Feds owe it to Canadian public to address the harm caused by copyright term extension

KINGSTON, ONT.—What seems like a small and benign change to the Copyright Act will have a disastrous impact on Canadian culture over the next 20 years. This change, which became law on Dec. 30, 2022, extends the standard length of copyright protection in Canada from 50 to 70 years after the death of the creator of a work. This means that nothing new will enter the public domain—the vast corpus of materials in which copyright has expired—until 2043. Mark Swartz is a scholarly publishing librarian at Queen's University and a member of the Canadian Association of the University Teachers. Handout photograph Anyone can use works in the public domain for any purpose. An author can take a public domain work—like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein—and write a new novel using her characters. A director can put on a play that brings Shakespeare's Hamlet into the modern age. An artist can create their own version of Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers, using copied portions of the original painting. This is all possible without permission from the estate of the author. Extending the term of copyright "pauses" the public domain for 20 years, impacting works created both in Canada and abroad. As a result, millions of books, films, music, and other copyrighted works will not enter the public domain for many years, including those created by prominent Canadians such as Lester B. Pearson, Glenn Gould, Marshall McLuhan, Gabrielle Roy, Marian Engel, Margaret Laurence, Judy Lamarche, and Gwendolyn MacEwen. These notable names will be familiar to many, but for libraries and the patrons they serve, there is a broader impact. For example, for every recognizable book that falls into the public domain, there are thousands upon thousands of books by obscure authors, most of which are no longer published and are only available in the stacks of Canada's libraries. During the "pause," many of these books will languish, unavailable to anyone unable to visit a library in person. Judy LaMarsh, centre, then Canada's secretary of state, pictured with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, in Ottawa in July 1967, at an event celebrating Canada's centennial. LaMarsh was a federal politician, lawyer, author and broadcaster, and the second woman to serve as a federal cabinet minister. Photograph courtesy of Flickr Public and academic libraries have been busy digitizing their public domain collections, often in partnership with massive internet libraries like the Internet Archive or Hathitrust. Improvements in technology and the desire to provide digital access to patrons drive this work. The need for digital works will only increase over the next 20 years, but if the term extension stands "as-is," library digitization will be seriously limited by Canada's now-static public domain. This term extension was one of the concessions that the Canadian government made to the United States to pass the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) (the trade agreement that replaced NAFTA). The government recognized that this concession caused harm, and they did not pass the full-term extension in the original treaty ratification bill. Instead, they waited, releasing a consultation paper that outlined possible mitigation measures that could lessen the impact of the extension. As part of the consultative process surrounding the release of that paper, more than 100 stakeholders, including academics, creators, and representatives from the library sector, provided feedback on the contents of this paper. One of the most unfortunate elements of this story is that even though significant effort was put forward by the federal government to consider ways that the impact of the term extension on the Canadian public could be minimized, the government chose to move forward without implementing any of the accompanying measures outlined in either their original consultation paper or in the submissions they received as part of the consultation process. Instead, they brought forward a simple bill that was passed at the absolute last minute to meet the deadlines imposed as part of the CUSMA ratification process. While it is too late to stop the copyright term extension, it is not too late for the government to reduce the negative impact. The government should consider both its own suggestions and those received as part of the consultation, including submissions from Canada’s libraries and university teachers. Only a miniscule percentage of copyright owners will benefit from an extra 20 years of protection, meanwhile, the rest of us lose unless balancing measures are taken. The government owes it to the Canadian public to ensure broad access to cultural heritage. Mark Swartz is a scholarly publishing librarian at Queen's University and a member of the Canadian Association of the University Teachers. The Hill Times

Feds owe it to Canadian public to address the harm caused by copyright term extension

Only a miniscule percentage of copyright owners will benefit from an extra 20 years of protection, meanwhile, the rest of us lose unless balancing measures are taken. The government owes it to the Canadian public to ensure broad access to cultural heritage.

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Feds owe it to Canadian public to address the harm caused by copyright term extension

Only a miniscule percentage of copyright owners will benefit from an extra 20 years of protection, meanwhile, the rest of us lose unless balancing measures are taken. The government owes it to the Canadian public to ensure broad access to cultural heritage.

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