Canada NewsWire
                                      
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   Attention News/Entertainment/Business Editors:
   
  ANTI-BOOTLEG LAW ADDED TO COPYRIGHT ACT

        
            TORONTO, Jan. 8 /CNW/ - Recent amendments to the Copyright Act
will for the first time protect Canadian performers and recording
artists exploited by the sale of bootleg recordings. ``Bootleg'' is a
term used to describe a type of record piracy that involves
unlawfully recording a performer's performance at a concert or in a
live broadcast without the authorization or consent of the performer.
These amendments to the Copyright Act will bring Canadian copyright
law into conformity with the laws of one hundred and twenty other
countries that are members of the World Trade Organization. The new
copyright in a performer's performance has a life of fifty years and
will retroactively apply to any performances that have been recorded
and copied without authorization of the performer.
            On January 1, 1996, the ``Anti-Bootleg'' amendments to the
Copyright Act became law. It is now an infringement of copyright and
unlawful for any person to make an unauthorized recording of a
performer's performance and to distribute or sell copies of bootleg
recordings, imported into or manufactured in Canada after January 1,
1996. Any person who makes an unauthorized recording of a performer's
performance and any person who commercially deals in bootleg
recordings imported into or manufactured in Canada after January 1,
1996, can be sued by the owner of copyright in the performance and/or
criminally prosecuted for the offence of copyright infringement.
Maximum penalties for a conviction of the offence of copyright
infringement are $1,000,000 or imprisonment for up to five years, or
both.
            Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry
Association, said that ``the anti-bootleg amendments that now bring
recording artists within the protection of copyright law, are another
positive step that will assist the music industry's efforts to battle
piracy of sound recordings. Manufacturers and importers of bootleg
recordings do not pay royalties to the recording artist and do not
invest in the development their careers.'' In 1994, the sales of
pirated sound recordings in Canada were $30 million dollars and
world-wide were estimated at $2.9 billion dollars.

   For further information: Ken Thompson at the Canadian
   RecordingIndustry Association, (416) 967-7272
   
   08:06e 08-JAN-96