we , the representatives of professional organizations from fifteen African countries unanimously adopt this appeal.

1. Denouncing the alarming level of acts of piracy on music creation and production that makes it impossible for ant professional and independent musical creative industry to rise in Africa;
2. Reminding that in addition to the massive prejudice to the role players of the music value chain, piracy causes the loss of tremendous amount of revenues which are detrimental to the public interest;
3. Considering that the African music heritage can not sustain and develop in the globalized context of trade and digital technology, without an appropriate status for music professionals as well as intellectual property right on the result of their work;
4. Affirming that due to the growth of piracy networks and their largely cross-border characteristic, the governmental and non-governmental organisations should implement joint strategies with the aim of dismantling the manufacturing importation and distribution of pirates cassettes, CDs, VCRs and DVDs;
5. Recalling the national measures arising from public authority prerogatives are the exclusive responsibility and competence of the State, that it shouldn’t transfer the burden of such measures on collective management and has therefore to ensure the proper application of the law, notably guarantees the economical and social interest of music professionals;
6. Calling on the African States to ratify, transpose and enforce the international treaties in order to harmonize and globalize the rights of music performers such as those of others stakeholders;
7. Urging African States to go beyond the political will of defending culture that they strongly expressed in adopting the Convention on the protection and promotion of diversity of cultural expressions, through concrete measures of fighting against piracy in cooperation with professional organisations.

The organisations issuing this appeal are the following: OMB (Organisation des Musiciens du Bnin), SYNAM (Syndicat National des Artistes Musiciens du Burkina Faso), SYCAMU (Syndicat Camerounais des Artistes Musiciens), MUSIGA (Musicians’ Union of Ghana), MAM (Musicians’ Association of Malawi), NAU (Namibian Artists’ Union), ANACIMM (Association Nationale des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Interprtes de Musique Moderne du Niger), AMS ( Association des Mtiers de la Musique du Sngal), SLMU (Sierra-Leone Musicians’ Union), MUSA ( Musicians’ Union of South Africa), TNM (Tanzania Musicians Network), SAIAC (Syndicat des Artistes Interprtes et Auteurs-Compositeurs du TOGO), UMU (Uganda Musicians’ Union) et MUZI (Musicians’ Union of ZIMBABWE). The Senegal Inter-professional Phonographic Producers and Publishers (CIPEPS) supports this appeal.

THE UNITED STATES MAINTAINS ITS FIRM STANCE

In mid October, the US Sentencing Commission approved an emergency set of rules that will increase prison sentences for people convicted of copyright infringement over peer-to-peer networks, where those works are being infringed for commercial purposes. In response to a directive from the Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which required the Commission to review the sentencing guidelines dealing with people convicted of intellectual property crimes. The guidelines have been modified to make clear that “uploading” includes having a copyright file available in a shared folder (like those on P2P networks) which can count as illegal distribution. For more information on the new sentencing guidelines see www.ussc.gov.

The office of the US Trade Representative has been flexing some muscle in response to the amendments to the Copyright Act proposed by the Canadian government in Bill C-60. At a seminar hosted by Osgoode Hall’s Professional Development Program in November, Ms. Gloria Choe-Groves, a representative of the US Trade Representative, indicated that her office did not believe that the amendments offered by Bill C-60 were sufficient to meet the requirements of WIPO treaties. Specifically, she suggested the protections for Technical Protection Measures should be stronger and that ISP’s should be subject to a notice-and-takedown regime rather than the notice-and-notice provided. The bill became history on November 29th when the Martin Government fell and a general election called. The contents of Bill C-60 can be seen at: www.canadianheritage.gc.ca.

HONG KONG MAN CONVICTED

On the eve of the Sixth Ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization taking place in Hong Kong in December (and eighteen months after the WIPO meeting in Beijing had to be cancelled because of the outbreak of SARS) and important copyright case has been decided in China.

Chan Nai Ming has been convicted in Hong Kong for infringing copyright by sharing movies online over the P2P software program BitTorrent; specifically three Hollywood bock busters “Red Planet”, “Miss Congeniality” and “Daredevil”. He has been sentenced to three months in jail for each count, to be served concurrently, and a fine to $645HK. Although the sentence was light (the maximum being a four year jail term and a hefty fine), it is believed that Nai-Ming is the first person to be convicted of P2P file sharing under Hong Kong’s law. (www.news.com.com)

