Hundreds of IATSE members across Canada have written to their Members of Parliament urging the MPs to protect their industry and their jobs by enacting stronger copyright legislation. These letters have not gone unnoticed.
We congratulate the Government for introducing Bill C-32, a critical first step in ensuring Canada has modern copyright laws that protect the creative industries and men and women working in film and television production across Canada.
If implemented, the bill will ensure that Canada ratifies international treaties, which require protection for digital locks and other measures aimed at preventing online theft. These measures would protect and create jobs in our industry by giving creators the legal tools to protect their investments in order to reinvest in future projects.
Bill C-32 also gives consumers the flexibility to manage content such as time-shifting, format shifting (copying legitimately acquired content onto devices they own), or backup copying The bill does not provide for the extension of the controversial private copying levy to devices such as ipods, which would have been extremely unpopular with consumers and was not supported by the IATSE.
International President Matthew D. Loeb stated, “Copyright reform is a complicated issue that requires give-and-take on all sides. We applaud the Canadian government for moving forward with modernizing Canada’s copyright laws and will continue to study the bill in more detail to ensure that it achieves its objectives.”