Copyright advocacy and reform in 2022

The touchstone of Canada's copyright regime is balance: the balance of interests between content creators/owners and those who are often called "users." This year, copyright is again taking a (small) place in the public discourse, thanks to the Canadian government's budget statement, which affirms "the government will also work to ensure a sustainable educational publishing industry, including fair remuneration for creators and copyright holders, as well as a modern and innovative marketplace that can efficiency serve copyright users." Unfortunately, the publishing industry is dominating current public discourse, throwing it off balance. More voices need to be heard. For example, that Canadian educational institutions, since 2012, have actually increased their spending on purchasing content for use in classrooms. What's more, the publicly available data shows that book publishers remain profitable, and some, like market leaders RELX and Oxford University Press, show revenue in the billions, with double-digit profit margins.