A User-Centric Case for Rights Reversions and Other Mitigations: The Cultural Capital Project Submission to ISED Consultation on Term Extension

Abstract

Term extension is unlikely to benefit any but the largest of rightsholders, and indeed, in general independent creators typically do not benefit greatly from the promised financial exploitation promised by copyrights. This has been made even more evident by the COVID pandemic - while copyrighted works are consumed more than ever, independent creators have sunk further into poverty. We propose mitigation strategies for term extension that would help the people who are creating Canada’s cultural landscape, as well as additional actions that would alleviate additional current copyright losses.