Illustrating Options:
Collective Administration of Intellectual Property for Canadian Cultural Heritage Institutions
3. Collective Administration of Performing Rights
The Copyright Act provides that societies, such as the Society of Composers,
Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN)3 may administer rights
associated with the performance in public of dramatic or musical works.
Recent amendments to the Copyright Act have also introduced neighbouring
rights for musicians' performances, with such rights attaching to musical
works.4 The Copyright Act removes from performing rights societies any
common-law rights (such as case law, contractual rights, and other rights
for individually licensing works that common law provides) in musical
works. Instead, it imposes a set of tariffs and provides the means to
recover tariff fees, including injunctive relief and a statutory right
of action.5
To determine what fees they can charge, a performing rights society must
file its proposed list of fees with the Copyright Board and address any
requests from the public for information concerning its repertoires in
current use. The list of fees is then published in The Canada Gazette6
to provide any interested parties with notice of the proposed fee schedule.
Any objections to these fees may be filed with the Copyright Board, which
considers these objections in determining the final fees the performing
rights society can charge for the use of works in its repertoire. In this
instance, the Copyright Board also has the jurisdiction to settle issues
associated with the fee structure, such as notice requirements.7
