As we celebrate World Book and Copyright Day on April 23, which aims to promote the pleasure of books and reading, Quebec and Canadian book stakeholders, through your inaction, Minister François-Philippe Champagne, do not have the heart to celebrate. If the essence of your mandate in Innovation, Science and Industry must be to contribute to the development and growth of Canadian industries, your refusal to amend the Canadian Copyright Act as soon as possible author is in breach of this covenant.
Despite our attempts to communicate to you the urgency of the situation, you choose to maintain a status quo that weakens our industry every day.
We repeat: it is aberrant that in Canada, educational institutions feel justified in availing themselves of the fuzzy — so-called equitable — exception! — reserved for “education” so as not to remunerate creators and rights holders for the use of works or extracts from books. Result: in Canadian provinces and territories outside Quebec, almost all institutions have stopped paying the sums that would normally be due under copyright to authors and publishers for 600 million pages copied annually. In Quebec, revenues from such licenses have decreased by nearly $30 million between 2012 and 2021.
Copyright contributes to the country’s economy by encouraging innovation and the creation of knowledge. It is not a brake, but a valuable tool. In fact, if the publishing sector crumbles, all the expertise in book creation—both educational and scientific as well as literary—will be lost, in addition to all the related jobs (in the writing, linguistic revision, graphics, printing, etc.). This is without counting the millions of dollars generated by the publishing industry.
Your mandate letter stated that you were to “work with the Minister of Canadian Heritage to amend the Copyright Act to more effectively protect artists, creators and copyright holders”. It is your duty to provide a regulatory framework that protects copyright owners while encouraging the creation and use of Canadian content in an efficient, fair and profitable manner. What are you waiting for to act? You cannot claim to effectively protect artists, creators and rightsholders without correcting the exceptions which deprive them of essential income linked to the use of their works.
The damage caused by the Canadian law worries many countries, and the voices of international stakeholders have been raised to criticize it, whether it is the International Union of Publishers (IPA); the National Publishing Union in France; the Federation of European Publishers; IFRRO (International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations), which brings together all collective management societies (about a hundred members).
These copyright experts are unanimous: the law currently in force here is the example not to follow. In addition to harming the influence and viability of Quebec and Canadian books, your lack of leadership in this matter perpetuates our country’s bad reputation internationally. You are missing an opportunity to make Canada an example to follow rather than being seen as a copyright dunce.
Minister, on this World Book and Copyright Day, we invite you to reconsider the importance you place on the revision of this essential law for our industry. It is up to you to ensure that the Canadian book can continue to be celebrated and that our authors can continue to shine, here and internationally. Take action!