GROKSTER CLOSES UP SHOP

In the face of ongoing battles in the American courts, Grokster has ceased operations. The notice on its web page currently states: “The United States Supreme Court has unanimously confirmed that using this service to trade copyrighted material is illegal. Copying copyrighted motion picture and music files using unauthorized peer-to-peer services is illegal and is prosecuted by copyright owners. There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This is not one of them. Grokster hopes to have a safe and legal service available soon.” (www.grokster.com)

Grokster isn’t the only P2P service that is bowing to pressure form the recording industry. In Australia, a case between Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) and Swiftel Communications settled out of court. (www.news.com.com)

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH GOOGLE

Amazon is the next company to jump on the digital band-wagon. However, Amazon is taking a different approach than Google and other enterprises. Under its Amazon Pages program customers will be allowed to purchase portions of a digitized book, and will be charged by the page. Also, where a customer has purchased a book in traditional form, Amazon will offer that person full online access to the text. Differentiating itself from the service offered by Google by requiring purchase, Amazon has won the support of The Authors Guild and publishers, including Random House are beginning to come on board. For more information on this initiative please see www.washingtonpost.com or www.news.yahoo.com.

HAPPENINGS AT WTO

Susan Crean, co-chair of the Creators Rights Alliance is attending the 6th Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December. Watch the January Briefing for an update on the highlights of the meetings.

In advance of the meetings, several countries have answered the call for contributions to the technical assistance of the least-developed nations. (Of the 148 WTO members, about threequarters have self-elected the status of developing nation. Of these, 30 are designated least developing countries.) At the Fifth Ministerial meeting at Doha, it was confirmed that technical cooperation and capacity building were “core elements” of the evolving multilateral trading system. WTO technical assistance is to assist developing and least-developed countries and lowincome countries adjust to WTO rules and disciplines, implement obligations and exercise rights of membership. Since last March, Luxembourg, Italy, Germany, Norway, Korea and the US have made contributions to the fund. Most recently, Iceland agreed to contribute 180,000 CHF for technical assistance in 2006 and 2007. Here’s more from the WTO’s site.

Canada contributed $156,000 this year to the second Caribbean Regional Trade Policy Course. Many critics of Canada’s participation at the WTO have suggested that Canada should follow the lead of Scandinavian countries and support of technical assistance. The increase in technical funding is good news, nonetheless, for African Countries in the lead up to the Ministerial Conference where progress on agricultural, trade and debt forgiveness issues is expected to be strongly debated. For more information on the Ministerial see the press release.

PATENTING A “STORYLINE”

A process of relaying a story having a timeline and a unique plot involving characters includes: indicating a character’s fear of acting in a particular manner or performing a particular task, indicating the character being provided with a virtual reality environment, indicating that the character’s fear is reduced or eliminated in the virtual reality environment, and indicating a belief of the character that the character is in the virtual reality environment at a time in the timeline in which the character is not in the virtual reality environment.

—Abstract from US Patent Application #20050255437

The US Patent and Trademark Office has published history’s first “storyline” patent and is expected to issue several others in the coming months. This represents a new area of intellectual property protection that some critics think is overreaching the traditional bounds of patent law. Others note the resort to patent protection for a work that would normally be covered by copyright. The question raised for creators is one of definition. When does an idea become a technique? The “storyline” above is a story idea that would emerge from the hands of Stephen King and Margaret Atwood completely differently. If plots can be patented, the next question would have to be, who benefits? If the play or story is based on reality, should the protagonists get a cut? And if this idea has been used before, can the heirs sue, can the public domain be taxed? Could Shakespeare be had up for patent infringement?

Watch this space for updates on this patent application in the coming months. For more information on the application see www.emediawire.com or www.uspto.gov.

Litigation

in cra-briefings32 · December 15, 2005

The Copyright Board of Canada has determined that SOCAN is entitled to an increase royalty for authors and composers when music is played on radio stations. Under the new tariff SOCAN is entitled to 3.2% of the first $1.25 million in advertising revenues and 4.4% of advertising revenues over and above this. Though SOCAN has stated that this should not have an impact on most small radio stations, Canadian commercial radio stations are seeking a judicial review. For more information on this decision see www.cb-cda.gc.ca.

Global Artists' Issues: focus on Jamaica

in cra-briefings32 · December 15, 2005

People have long admired the rich culture of the Caribbean. From vivid traditions in the visual arts to a globally admired tradition in music, Caribbean nations exhibit a cultural diversity that merits global protection.

Music is one of Jamaica’s largest exports and Jamaican artists therefore face the same problems of piracy that artists are experiencing around the world. However, creators in Jamaica and other regions in the Caribbean are hampered by the lack of indigenous cultural industries. Though the indigenous publishing industry in Jamaica is growing, there is still a great deal of Jamaican writing that is not being captured and much of the educational curriculum is being imported. The importance of protecting and nurturing Jamaica’s indigenous writing industry has been commented on in various settings, including by creators themselves. See the comments of noted Jamaican writer, Joanne Simpson at www.jamaicans.com.

