The NCRA released a pamphlet today that is designed to educate parliament about how copyright affects community broadcasters.

Called "The Copyright Issue", the pamphet was written by new NCRA President Charlotte Bourne with colleagues from the community radio sector.

"Copyright is a looming problem for community media and is actually holding some of our stations back from typical broadcasting activities," she said, giving the example of community radio stations that don't podcast because they are fearful of retroactive tariffs.

"Until this issue is resolved, campus and community radio stations can't fully use new media technology to reach their audiences, even though those audiences are increasingly moving online."

The release of Bill C-61 last year demonstrated that Parliament has forgotten to consider this non-profit sector when amending copyright legislation. Any new legislation must include a copyright tariff cap and exemptions for bypassing digital locks for legitimate journalistic and broadcasting purposes.

"We hope the Canadian government recognizes that new copyright legislation provides a great opportunity to secure the rights of non-profit broadcasters to use copyrighted material and fully promote emerging artists both on and offline," Bourne said.

"But poorly implemented, the same legislation can significantly hold our sector back and will come with significant financial burdens."

Download The Copyright Issue at:
http://www.freewebs.com/programpolicyexchange/copyrightpamphlet.pdf