Jari Ketola
30 Nov 2003 12:24
A group representing Canadian songwriters has asked the Supreme Court to rule that Internet Service Providers have to pay them royalties for music files. The ISPs would have to pay an annual royalty regardles of the nature of the music files transferred through their systems.
Should the demands of Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) be agreed to by the court, it could result in increase in Internet service fees paid by Canadian consumers. It would also open the door for other copyright holders, like movie studios and software manufacturers, to demand similar royalty payments to compensate on piracy.
The fees proposed by SOCAN are 25 cents per subscriber per year plus 10 per cent of any gross profit made by ISPs through the sale of advertising.
"This is the big case for the Internet. This will set the position on how we are going to treat Internet service providers, whether they are going to be seen as people who are responsible in some way for content that goes through their services," said Mark Perry, a professor of law and a professor of computer science at the University of Western Ontario.
Source:
CTV