On 9 May, in Toronto, Hugo Setzer, IPA Vice President testified before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. The main thrust of his statement was that Canada has become an international outlier because of its broad exception for educational uses and the subsequent ‘legislation through the courts’ that has seen fair dealing equated with users’ rights. Consequently, these changes have resulted in a dramatic loss of income for Canadian publishers.
Hugo went on to make the case for a well-balanced educational publishing infrastructure that encourages investment through a mix of targeted exceptions and affordable collective licensing solutions.
During his testimony he challenged whether the Copyright Act satisfied Canada’s international commitments under the Berne Convention and drew the Committee’s attention to AccessCopyright’s losses of 30 million Canadian Dollars in licensing revenues and the closure of a number of publishers’ K-12 divisions.
Hugo Setzer closed by underlining the value publishers bring to educational materials through their work with often local authors to translate curricula into quality materials in a variety of formats based on the latest research into teaching and learning.
The review has also heard from a wide range of other organisations, with IPA’s Canadian members including the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres (ANEL), the Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP) and the Canadian Publishers Council (CPC), all testifying.
You can follow the testimonies and read submissions on the committee website here.
Read the IPA press release here and the IPA submission here.