The Canadian government is consulting with citizens on the subject of copyright reform.  Earlier tonight there was a town hall meeting in Toronto attended by a moderate crowd.  Speakers were chosen by lottery and although Denis McGrath got the call, none of the others representing the Writers Guild of Canada got picked.  I’m not calling foul, but three people from Warner Music got called up!

I was prepared to speak and it’s such a let down when you have a speech not to get to deliver.  But that’s why we have blogs.  So here are my words for the copyright consultation, heartfelt and never spoken:

Hello.  My name is Jill Golick.  I am a professional screenwriter and new media creator.  I’ve written tv shows like Canadian Sesame Street, Blue Murder and Instant Star.  I write and produce Hailey Hacks, a web series aimed at making tween girls more technologically savvy.  I am the Vice President of the Writers Guild of Canada and I am here to represent myself and the 2000 members of the Writers Guild.

As creators, we want our work enjoyed by as many people as possible and we want to earn a living.  Technologies have offered consumers a myriad of new ways of consuming what we create. Ordinary people want the right to copy, time shift, record, mashup and parody.  We think they should have those rights, let’s embrace the options technology has given us. But let’s also compensate creators through collective licensing.    To us this is a balanced approach to copyright reform because it balances the needs of the consumer with those of the creator.

There has been a lot of talk about how easy it is for people to copy digital files without permission.  It is easy and we should all be able to do it without fear of consequences. But the creators still need to get paid.  There is money being made from these activities — by ISPs, distributors, providers of storage media, PVR manufacturers and others.  If there is money being made, the creators should have a share in it.  When people started copying their LPs onto cassettes, we didn’t just make it legal for them to do so, we put a Private Copying levy on blank tapes and other recording media so artists could be compensated for the use of their work.  We see a levy as an ideal solution to the current issue.  It would decriminalize ordinary activities by ordinary citizens and give authors a share in the revenues produced by their works.

Academics want to expand fair dealing to allow them to use materials they find online in their classroom and for research. I agree education is a special case, but just like academics, when my work serves to educate,  I still need payment. I need to pay my rent, buy my kids shoes, pay my taxes.

I’m not talking about more money for Sony, Bell and Disney.  I’m talking about a writer who just had a new baby, one who’s recovering from breast cancer, a single mom, someone who’d like to buy his first house and someone who just wants to pay the rent. We’re your neighbours and friends, our kids go to school together.  We are career artists and like everyone else, we just want to make a living.

When someone makes money from our art, artists should share in the revenues. Consumers and academics don’t generate revenues but the internet service providers who deliver my work to them make money.  The manufacturers of the DVDs and hard drives used to store my work make money.  As do a myriad of middle men who stand between the creator and the consumer.  Traditional copyright has served the needs of these middle men and made them into big corporations.   The consumer and the creator have both suffered under the current laws.  Now it is time for new copyright legislation — this time to serve the consumer and the artists who actually create the work.