Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal rules in favour of Apple in double royalties case

The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned a decision from 2017 regarding double royalties and has now ruled in favour of Apple.

The Canadian Press reports that the ruling outlines that songwriters are only entitled to royalties after music has been downloaded or streamed, not just posted online for purchase. This new ruling overturns the 2017 ruling that stated publishers are entitled to royalties twice. Once when a song is made available on a platform, and a second time when the music is downloaded.

This case was between Apple and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and 30 other respondents.

Justice David Stratas stated that the Copyright Board of Canada had “skewed its analysis in favour of the one particular result.”

The main reason the judge came to this decision is based on the court’s definition of “communication” of music, which refers to music being streamed or downloaded, not simply made available online.

The chief legal officer of SOCAN told The Canadian Press that this ruling puts Canada “far behind other jurisdictions in terms of compensating copyright owners for the use of their music.”

Source: The Canadian Press