Welcome to the Copyright Reform Process information site, hosted by the Intellectual Property Policy Directorate at Industry Canada and the Copyright Policy Branch at the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Copyright Reform Process

With the release of A Framework for Copyright Reform, the Government of Canada launched the process for reforming Canadian copyright legislation over the years to come.

As a first step, the Government of Canada released two consultation papers on Internet issues: Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues and Consultation Paper on the Application of the Copyright Act’s Compulsory Retransmission Licence to the Internet, to which it invited interested parties to provide their written comments on the issues raised.

The response from Canadians was significant, with over 700 documents submitted to the consultation process. All documents, including more than 50 reply comments, have now been posted online. The reply comments received have been posted in the language in which they were submitted. Minor reformatting may have been occurred during HTML conversion.

The issues raised in Consultation Paper on the Application of the Copyright Act’s Compulsory Retransmission Licence to the Internet were addressed in An Act to amend the Copyright Act (Bill C-48) which received Royal Assent in the House of Commons on December 13, 2002.

With respect to the issues raised in the Consultation Paper on Digital Copyright Issues, the Government of Canada embarked on face-to-face consultation meetings with Canadians in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver in Spring 2002. A summary of the issues raised was then compiled.

On October 3, 2002, Supporting Culture and Innovation: Report on the Provisions and Operation of the Copyright Act was tabled on behalf of the Minister of Industry. The report, which is the result of collaboration between the Departments of Industry and Canadian Heritage, assesses the operations of the Copyright Act by identifying the issues that have remained outstanding since Bill C-32, as well as new issues that have since emerged. It groups these issues thematically and provides a prioritization to these groupings consistent with the Government of Canada's larger public policy agenda.

A parliamentary committee will review the Act and the report and is invited to provide its views on the Government of Canada's reform agenda. This is an important step in ensuring that Canada has a world-class, modern and progressive copyright regime which is internationally recognized as providing competitive innovation environment, conducive to increased investment in knowledge and cultural works.