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December 4, 2008SOCAN UPDATE REPORT ON SOCAN MEETINGTHIS IS OF IMPORTANCE TO YOU IF YOU ARE A STUDIO OR IF YOU TEACH DANCE CLASSES!Earlier this month, Dance Ontario brought together interested studio owners, independent teachers, BATD (Shelagh Connelly) and SOCAN representatives (Craig Brockie & Marie-Josee Dupre) to continue the discussion regarding a proposed licensing agreement for our members as well as to clarify information for both parties. As background, SOCAN has been contacting dance studios to collect fees under a number of tariffs,in particular, Tariff 19 covering Fitness and Dance Classes. You are required under the Copyright Act to pay a fee if you are using copyrighted music from anywhere in the world for your classes or workshops. Purchasing a CD entitles you to play that music for your personal pleasure but NOT to use it for financial benefit. The non-profit body set up to collect these fees on behalf of the composers is SOCAN. As professional dance artists, we are sure that you would want composers to receive payment for their work, just as you would not expect others to use your choreography without paying a fee. There are however some exemptions which apply. They include (1) If you are ONLY using syllabus music such as that required by BATD, RAD etc for exams. Also, do not assume that copyright fees have been covered for a CD purchased specifically for teaching a particular style. And if you use other music for classes, then the exemption would not apply. (2) If the music is in the public domain i.e. composer has been dead for 50 years or more. (3) If you are using beat accompaniment i.e. for modern classes. (4) If the music is not copyrighted. (5) If you already pay SOCAN fees as part of your CDTA, DMA membership or other such body. In this case, it is up to you to call the relevant body to check if you are covered and how much you are paying. If all teachers at a studio were licensed under the proposed agreement, the result would be that instead of paying a min of $64 for each venue at which they teach (a) for a flat fee of $64, they could teach at ANY studio, school or venue using ANY music; and (b) the studio would be exempt from paying a licensing fee. The most popular solution discussed was that Tariff 19 be changed so that all teachers would pay the flat $64 fee and remit directly to SOCAN. While this is an admirable goal for us to work towards, changing a tariff can take several years. In the meanwhile, in order to have some direction as to how Dance Ontario should proceed, please advise us by the end of December (1) if you are interested in a group licensing fee OR (2) if you would be exempt because you are a member of CDTA etc. This is a win win opportunity so please take the time to respond. 
Dance Ontario AssociationDANCE ONTARIO is key to Ontario's dance milieu and central to the diverse sector's communications and networking, providing management training, advice and industry information. We interact with the general public on a daily basis promoting members' services and events. DANCE ONTARIO Association The Association gratefully acknowledges our funding partners:
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