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SECTION II: ANALYSIS OF PROGRAM ACTIVITIES BY
STRATEGIC OUTCOME

Analysis by Strategic Outcome

The Board's strategic outcome is to ensure fair decision-making to provide proper incentives for the creation and uses of copyrighted works.

Program Activity

The following program activity contributes to this strategic outcome: Render decisions and issue licences

Priorities

There are six priorities associated with the Copyright Board's strategic outcome. These are:

1. Minimizing costs of participating in the hearings while ensuring a fair process and decision;
   
2. Facilitating the hearing process by providing appropriate guidance, information and analysis;
   
3. Issuing timely, fair and consistent decisions;
   
4. Increasing participant satisfaction in the hearing process;
   
5. Demonstrating leadership in the domestic and international arenas to advance the analytical framework for decisions and the regulatory processes for tariff-setting;
   
6. Responding to the challenges of new technologies and their impact on the use of copyrighted works.

Minimizing participation costs of the regulatory process results encourages the participation of appropriate parties, streamlines the process, provides more timely decisions and leading to the most satisfactory decisions. The monitoring of these planned results is achieved by initially surveying informally hearing participants, with follow-up examination and determination of alternative procedural practices to improve the efficiency of the regulatory process. The rationale for this priority is directly related to the federal government's program to improve regulatory efficiency. To the extent that this priority also leads to fairer decision-making, the overall innovation capability of parties affected by the copyright tariff process improves.

Each regulatory process involves differing degrees of complexity, different numbers of participants and different requirements for new or original research and data. However, the Board does gain greater efficiency in conducting hearings, particularly once a specific tariff has already been established and subsequent hearings can build on the legacy of the original hearing.

In 2006-2007, the Board took steps which resulted in a reduction of the regulatory burden. For instance, when appropriate, the Board combined hearings processes which have resulted in some cost savings for the participants.

Facilitation through guidance, information and analysis results in better informed parties and better quality of tariff decisions. The achievement of this result is directly monitored through timely conduct of hearing processes and the lack of interruption in proceedings due to administrative and technical delays. Initiatives designed to achieve this result include pre-hearing meetings with interested parties and case management meetings with legal representatives. In addition, the implementation of a pre-hearing joint statement of (non-contested) facts and handling of legal issues solely through written submissions can improve the efficiency of the process. The rationale underlying this priority is to minimize the administrative costs to Canadians from the setting of tariffs and to streamline the process in the face of increasing complexities in hearing subject matter. In 2006-2007, the Board has held case management meetings which resulted in better-informed parties and shorter processes.

The Board's priority of timely, fair and consistent decision-making is challenged by an ever-changing technological environment, global events and new business models. These challenges will continue to be met, and risk minimized, by engaging in pre-hearing consultations, information gathering and web site postings. These procedures will assist in conducting well-organized proceedings which address key issues facing copyright-related industries.

The Board relies on evidence submitted by participants as well as on its own internal and contracted research and analysis resources to develop a strong understanding of the issues relevant to its decisions. Performance measures that are considered include the degree of horizontal and vertical consistency in decisions, timeliness of decisions, the granularity or precision of evidence requested or suggested by the Board and ultimately, the economic impact of the Board's decisions on the sectors that create or utilize copyrighted works.

The Board receives tariffs applications from collective societies on or before March 31 of a given year in which a tariff is scheduled to terminate. The Board has some latitude in the scheduling of hearings and tries to initiate the procedure leading to a hearing as efficiently as possible. The Board posts its upcoming hearing schedule on its website (www.cb-cda.gc.ca). There are no statutory deadlines for the release of the Board's decisions. However, the Board endeavors to deal with all applications as expeditiously as possible, while keeping the interests and constraints of the parties in mind.

The priority of greater participant satisfaction is closely linked to the timeliness and orderly conduct of formal proceedings. The Board plans to continue to structure and sequence witnesses and hearing stages so as to eliminate duplication and maximize time spent on relevant issues.

Because the Board hearings involve adversarial parties, some of whom will likely experience direct economic gain or loss in association with an offsetting gain or loss to another party, the Board's decisions cannot be expected to be satisfactory to all parties at all times. However, the Board attempts to bring unbiased and rigorous reasoning to its decision-making. The Board also recognizes the need to provide clear and sufficiently detailed explanations in its decisions so as to assist parties in preparing for the next round of tariff-setting. The Board is considering various means for tracking or measuring constituent satisfaction with hearing processes.

In addition, the Board will continue to examine alternatives to current procedures based upon input from hearing participants as part of a plan to develop and implement a more active involvement in pre-hearing information gathering aimed at reducing time and cost to participants while safeguarding the fairness of procedures.

Leadership in copyright matters continued to build on the groundwork performed in the past, as noted in previous Departmental Planning Reports. The Board plans to continue its leadership role in the establishment and expansion of international activities such as sharing of procedures, data, analysis and other information. In this regard, the Board was pleased to host visits of: a delegation from the UK Patent Office commissioned to review the mandate of the UK Copyright Tribunal (September 2006), the Chairman of the UK Copyright Tribunal (September 2006), a Japanese copyright delegation (October 2006), the Asia-Pacific Regional Office of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) accompanied by a delegation from the Taiwan Copyright Office (November 2006). Board Members and staff also held a day long briefing session with Judges of the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board in Washington (November 2006).

The international initiative is also a key tool in addressing the challenges of changing technology and the impact of global events. By comparing experiences across different countries, the Board can gain early warning of significant developments and their likely impacts on the Canadian situation.

Among the most significant risks which the Board faces in achieving its strategic outcomes is the potentially disruptive impact of new technologies (i.e., in terms of how copyright material is utilized, distributed and monitored). The Board's approach to managing the technology risk is to systematically monitor relevant journals, other publications and web sites, and to attend industry seminars and conferences. Among the international fora of copyright specialists which the Board Members and staff attended in 2006-2007, the following are noteworthy: the Fordham University Annual Conference on International Intellectual Property Law and Policy (New York, April 2006); the International Publishers' Association (IPA) meeting (Montreal, April 2006); the Annual Conference of the Association littéraire et artistique internationale (ALAI) (Barcelona, June 2006); and the Annual Congress of the Society for Economic Research on Copyright Issues (SERCI) (Singapore, July 2006). The Board was also represented at numerous similar national meetings in Canada. The rationale for the Board's "screening" activities is to identify and assess industry trends before they undermine existing copyright regimes.

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