The law in Jamaica is modeled on that of the United Kingdom and offers a good deal of protection to Jamaican creators. The maximum penalty for the infringement of copyright is a fine of $100,000 or 2 years in prison per action or count in the charge. However, it is the enforcement and implementation of these laws where progress can be made and the position of the creator enhanced.

The efforts to protect creators’ rights are manifesting themselves in a number of ways including through the development and progress of collective licensing. JAMCOPY, the Jamaican Copyright Licensing Agency that collectively administers photocopying rights is one of the most progressive collectives in the region and has been an example for the development of the collectives in other Caribbean nations. Through this organization creators are being remunerated for the reproduction of their work by the government and others (business, educational institutions, libraries and individuals).

The government in Jamaica has become keenly involved in the battle against piracy particularly within the Jamaican community. The Ministry of Commerce Science and Technology has announced programs to help combat piracy, initially through education campaigns and, following this, through the application of the law. Though the compliance efforts of the Jamaican Intellectual Property Association (JIPO) have increased and have been assisted by the Organized Crime Division of the police, copyright infringement is still evident in street markets and at local vendors throughout the country. However, in many cases it remains the responsibility of creators to monitor and protect their rights. The onus is on the individual creator to commence a civil action; the Organized Crime Division will only get involved if a criminal complaint is made.

Information and support is also needed to assist Jamaican creators in the protection of their rights. No formal registration is required in order to be able to assert copyright in Jamaica. In the effort to encourage creators the Jamaican Copyright Directorate recommends rights holders to protect use the “poor man’s” method sending a package containing the work in the mail to your self and keeping the sealed package with the post date on it (See: www.jis.gov.jm.) In this case the post date effectively becomes the date of creation.

In a country that celebrates Bob Marley’s birthday as a national holiday (February 6th in case you were wondering), the value of culture and the importance of protecting and fostering creator rights has not been lost.

Events for the Jamaican Creator:

• January 26-28 — Jamaica Blues and Jazz Festival
• March 26 -April 1 — Writers Workshop Retreat
• May — Calibash International Writers Festival
• July 16-23 — Reggae Summerfest Organizations

Involved in the Protection of Creator Rights in the Caribbean:

• Jamaican Association of Authors Composers and Publishers Jacap@jamweb.net
• Jamaican Musical Rights Administration Society (JAMRAS)
• Jamaican Federation of Musicians jafedmusic.tripod.com
• Jamaica Cultural Development Commission www.jcdc.org.jm
• Jamaican Association of Vintage Artistes
• Jamaican Copyright Licensing Agency
• Jamaica Performers Administration Society (JPAS)
• The Songwriters Guild

Congratulations and Announcements

in cra-briefings32 · December 15, 2005

The Creators’ Copyright Coalition (CCC) has launched its website www.creatorscopyright.ca, supported by artists’, writers’, and musicians’ organizations committed to both access and copyright.

Congratulations to David Bergen named the 2005 winner of the Giller Prize for his novel “The Time in Between”.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2005 Governor General’s Awards:

Fiction

• David Gilmour for “A Perfect Night to Go to China”
• Aki Shumazaki for “Hotaru”

Non-Fiction

• John Vaillant for “The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth Madness and Greed”
• Michel Bock for “Quand la nation débordait les frontières’’

Poetry

• Anne Compton “Processional”
• Jean-Marc Desgent for “Vingtièmes siècles”

Drama

• John Mighton “Half Life”
• Genevive Billette for “Le pays des genoux”

Translation

• Fred A. Reid “Truth or Death: The Quest for Immortality in the Western Native Tradition” by Thierry Hentsch
• Rachel Martinez for “Glen Gould: Une Vie” by Kevin Bazzana

Children’s Lit

• Pamela Porter “The Crazy Man”
• Camille Bouchard for “Le ricanement des hyènes”

Children’s Illustration

• Rob Gonsalves “Imagine a Day”; text by Sarah L. Thomson
• Isabelle Arsenault for “Le coeur de Monsieur Gauguin”; text by Marie-Danielle Croteau

March 31, 2006 is the deadline for nominations for world book capital for 2008. Montreal has been a great ambassador for books in 2005. If you have a suggestion for 2008 find out more from m.rosi@unesco.org

To make an announcement in Congratulations please e-mail vjones@sympatico.ca