Canada's copyright tariff setting process : Processus de fixation des tarifs de droit d'auteur au Canada

The Copyright Board is an economic regulatory body empowered to establish, either mandatorily or at the request of an interested party, the royalties to be paid for the use of copyrighted works, when the administration of such copyright is entrusted to a collective society. [...] To this end, the Standing Committee recommended that the Government examine the time that it takes for decisions to be rendered by the Copyright Board.5 In its complementary report, the Liberal Caucus added that the Board “seems overwhelmed” and faces a “huge workload” of complex issues, recommending that both the modus operandi and the resources available to the Board be urgently analyzed.6 This [...] It also enabled necessary distinctions as to the nature of the tariff being examined, the nature of the parties involved and the industry in which they operate. [...] Key milestones included the dates of: Filing of a proposed tariff by the collective society with the Board; Publication of the proposal by the Board in the Canada Gazette; Hearings, if applicable; Issuance of reasons for an interim or final decision by the Board; and Certification of the tariff as proposed or amended. [...] Qualitative data pertaining to other matters associated with each tariff was also collected and inputted into the database, including: The collective society or societies that proposed the tariff; The industry in which the collective operates; and The legal regime to which the tariff is related.