MUSIC AND SOUND RECORDING

LEGAL AND COPYRIGHT

• Artists Legal Advice Service

  ALAS provides free legal advice to Ontario artists working in all disciplines. Artists can schedule an appointment to see a lawyer for one-half hour by calling 416.367.2527.

• Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)

  CIPO is an agency associated with Industry Canada responsible for the administration of intellectual property in Canada. This site provides basic information about Canada’s copyright law and systems, including a section of FAQs which may be of interest to choreographers.

• Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC)

  CPCC is the non-profit agency charged with collecting and distributing royalties on the media that are used by individual Canadians to copy music. CPCC is an umbrella organization that represents songwriters, recording artists, music publishers and record companies, the groups on whose behalf the royalties are collected. Note that individual artists are members of collective societies which in turn have formed the CPCC.

• Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA) and the Creators Copyright Coalition (CCC)

  These are coalitions of national artists’ associations and collectives responsible for managing authors’ rights, which is devoted to the defense, the promotion and the protection of the interests of Canadian creators in relation to intellectual property. The sites have information about domestic and international copyright issues.

• Lawyer Referral Service (No link available)

  The Law Society of Upper Canada established this service in 1969. You can obtain the name of a lawyer who will provide a free consultation of up to 30 minutes by calling 905.565.4577. The call will cost you a modest sum, currently $6.00.

• Legal Line

  A not-for-profit organization which offers legal information free of charge. Written information is available about a number of topics of interest to artists, including copyright, internet law, business law, bankruptcy and entertainment law (primarily music and the recorded media).

• Neighbouring Right

  Performers whose recorded performances are broadcast or used for commercial purposes may be entitled to receive a royalty. Such performers may assign this “neighbouring right” to a collective society, either the:

  • ACTRA Performers’ Rights Society which represents singers, through the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), musicians recording in English, or
  • Artisti which represents singers and other artists recording in French.

• Ontario Legal Aid Plan (OLAP)

  OLAP funds community legal clinics, and specialty clinics that provide services to defined communities, such as tenants, First Nations, African Canadians and Chinese and South Asian Ontarians

• Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN)

  SOCAN is the copyright collective for the public performance of musical works. It administers the performing rights of members (composers, lyricists, songwriters and their publishers) and those of affiliated international societies by licensing the use of their music in Canada.

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