The Revision of the Canadian Copyright Act: An Economic Analysis

A clause of the 2012 Canadian Copyright Modernization Act requires Parliament to review the Copyright Act every five years. The House of Commons instructed two of its committees, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) and the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (SCCH), to review the Copyright Act. The committees filed their reports in 2019. Four of their recommendations are particularly relevant and discussed here: the extension of the term of copyright, the introduction of a so-called “termination right”, an amendment of the copyright reversion regime, and the introduction of a mandatory registration. My study is intended to inform policy analysis of these recommendations, including, among other things, the upfront impact on creator bargaining power and remuneration; the long-term impact on a work’s availability and potential revenues; the creative marketplace in general; and the interactions between the proposed legislative amendments and other areas of the Copyright Act.