5. Management of Copyright

Unless arranged otherwise, the author of a work owns the copyright.  It would be completely unmanageable for millions of users to negotiate licences and royalties directly with millions of authors.  This problem is addressed by what are called "collective societies".  According to the Copyright Act (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-42/36076.html) a collective society is an organization that operates licensing schemes, and collects and distributes royalties on behalf of the copyright owners.  Collective societies are typically non-profit.  They fund their operation by retaining a portion of the royalties they collect on behalf of their copyright-owner members.  Collective societies cooperate with each other on an international basis, collecting and distributing royalties on behalf of each others' members.

Canada and most countries have several collective societies, with each society managing a particular type of work and right associated with that type of work.  For example, for music works alone, there are different rights and collective societies for performing music, copying music for commercial purposes, and copying music for private purposes.  There are also different rights for the composer of the music and the performer of the music.  Canada has a total of 36 collective societies (compared to 8 in the United States and 12 in the United Kingdom).  A complete list of collective societies can be found at the Copyright Board's website at http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/societies/index-e.html. 

Digitization and the Internet further complicate the issue.  Again, using music as an example, consider the case of a digitized musical work used as part of a music course in an educational institution.  The digitized work may be stored in a central repository as well as several caching "content appliances".  As part of a distance or online learning session, the music is transmitted from the central repository, through the caching servers, temporarily cached on users' computers and played out the users' speakers.  It is unclear whether the educational institution must acquire performance rights, copying rights, and/or transmission rights in order to do this in a legal manner.  Perhaps a new type of "digital right" must be created to handle these sorts of situations.  This will certainly be a major issue for learning object repositories.  Canadian Heritage is also trying to address the copyright clearance issue through its Electronic Copyright Fund (http://www.pch.gc.ca/ccop-pcce/progs/electron_e.cfm). 

Further details can be found in the report “Collective Management of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in Canada: An International Perspective” by Daniel J. Gervais on the Canadian Heritage website.

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