Yes, I enthusiastically disagree with Professor Boyer here. Fair dealing is user rights. The Supreme Court of Canada said that very eloquently and very famously in the 2004 CCH case. They are users rights as much as the right to be paid is a creator right. They are equal and they balance each other.
Professor Boyer is wrong about the $40-million cost of the SD card exception. I was very much, maybe mainly, responsible for the regulation that made that happen. Give me one good reason, Professor Boyer, why the SD card in my phone so I can take pictures of my cat or my grandson should have a tax on it? Why does that need to go to Access Copyright or some other collective? It doesn't make any sense.
Also you mentioned an issue in term extension. I'll give you a very good example right now of why it's important to make the public domain as big as possible. We have a president in the United States who has everybody worried about a lot of things right now—I don't even like to say his name. All of a sudden a certain book by George Orwell, 1984, has become very popular again for obvious reasons. That book has long since been in the public domain in Canada but Americans have to pay $30 or whatever for it and fewer of them will get access to it.
It's very important to get access to the public domain as soon as possible. Even if it's not a popular book like 1984, to have it overprotected by copyright means it's going to be harder for university students, teachers and researchers to get hold of it. There is going to be more uncertainty. There will be a cloud over it. It's going to enter the dreaded category of what we call “orphan works” where somebody owns a copyright but nobody knows who or where to find them. We need to get into the public domain as soon as possible. That's why I'm suggesting the imposition of formalities for that final term of 20 years.