A new government has been elected to office in Canada, and Access Copyright is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney and elected officials from all parties to “do better in upholding the rights of creators and publishers.”

In a statement released a day after the April 28 election, which saw Carney and the Liberals elected to a minority government, Access Copyright pointed out that addressing the ongoing issues with copyright – and the burgeoning ones about artificial intelligence – dovetails with the government’s goals regarding Canadian sovereignty.

“At a time when protecting and championing Canadian sovereignty will be central to the new government’s mandate, creating the conditions for creative industries to thrive is more important than ever,” the press release says.

In addition to repairing Canada’s Copyright Act to clarify the existing fair trade exceptions – something the organization and other industry groups have been calling for for more than a decade – Access Copyright is also asking the government to turn its attention to the rising prominence of AI and how it impacts creative fields.

The statement asks the government to develop “a fair and ethical AI regulatory system in Canada that values human creation, sustains our vital cultural industries, and encourages the growth of a market for the licensing of content for GenAI purposes.”

In 2012, the Copyright Modernization Act led to the collapse of the regulation of educational market copying and a significant decline in the licence payments paid to publishers and authors.

In 2013, Access Copyright sued York University, which opted out of its relationship with the copyright collective and stopped paying a tariff to make copies of materials for its students. In the summer of 2021, the case ended up at the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled that, as the law is currently written, tariffs set out by the Copyright Board aren’t mandatory.

Last year, a federal court ruled against Access Copyright in a separate lawsuit, launched by Ontario school boards and the education ministries in 10 provinces and territories over the royalties paid to Access Copyright in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

The previous Liberal government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau included copyright reform as an action in several recent budgets, but did not address the ongoing concerns over fair dealing. In 2022, the general term of protection for copyright in Canada was extended from 50 to 70 years after the death of the author.