For years, creators have criticized Access Copyright for its lack of transparency and its inability to serve creators the way other collective licensing agencies routinely do.  In 2006 while I was a member of the board of that agency, we succeeded in having an independent expert commissioned to undertake a full review of Access Copyright's distribution policies.   Professor Martin Friedland delivered that report early in 2007, and it is now a public document.  To read The Friedland Report click here.  You are free to make copies and distribute it.

Sadly, Access Copyright has so far failed to implement the Friedland recommendations. The project to build a truly creator-centered collective that will give users easy access through a collective that gives creators full control over their own revenues from the licensing of their works must continue.

THE WRITING TRADE IN CANADA

Writing is an art. But for those who write full-time, it's also a job and a profession. If you are a working writer, you should be in touch with your peers. You should be seeking opportunities for professional growth. Maybe you should be putting something back into the creators' organizations that are working for you.

Back in 1980, when my first book was in the works, I got contract advice from the Writers' Union of Canada. Some years later, I received a payment from the new Public Lending Right Program - something created through many writers' efforts in the Writers' Union and other writers' groups when I was a skeptical observer. I decided then it was time to start putting back in. I've been active in cultural politics ever since, and it has been a vital and satisfying part of my career. Writers, find out about the Writers' Union at www.writersunion.ca For info on publishers, agents, grants, workshops, and much more, it's a place to start whether you are a published writer or not.

If you are mostly a writer of pieces for periodicals, newspapers, and the like, look into the Professional Writers of Canada at www.pwac.ca or the Canadian Freelancers Union at www.cepmedia.ca/freelance.

To get involved with writers' issues of freedom of speech, censorship, and writers in prison, you should be a member of PEN Canada, www.pencanada.ca

WRITERS AND COPYRIGHT

If you are published, your work gets photocopied. Nowadays, it gets scanned, downloaded, and forwarded in digital fashion too. The fundamental purpose of copyright is to enable creators to create and to share, by confirming they have a limited interest in the reproduction of their work and can be rewarded in proportion to the value of what they provide.

Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, is the agency that licences all of us who need to be able to make copies. Access Copyright -- the former "CanCopy" -- provides schools, universities, public libraries, corporations, and copy shops with permission to copy. With an Access Copyright licence, commercial users of copyright material know they are protected against claims of copyright infringement and are treating creators and rightsholders fairly. If you need the right to copy on a commercial basis, look into Access Copyright. You can quickly secure a licence to copy the materials you need, and it's all online at www.accesscopyright.ca.

Access Copyright represents publishers as well as creators. As a creator member of the Access Copyright board 2001-2007, I worked to reform Access Copyright's distribution systems to deliver more benefits to creators, and I hope we see results from that in the future. For a creators' view of copyright and copyright policy in the digital age, look into www.creatorscopyright.ca