Industry committee  As I said earlier, I think we need a functional collective licensing regime that recognizes the rights of creators to be compensated. I don't know specifically how the Copyright Board is involved in that.

Industry committee  Not in libraries, because I was largely meeting one-on-one with emerging writers or doing workshops. There seems to me to be a lot of copying going on in my English department at the University of Winnipeg. I mean, it's not that everybody's relying on digital, but even if they are, there's still a creator of that digital content, and there still needs to be a way to license, to establish a collective licensing regime, whether or not it's Access Copyright, that acknowledges the creators.

Industry committee  We need some way.... Everybody else is getting compensated, from the administrators to the lawyers to the printers to you name it. It's always the writers. The number of times writers hear, “Well, just contribute to this anthology. No, we can't pay you, but the exposure....” Well, you can die of exposure, as you know.

Industry committee  Well, I would say it's both. I mean, it's real money that my husband and I need. My husband is currently ill, so I'm the sole earner in the family. Yes, I think writers across the country feel that it's a slap in the face, essentially. You may remember back when the Internet got going, there was this very popular statement, “Information wants to be free.”

Industry committee  I would echo that. It's certainly the position of The Writers' Union of Canada. I'm not here to speak for them, but they make it very clear in a briefing note they provided to me that we need, and we had, a functioning collective licensing structure before the educational sector came up with their own interpretation of what they should be paying.

Industry committee  My reimbursement from Access Copyright has dropped from $550 per year to $63. I should clarify. It's been dropping year by year, and this year it was $63.

Industry committee  I wish I could answer yes, but no. I think it's important also to keep in mind that the entire cultural sector is under assault by companies like Amazon, and by Google, which is, as we speak, illegally reproducing work under copyright. It eventually won that case in the States, which a number of authors resisted.

Industry committee  May I just add a comment?

Industry committee  There has been a great emphasis in this room on digital property, but e-books have levelled off. E-books are not becoming the be-all and end-all. Many people are returning to print. In the information given by Ms. Romaniuk about acquisitions by libraries, I think she was not including course packs.

Industry committee  Yes. I believe I mentioned that I was getting about $550 before 2012, when the educational sector, as I said, unilaterally decided to reinterpret fair dealing. That's the base amount. With Access Copyright—and again I'm speaking for writers—all the monies are pooled, so all tariffs they receive from the educational sector will come into this pocket of money, which is then distributed to all writers across the country.

Industry committee  The top-up would be above that $550, and really, it would vary for each writer. I have never received a top-up, so I'm speaking about the base amount that every writer registered with Access Copyright would have received.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for this opportunity to present in front of the committee. My name is Patricia Robertson. I'm a writer of short fiction, novels, poetry, essays, and literary journalism. I've published two books and co-edited Writing North: An Anthology of Contemporary Yukon Writers.