Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
My name is Lisa Macklem. I am a Ph.D. student in the law faculty at the University of Western Ontario. I have a JD from Western with a concentration in intellectual property and information technology, a Master of Laws from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles in entertainment and media law, and I have an MA in media studies, also from Western. I sit on the editorial board for the Journal of Fandom Studies, and I sit on the executive of the Ontario Bar Association section on entertainment, communications, and media law.
My dissertation focuses on digital content delivery, with a focus on the entertainment and media industries. Copyright is at the heart of my research.
I'd like to make three very brief points today. First, fair dealing should stand or be expanded from 2012 levels. Second, the duration of copyright should remain firm at the life of the author plus 50 years and third, notice and notice should stand.
Fair dealing is key to the continued support of innovation, creation, and the continued promotion of Canadian culture and artists. It is a key component to ensuring that Canadians have access to both the creation and enjoyment of our own culture. Any good democracy is founded on educated citizenry and fair dealing is vital to ensuring this. Institutions, such as Access Copyright, will argue that their revenues have gone down, but that does not have any impact on creators or publishers, as they would have you believe. Schools are paying databases for content. They are not simply offering that content for free. I would urge the board to look closely at such claims.
The duration of copyright should remain at its present level. There is no evidence to support an increase in revenue for the majority of works, past life plus 50. In fact, making works available makes them available to publishers at a lower cost. This ensures that lesser known works are still made available in smaller print runs and with additional current editorial comment. When works are available in the public domain, this stimulates further creation from the works by new creators, something copyright is meant to support, in addition to fair remuneration for the creator. Creators in Canada have an extensive funding network available to them. It is a very complex issue, as you rightly stated, with many solutions, rather than locking up works.
Notice and notice should remain as it is. It provides a fair way for creators to protect their works on the Internet, while still enabling access to justice. In a notice and takedown regime, innocent creators are forced to take expensive legal action to have their non-infringing works reposted, thus often stifling the creation of new works by fledgling creators.
As I have an extra minute, in regard to indigenous issues, I would also urge bringing in indigenous consultation to really get an understanding of how indigenous peoples view copyright and not simply imposing Canadian law upon them.
Thus far this year, I have presented at conferences in the United States, Canada, Dubai, China, and India. In every case, even the U.S., the Canadian system has been lauded as one of the best in the world and I'd hate to see that change.
Thank you very much.