The Supreme Court of Canada issued five simultaneous and related rulings on July 12, 2012, that provided much-needed clarity on a wide range of copyright issues raised by new technologies. Among other things, the decisions reduced some royalties paid to songwriters and publishers and gave students a break on photocopying fees.
In the first case, some of Canada’s biggest telecommunications companies had challenged the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) over royalties for streamed music services and the delivery of music downloads to customers. Canada’s top court ruled for the telecoms that digitally downloading a song is no different than buying a recording at a music store. So while a royalty is paid to the artist and publisher for the copying of the song, SOCAN can no longer also collect a royalty for the transmission of the digital recording to the consumer.
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