It applies to print books, the ones people purchase from retailers, university co-ops, bookstores, places like Walmart and Costco, and so forth. It corresponds to book sales. I can't wrap my head around the claim that book sales are on the rise and that people are buying more books on the whole. The reality is book sales are down.
Internationally, a country that is setting a good example is Australia, where students clearly objected to the fair dealing principle. They understood that they were the creators of tomorrow and recognized the importance of being fairly compensated for their work.
Universities maintain that they buy a lot of books, but they could afford to buy many more, if they didn't become embroiled in lawsuits against the Access Copyrights and Copibec of the world. Their logic is flawed, as I see it.
The impact on students was brought up, but do you know how much students have to shell out for Copibec? Tuition in Quebec is about $3,000, and I believe the portion students are required to pay Copibec for copyrighted material is around $13.50. Nowadays, that's about the cost of two beers. Back when I was a student, it would've bought four beers. Regardless, what students are paying is $13.50 each. We can talk numbers all day long, but when students are paying $3,000 in tuition and $13.50 of that is going to Copibec for the reproduction of copyrighted material, it's really quite little.