Drake wants Canada to change its copyright laws.
The Certified Lover Boy is among a group of Canadian music artists that have joined the Songwriters Association of Canada in petitioning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other government officials to restructure the country’s copyright law.
Their exact request, according to Billboard, allows creators and their families to regain ownership of their copyrights 25 years after the date of transfer instead of 25 years after the creator’s death. This change would allow artists who may have signed their rights away during their young career to profit off their own work later in their lifetime.
“We, the undersigned, call upon the Government of Canada to introduce an amendment to section 14(1) of the Copyright Act which would enable creators to reclaim copyright rights (“rights reversion”) 25 years after the date of a transfer rather than 25 years after the creator’s date of death, as currently specified in the Act,” the letter reads. “It’s common for creators (i.e. songwriters), especially early in their careers, to be pressured into signing away (“transferring”) some or all of their rights, thus denying creators, their families and their children the opportunity to reap fair rewards from their creative works later in life.”
The letter also points to amendments the U.S. and several European countries have made to their copyright laws ensuring fairness between creators and record labels. “We believe Canada should follow the EU and USA examples to ensure fair protection for Canadian creators,” the letter states.
In December 2020, a lawsuit revealed that Lil Wayne sold Young Money’s entire catalog to Universal Music Group for nearly $100 million. All of Drake’s albums before 2018 — Thank Me Later, Take Care, Nothing Was The Same, Views, and Scorpio — were released under Wayne’s record label. His latest projects have come out under his October’s Very Own imprint.