Why I Want You to Care about Bill C-32

If you know any writers personally, you know that generally speaking we cobble together our livings from a variety of income sources. Royalties on book sales are rarely enough to support us, so we rely on fees for public appearances, editing and/or workshop services, and most of us also count on a cheque for the licencing of our work for the purpose of copying it, each year.

Bill C-32 is Canada’s new copyright reform bill. Copyright reform is needed to keep up with new technologies and the needs of both users and creators of copyrighted material. But Bill C-32 is not the answer. If passed, it will seriously undermine a writer’s ability to be fairly compensated when his/her work is copied.

A coalition of writers’ organizations is working to raise awareness of the implications of Bill C-32’s provisions. You may have seen my name in a long list attached to recent ads placed in Canada’s newspapers.

I hope you’ll read more about the bill at Canadian Writers and Readers for Copyright Justice on Facebook, and join us in our efforts to seek changes to the proposed bill. And if you would like to take further steps to support our cause, visit www.copyrightgetitright.ca which makes it very easy to do.